Dual boot & master/slave

L

Lady Dungeness

I'm trying to install a new Western Digital 160 gig hard drive. The
old harddrive is SAMSUNG SV1533D. It was originally part of a
dual-boot ocnfiguration. Then the other disk crashed, and the
computer refused to boot from the Samsung. I took the computer to a
shop. They recovered my data, removed the bad HD, and they said "the
Samsung can be the master."

Did they change the jumper settings on the Samsung? I don't know.
This was 6 months ago and I'm sure the tech doesn't remember.

My installation guide says to set the new HD jumpers to be the Primary
controller / Slave Drive. I did this.

My installation guide says to make sure the Samsung's jumpers are set
to Primary Controller / Master with Slave.

How do I find out what the Samsung's jumper settings are? I don't
have a manual. I went online, but the only Samsung info was not
specific to this Samsung SV1553D, did not relate to the SV-series, and
was written in Janglish. I could not understand it.

1. If I'm going to have a dual-boot configuration, does it really
matter?
2. If it matters, I'll want the new WESTERN DIGITAL to be the master,
and make the Samsung the slave.
3. How do I do this?
4. What do I do next?


Lady Dungeness
Crabby, but Great Legs!
 
N

NotMe

Almost all HDDs I have looked at have the jumper settings on a sticker right
on the drive.
 
A

Anna

Lady Dungeness said:
I'm trying to install a new Western Digital 160 gig hard drive. The
old harddrive is SAMSUNG SV1533D. It was originally part of a
dual-boot ocnfiguration. Then the other disk crashed, and the
computer refused to boot from the Samsung. I took the computer to a
shop. They recovered my data, removed the bad HD, and they said "the
Samsung can be the master."

Did they change the jumper settings on the Samsung? I don't know.
This was 6 months ago and I'm sure the tech doesn't remember.

My installation guide says to set the new HD jumpers to be the Primary
controller / Slave Drive. I did this.

My installation guide says to make sure the Samsung's jumpers are set
to Primary Controller / Master with Slave.

How do I find out what the Samsung's jumper settings are? I don't
have a manual. I went online, but the only Samsung info was not
specific to this Samsung SV1553D, did not relate to the SV-series, and
was written in Janglish. I could not understand it.

1. If I'm going to have a dual-boot configuration, does it really
matter?
2. If it matters, I'll want the new WESTERN DIGITAL to be the master,
and make the Samsung the slave.
3. How do I do this?
4. What do I do next?


Lady Dungeness
Crabby, but Great Legs!


Lady D.
Your Samsung HDD is really "old-in-the-tooth" to say the least. It's a 15 GB
HDD, and honestly, it's an ancient relic by today's standards. I can't
imagine that it will serve any useful purpose in your system. With hard
drives selling as low as 25 cents per GB in today's market, can you possibly
afford another new HDD that you could profitably use in your system in
either a dual-boot configuration or simply as a secondary HDD? That really
would be the practical & wisest way to go in my view.

I'm assuming, of course, that your 160 GB WD is a PATA, and not a SATA HDD.
As such, it should ordinarily be set up as Primary Master in your system.
Apparently you're familiar with jumper settings and general HDD connections.
So that the WD HDD would be connected as Master on the Primary IDE
controller of your motherboard.

There is, however, one minor complicating matter involving modern WD HDDs
that you should be aware of. If, for one reason or another, there is no
device connected as a Slave on the same data cable that is connected to the
WD drive, the jumper setting should be set as Single and not Master.
Actually with modern WD PATA HDDs - presumably such as the one you have - a
Single setting is "jumperless". So just be aware of this.

Assuming you do establish a dual-boot configuration with another HDD, it
probably would be best if you connected/configured it as Secondary Master,
although it may function (boot) without problems even if connected as
Primary Slave. But generally Secondary Master is the preferred
configuration.

If, on the other hand, you use another HDD merely as a secondary drive for
storage/backup purposes, then it really doesn't matter whether it's
connected as a Slave on the Primary IDE channel or anywhere on the Secondary
IDE channel.
Anna
 
L

Lady Dungeness

Hi Anna,
I was hoping you'd respond. I don't know if you recall, but I posted
a month ago that I was going to have a good breakfast and schedule 4
hours to do the HD installation.

