Drive Connection and Jumpering

[Thomas M.]

Hello,

I have a Dell PowerEdge 600SC running the A09 BIOS. The mobo has 3 IDE
controllers. I have two IDE hard drives connected to the Primary IDE
controller, with one jumpered as the master and the other as the slave.
I have a DVD drive and a CD-ROM drive connected to the Secondary IDE
controller with the DVD drive jumpered as the master and the CD-ROM
drive as the slave. The system also has a connected 3.5" floppy drive.
There is currently nothing connected to the Tertiary IDE controller.

The BIOS and Windows XP both see all the drives, and I can use all the
drives without problems. However, now I have a need to configure both
the DVD and CD-ROM drives in the boot sequence, but I can only get one
of them at a time to show up in the boot sequence setting in the BIOS.
I can make it the DVD *or* the CD-ROM, but not both at the same time.

I've tried putting the DVD and CD-ROM drives on different controllers
and changing the jumper settings accordingly, but none of the
combinations I've tried have worked. The only combination that I have
not tried is putting the DVD drive on the same cable as the primary hard
drive, and the CD-ROM drive on the same cable as the secondary hard
drive, or vice versa (I've heard that can slow down hard drive
operation). What I would like is a boot order like the following:

DVD drive
CD-ROM drive
Hard drive
Floppy drive

How can I connect and jumper the drives in the system to get that boot
order?

Thanks for any help that you can offer.

--Tom

 

[M.I.5?]

Hello,

I have a Dell PowerEdge 600SC running the A09 BIOS. The mobo has 3 IDE
controllers. I have two IDE hard drives connected to the Primary IDE
controller, with one jumpered as the master and the other as the slave.
I have a DVD drive and a CD-ROM drive connected to the Secondary IDE
controller with the DVD drive jumpered as the master and the CD-ROM
drive as the slave. The system also has a connected 3.5" floppy drive.
There is currently nothing connected to the Tertiary IDE controller.

The BIOS and Windows XP both see all the drives, and I can use all the
drives without problems. However, now I have a need to configure both
the DVD and CD-ROM drives in the boot sequence, but I can only get one
of them at a time to show up in the boot sequence setting in the BIOS.
I can make it the DVD *or* the CD-ROM, but not both at the same time.

I've tried putting the DVD and CD-ROM drives on different controllers
and changing the jumper settings accordingly, but none of the
combinations I've tried have worked. The only combination that I have
not tried is putting the DVD drive on the same cable as the primary hard
drive, and the CD-ROM drive on the same cable as the secondary hard
drive, or vice versa (I've heard that can slow down hard drive
operation). What I would like is a boot order like the following:

DVD drive
CD-ROM drive
Hard drive
Floppy drive

How can I connect and jumper the drives in the system to get that boot
order?

While I am pondering your question, let me ask one.

Why do you want both the DVD drive an the CD drive to be capable of booting
the PC? Invariably, a bootable disc would only be inserted in one drive and
not both. Why can't you just put the bootable disc in whichever drive you
configure as bootable?

It may be a limitation of your BIOS that you can only have one bootable