I'm now on day 3. I am NOT familiar with jumper settings -- I just
learned about that from reading the installation instructions. I
understand that the 15 gig drive is old. I don't have a job; I don't
have money. So even $20 is a lot of money for me. Right now, I'm not
ready to buy another drive. The Samsung will be useful to me. In
case the WD fails, I can boot with Samsung and continue my work
without delay. I will also use it for my non-business online
activities, downloading, etc.

I don't know Pata or Sata. My drive says EIDE.

If I have to look at the current *old* Samsung drive to learn the
jumper settings, that means I have to take it out of the computer. I
don't want to do that, if possible.

I WILL have two drives, and WILL have a dual boot.

Let me confirm: I should set the new WESTERN DIGITAL as SECONDAY
MASTER.

The installation instructions tell me to first install it as PRIMARY
SLAVE. Then I run their software. I don't know what their software
does.

What about the Samsung? Do you think it's jumpered now as
SINGLE/jumperless? Or Primary Master, or what?

What should I do next? I am afraid of computers. :-(

Lady Dungeness
==========================================



|
||> I'm trying to install a new Western Digital 160 gig hard drive. The
|> old harddrive is SAMSUNG SV1533D.
<snip>
|> 1. If I'm going to have a dual-boot configuration, does it really
|> matter?
|> 2. If it matters, I'll want the new WESTERN DIGITAL to be the master,
|> and make the Samsung the slave.
|> 3. How do I do this?
|> 4. What do I do next?
|>
|> Lady Dungeness
|> Crabby, but Great Legs!
|
|
|Lady D.
|Your Samsung HDD is really "old-in-the-tooth" to say the least. It's a 15 GB
|HDD, and honestly, it's an ancient relic by today's standards. I can't
|imagine that it will serve any useful purpose in your system. With hard
|drives selling as low as 25 cents per GB in today's market, can you possibly
|afford another new HDD that you could profitably use in your system in
|either a dual-boot configuration or simply as a secondary HDD? That really
|would be the practical & wisest way to go in my view.
|
|I'm assuming, of course, that your 160 GB WD is a PATA, and not a SATA HDD.
|As such, it should ordinarily be set up as Primary Master in your system.
|Apparently you're familiar with jumper settings and general HDD connections.
|So that the WD HDD would be connected as Master on the Primary IDE
|controller of your motherboard.
|
|There is, however, one minor complicating matter involving modern WD HDDs
|that you should be aware of. If, for one reason or another, there is no
|device connected as a Slave on the same data cable that is connected to the
|WD drive, the jumper setting should be set as Single and not Master.
|Actually with modern WD PATA HDDs - presumably such as the one you have - a
|Single setting is "jumperless". So just be aware of this.
|
|Assuming you do establish a dual-boot configuration with another HDD, it
|probably would be best if you connected/configured it as Secondary Master,
|although it may function (boot) without problems even if connected as
|Primary Slave. But generally Secondary Master is the preferred
|configuration.
|
|If, on the other hand, you use another HDD merely as a secondary drive for
|storage/backup purposes, then it really doesn't matter whether it's
|connected as a Slave on the Primary IDE channel or anywhere on the Secondary
|IDE channel.
|Anna
|
 
P

Paul

Lady said:
Hi Anna,
I was hoping you'd respond. I don't know if you recall, but I posted
a month ago that I was going to have a good breakfast and schedule 4
hours to do the HD installation.

I'm now on day 3. I am NOT familiar with jumper settings -- I just
learned about that from reading the installation instructions. I
understand that the 15 gig drive is old. I don't have a job; I don't
have money. So even $20 is a lot of money for me. Right now, I'm not
ready to buy another drive. The Samsung will be useful to me. In
case the WD fails, I can boot with Samsung and continue my work
without delay. I will also use it for my non-business online
activities, downloading, etc.

I don't know Pata or Sata. My drive says EIDE.

If I have to look at the current *old* Samsung drive to learn the
jumper settings, that means I have to take it out of the computer. I
don't want to do that, if possible.

I WILL have two drives, and WILL have a dual boot.

Let me confirm: I should set the new WESTERN DIGITAL as SECONDAY
MASTER.

The installation instructions tell me to first install it as PRIMARY
SLAVE. Then I run their software. I don't know what their software
does.

What about the Samsung? Do you think it's jumpered now as
SINGLE/jumperless? Or Primary Master, or what?

What should I do next? I am afraid of computers. :-(

Lady Dungeness
==========================================



|
||> I'm trying to install a new Western Digital 160 gig hard drive. The
|> old harddrive is SAMSUNG SV1533D.
<snip>
|> 1. If I'm going to have a dual-boot configuration, does it really
|> matter?
|> 2. If it matters, I'll want the new WESTERN DIGITAL to be the master,
|> and make the Samsung the slave.
|> 3. How do I do this?
|> 4. What do I do next?
|>
|> Lady Dungeness
|> Crabby, but Great Legs!
|
|
|Lady D.
|Your Samsung HDD is really "old-in-the-tooth" to say the least. It's a 15 GB
|HDD, and honestly, it's an ancient relic by today's standards. I can't
|imagine that it will serve any useful purpose in your system. With hard
|drives selling as low as 25 cents per GB in today's market, can you possibly
|afford another new HDD that you could profitably use in your system in
|either a dual-boot configuration or simply as a secondary HDD? That really
|would be the practical & wisest way to go in my view.
|
|I'm assuming, of course, that your 160 GB WD is a PATA, and not a SATA HDD.
|As such, it should ordinarily be set up as Primary Master in your system.
|Apparently you're familiar with jumper settings and general HDD connections.
|So that the WD HDD would be connected as Master on the Primary IDE
|controller of your motherboard.
|
|There is, however, one minor complicating matter involving modern WD HDDs
|that you should be aware of. If, for one reason or another, there is no
|device connected as a Slave on the same data cable that is connected to the
|WD drive, the jumper setting should be set as Single and not Master.
|Actually with modern WD PATA HDDs - presumably such as the one you have - a
|Single setting is "jumperless". So just be aware of this.
|
|Assuming you do establish a dual-boot configuration with another HDD, it
|probably would be best if you connected/configured it as Secondary Master,
|although it may function (boot) without problems even if connected as
|Primary Slave. But generally Secondary Master is the preferred
|configuration.
|
|If, on the other hand, you use another HDD merely as a secondary drive for
|storage/backup purposes, then it really doesn't matter whether it's
|connected as a Slave on the Primary IDE channel or anywhere on the Secondary
|IDE channel.
|Anna
|

I can find two references to jumpers. This is the page that is easy to find,
and has me confused as to what they're up to. There are eight combinations
depicted here.

http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/support/Download/userguide/usersguide_02.htm

I got lucky, and found a Samsung PDF manual. I could only find the one, so cannot
compare a bunch of them. Have a look at PDF page 25 (section 4.5).

http://personal.inet.fi/cool/lwgt/myoldvdr/V40ProductManual.pdf

Between the two manuals, what I gather from that, is there are three vertical
jumper positions. From right to left, they are "Master", "Clip", and "Cable Select".
The left-most position doesn't have a stated purpose. And "Slave" uses no jumper.

The horizontal jumper positions, appear to be storage positions. In "Slave"
mode, the two jumpers are put in their storage positions.

In other words, if you buy a Samsung drive that is less than 32GB in size,
Samsung only needs to provide the one jumper. If the drive is bigger than 32GB in
size, it comes with two jumpers (in case you need to clip the drive to 32GB). With
the two jumpers, when the second jumper is not being used, it needs to be "parked".
Thus the horizontal storage position.

Note that this is a guess on my part. There is one brand of drives, where the
horizontal positions are used for functions. What I'm relying on here, is
comparing the six jumper block combinations shown in the PDF manual, to the
eight combinations shown on the web site. Based on the two sources of info,
my best guess is that the horizontal positions are storage positions, so you
won't lose the jumpers.

Paul
 
L

Lady Dungeness

That's very helpful, Paul. Thank you for your time and trouble in
finding those guides. I don't know what cable select is; I'm
presuming that my Samsung is set as master now. So I suppose it's
okay to leave it, and set the new WD as Primary Slave and let the
software do it's thing.

Do you happen to know what the configuration should be for dual boot?
Two Masters?

Lady D



|Lady Dungeness wrote:
|> Hi Anna,
|> I was hoping you'd respond. I don't know if you recall, but I posted
|> a month ago that I was going to have a good breakfast and schedule 4
|> hours to do the HD installation.
|>
|> I'm now on day 3. I am NOT familiar with jumper settings -- I just
|> learned about that from reading the installation instructions. I
|> understand that the 15 gig drive is old. I don't have a job; I don't
|> have money. So even $20 is a lot of money for me. Right now, I'm not
|> ready to buy another drive. The Samsung will be useful to me. In
|> case the WD fails, I can boot with Samsung and continue my work
|> without delay. I will also use it for my non-business online
|> activities, downloading, etc.
|>
|> I don't know Pata or Sata. My drive says EIDE.
|>
|> If I have to look at the current *old* Samsung drive to learn the
|> jumper settings, that means I have to take it out of the computer. I
|> don't want to do that, if possible.
|>
|> I WILL have two drives, and WILL have a dual boot.
|>
|> Let me confirm: I should set the new WESTERN DIGITAL as SECONDAY
|> MASTER.
|>
|> The installation instructions tell me to first install it as PRIMARY
|> SLAVE. Then I run their software. I don't know what their software
|> does.
|>
|> What about the Samsung? Do you think it's jumpered now as
|> SINGLE/jumperless? Or Primary Master, or what?
|>
|> What should I do next? I am afraid of computers. :-(
|>
|> Lady Dungeness
|> ==========================================
|>
|>
|>
|> |
|> ||> |> I'm trying to install a new Western Digital 160 gig hard drive. The
|> |> old harddrive is SAMSUNG SV1533D.
|> <snip>
|> |> 1. If I'm going to have a dual-boot configuration, does it really
|> |> matter?
|> |> 2. If it matters, I'll want the new WESTERN DIGITAL to be the master,
|> |> and make the Samsung the slave.
|> |> 3. How do I do this?
|> |> 4. What do I do next?
|> |>
|> |> Lady Dungeness
|> |> Crabby, but Great Legs!
|> |
|> |
|> |Lady D.
|> |Your Samsung HDD is really "old-in-the-tooth" to say the least. It's a 15 GB
|> |HDD, and honestly, it's an ancient relic by today's standards. I can't
|> |imagine that it will serve any useful purpose in your system. With hard
|> |drives selling as low as 25 cents per GB in today's market, can you possibly
|> |afford another new HDD that you could profitably use in your system in
|> |either a dual-boot configuration or simply as a secondary HDD? That really
|> |would be the practical & wisest way to go in my view.
|> |
|> |I'm assuming, of course, that your 160 GB WD is a PATA, and not a SATA HDD.
|> |As such, it should ordinarily be set up as Primary Master in your system.
|> |Apparently you're familiar with jumper settings and general HDD connections.
|> |So that the WD HDD would be connected as Master on the Primary IDE
|> |controller of your motherboard.
|> |
|> |There is, however, one minor complicating matter involving modern WD HDDs
|> |that you should be aware of. If, for one reason or another, there is no
|> |device connected as a Slave on the same data cable that is connected to the
|> |WD drive, the jumper setting should be set as Single and not Master.
|> |Actually with modern WD PATA HDDs - presumably such as the one you have - a
|> |Single setting is "jumperless". So just be aware of this.
|> |
|> |Assuming you do establish a dual-boot configuration with another HDD, it
|> |probably would be best if you connected/configured it as Secondary Master,
|> |although it may function (boot) without problems even if connected as
|> |Primary Slave. But generally Secondary Master is the preferred
|> |configuration.
|> |
|> |If, on the other hand, you use another HDD merely as a secondary drive for
|> |storage/backup purposes, then it really doesn't matter whether it's
|> |connected as a Slave on the Primary IDE channel or anywhere on the Secondary
|> |IDE channel.
|> |Anna
|> |
|
|I can find two references to jumpers. This is the page that is easy to find,
|and has me confused as to what they're up to. There are eight combinations
|depicted here.
|
|http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/support/Download/userguide/usersguide_02.htm
|
|I got lucky, and found a Samsung PDF manual. I could only find the one, so cannot
|compare a bunch of them. Have a look at PDF page 25 (section 4.5).
|
|http://personal.inet.fi/cool/lwgt/myoldvdr/V40ProductManual.pdf
|
|Between the two manuals, what I gather from that, is there are three vertical
|jumper positions. From right to left, they are "Master", "Clip", and "Cable Select".
|The left-most position doesn't have a stated purpose. And "Slave" uses no jumper.
|
|The horizontal jumper positions, appear to be storage positions. In "Slave"
|mode, the two jumpers are put in their storage positions.
|
|In other words, if you buy a Samsung drive that is less than 32GB in size,
|Samsung only needs to provide the one jumper. If the drive is bigger than 32GB in
|size, it comes with two jumpers (in case you need to clip the drive to 32GB). With
|the two jumpers, when the second jumper is not being used, it needs to be "parked".
|Thus the horizontal storage position.
|
|Note that this is a guess on my part. There is one brand of drives, where the
|horizontal positions are used for functions. What I'm relying on here, is
|comparing the six jumper block combinations shown in the PDF manual, to the
|eight combinations shown on the web site. Based on the two sources of info,
|my best guess is that the horizontal positions are storage positions, so you
|won't lose the jumpers.
|
| Paul

Lady Dungeness
Crabby, but Great Legs!
 
P

Paul

Lady said:
That's very helpful, Paul. Thank you for your time and trouble in
finding those guides. I don't know what cable select is; I'm
presuming that my Samsung is set as master now. So I suppose it's
okay to leave it, and set the new WD as Primary Slave and let the
software do it's thing.

Do you happen to know what the configuration should be for dual boot?
Two Masters?

Lady D

With two drives on a cable, you can make one Master, the other Slave.
The alternative, is to put both drives in Cable Select. (I've run into
situations, where the two devices aren't happy one way or the other,
and you can try the other way if they complain.)

As for dual boot, I had a couple alternatives here. I could have used
something which is a boot loader. That would put something up on the
screen, and give me an option to boot from one of several drives.
My copy of PartitionMagic included a boot loader (BootMagic), which I
used on one machine.

A boot loader doesn't know or care about the Master versus Slave
thing. Master/Slave/Cable Select exists, to allow the physical addressing
of two devices, on a shared cable. That is all there is to it. If
both drives are accessible in the BIOS (both visible), then any other
problems are software ones.

A second method, is to connect one hard drive. Install an OS on it.
Now, disconnect that drive. Connect a second blank drive. Install
an OS on it. The two OSes don't know about one another (as long as you
rebooted them at least once when they were by themselves). To select
between them, I go into the BIOS, and specify the drive to boot
from. They can both be on the same cable, and as long as they are
both listed in the BIOS, and exist as options for booting in the BIOS,
then they'll work.

Some BIOS even offer an F key, like F8, that puts up a boot
menu during POST. But I change the boot order in the BIOS itself,
and save the changes. It is not as convenient as a boot loader,
but it does allow me to keep more drives around, with Linux,
FreeBSD, several versions of Windows, and when I'm in the mood,
I just slide one of them into my Sonata case, cable it up, and
select it in the BIOS. So I never have to fiddle with a boot
loader, to handle the different drives.

For the drives themselves, I keep a label maker handy. Each drive
gets a label, with the OS name, and any specifics (like video card
driver being used, because sometimes I swap those too). That is the
best feature of the whole setup, is having a physical label on the
drive.

I have put multiple OSes on the same drive, but with the low cost of
drives, it's just a lot simpler to put one complete environment on a
drive, and swap as necessary.

Paul
 
L

Lady Dungeness

I'm thinking the easiest way is just to hook up the WD and install OS
fresh. When I had a dual boot before, I had a BOOT.INI file that
brought up a boot screen at every startup, and I would simply choose
the system I wanted. My current boot.ini looks like this:

==========================================
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Home on my really
ancient Samsung 15 Gig Drive" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

==========================================

How would I change that to give me those boot-up choices? I presume I
must delete /fastdetect/ noexecute=optin
and some of the 0's should be 1's (which ones)?
and a second line something like this:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Pro on my brand new
Western Digital Drive" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

;-)
Lady D




|Lady Dungeness wrote:
|> That's very helpful, Paul. Thank you for your time and trouble in
|> finding those guides. I don't know what cable select is; I'm
|> presuming that my Samsung is set as master now. So I suppose it's
|> okay to leave it, and set the new WD as Primary Slave and let the
|> software do it's thing.
|>
|> Do you happen to know what the configuration should be for dual boot?
|> Two Masters?
|>
|> Lady D
|>
|
|With two drives on a cable, you can make one Master, the other Slave.
|The alternative, is to put both drives in Cable Select. (I've run into
|situations, where the two devices aren't happy one way or the other,
|and you can try the other way if they complain.)
|
|As for dual boot, I had a couple alternatives here. I could have used
|something which is a boot loader. That would put something up on the
|screen, and give me an option to boot from one of several drives.
|My copy of PartitionMagic included a boot loader (BootMagic), which I
|used on one machine.
|
|A boot loader doesn't know or care about the Master versus Slave
|thing. Master/Slave/Cable Select exists, to allow the physical addressing
|of two devices, on a shared cable. That is all there is to it. If
|both drives are accessible in the BIOS (both visible), then any other
|problems are software ones.
|
|A second method, is to connect one hard drive. Install an OS on it.
|Now, disconnect that drive. Connect a second blank drive. Install
|an OS on it. The two OSes don't know about one another (as long as you
|rebooted them at least once when they were by themselves). To select
|between them, I go into the BIOS, and specify the drive to boot
|from. They can both be on the same cable, and as long as they are
|both listed in the BIOS, and exist as options for booting in the BIOS,
|then they'll work.
|
|Some BIOS even offer an F key, like F8, that puts up a boot
|menu during POST. But I change the boot order in the BIOS itself,
|and save the changes. It is not as convenient as a boot loader,
|but it does allow me to keep more drives around, with Linux,
|FreeBSD, several versions of Windows, and when I'm in the mood,
|I just slide one of them into my Sonata case, cable it up, and
|select it in the BIOS. So I never have to fiddle with a boot
|loader, to handle the different drives.
|
|For the drives themselves, I keep a label maker handy. Each drive
|gets a label, with the OS name, and any specifics (like video card
|driver being used, because sometimes I swap those too). That is the
|best feature of the whole setup, is having a physical label on the
|drive.
|
|I have put multiple OSes on the same drive, but with the low cost of
|drives, it's just a lot simpler to put one complete environment on a
|drive, and swap as necessary.
|
| Paul
 
P

Paul

Lady said:
I'm thinking the easiest way is just to hook up the WD and install OS
fresh. When I had a dual boot before, I had a BOOT.INI file that
brought up a boot screen at every startup, and I would simply choose
the system I wanted. My current boot.ini looks like this:

==========================================
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Home on my really
ancient Samsung 15 Gig Drive" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

==========================================

How would I change that to give me those boot-up choices? I presume I
must delete /fastdetect/ noexecute=optin
and some of the 0's should be 1's (which ones)?
and a second line something like this:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Pro on my brand new
Western Digital Drive" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

;-)
Lady D

There is an article here on boot.ini .

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022

A search like this can probably dig up a few more examples:

http://www.altavista.com/web/results?q=multiboot+boot.ini

A utility called "bootcfg" is mentioned here. Maybe it knows
how to name block devices. The one program I found so far
(dd from http://www.chrysocome.net/dd) doesn't use proper names,
although it can list the devices it finds via "dd --list".

http://searchwinit.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid1_gci954199,00.html

More info on bootcfg in this KB article. Maybe you can cook something
up with this.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022

I don't have WinXP, so cannot test this for you. I use Win2K on
this machine.

Also, you may want to research, how to back out of a bad boot.ini
file. Just in case...

Paul
 
A

Anna

Anna said:
Lady D.
Your Samsung HDD is really "old-in-the-tooth" to say the least. It's a 15
GB HDD, and honestly, it's an ancient relic by today's standards. I can't
imagine that it will serve any useful purpose in your system. With hard
drives selling as low as 25 cents per GB in today's market, can you
possibly afford another new HDD that you could profitably use in your
system in either a dual-boot configuration or simply as a secondary HDD?
That really would be the practical & wisest way to go in my view.

I'm assuming, of course, that your 160 GB WD is a PATA, and not a SATA
HDD. As such, it should ordinarily be set up as Primary Master in your
system. Apparently you're familiar with jumper settings and general HDD
connections. So that the WD HDD would be connected as Master on the
Primary IDE controller of your motherboard.

There is, however, one minor complicating matter involving modern WD HDDs
that you should be aware of. If, for one reason or another, there is no
device connected as a Slave on the same data cable that is connected to
the WD drive, the jumper setting should be set as Single and not Master.
Actually with modern WD PATA HDDs - presumably such as the one you have -
a Single setting is "jumperless". So just be aware of this.

Assuming you do establish a dual-boot configuration with another HDD, it
probably would be best if you connected/configured it as Secondary Master,
although it may function (boot) without problems even if connected as
Primary Slave. But generally Secondary Master is the preferred
configuration.

If, on the other hand, you use another HDD merely as a secondary drive for
storage/backup purposes, then it really doesn't matter whether it's
connected as a Slave on the Primary IDE channel or anywhere on the
Secondary IDE channel.
Anna


Lady Dungeness said:
Hi Anna, I was hoping you'd respond. I don't know if you recall, but I
posted
a month ago that I was going to have a good breakfast and schedule 4
hours to do the HD installation.
I'm now on day 3. I am NOT familiar with jumper settings -- I just
learned about that from reading the installation instructions. I
understand that the 15 gig drive is old. I don't have a job; I don't
have money. So even $20 is a lot of money for me. Right now, I'm not
ready to buy another drive. The Samsung will be useful to me. In
case the WD fails, I can boot with Samsung and continue my work
without delay. I will also use it for my non-business online
activities, downloading, etc.
I don't know Pata or Sata. My drive says EIDE.
If I have to look at the current *old* Samsung drive to learn the
jumper settings, that means I have to take it out of the computer. I
don't want to do that, if possible.
I WILL have two drives, and WILL have a dual boot.
Let me confirm: I should set the new WESTERN DIGITAL as SECONDAY
MASTER.
The installation instructions tell me to first install it as PRIMARY
SLAVE. Then I run their software. I don't know what their software
does.
What about the Samsung? Do you think it's jumpered now as
SINGLE/jumperless? Or Primary Master, or what?
What should I do next? I am afraid of computers. :-(

Lady Dungeness


Lady D:
Let me make the following (final) points and forgive me for my bluntness...

1. Your WD 160 GB HDD - it's a PATA HDD - don't worry about this - should be
connected as Primary Master in your system. *Not* Secondary Master, *not*
Cable Select*, but Primary Master. PERIOD. The *only* alternative to this
configuration is if the Single jumper setting ("jumperless") is necessary as
I previously described.

2. I do not understand why you need a "dual-boot" configuration. Is it to
accommodate another operating system, e.g., Win98 or such? Is this
absolutely necessary in your situation?

3. If you *do* need a dual-boot system, and you can only work with your
Samsung 15 GB HDD, that drive should most likely be connected as I
previously described, i.e., as Secondary Master. I trust you understand the
info you received from Paul re jumper settings for the this configuration.

4. Since it's apparent you cannot afford professional assistance in this
situation, is there any possibility that you have a friend or acquaintance
who has a reasonable knowledge of PCs and can help you out in this
situation? That really would be the best of worlds.

I wish you luck.
Anna
 
L

Lady Dungeness

I am so pleased! I have my new Western Digital HD installed and
running. The old Samsung is slave.

I want to thank everybody who has helped me with this. Once I learned
the jumper settings, it went fairly well. I had trouble with one of
the screws -- it's close in toward the back of the drive, behind the
lip of the case. I could not angle the screw in; finally the screw
fell off and I've lost it. Sadly, the drive came with only 4 screws;
not a single extra.

Again, my thanks to you all.


Lady Dungeness
Crabby, but Great Legs!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
{XP Home SP2, O2K2 SP3}
 
N

NotMe

WTG!!
I have a lot of drives only head in with 1-2 screws, unless you move the
machine regularly, it shouldn't be an issue.
But with 3 screws in, even that should be OK.
 

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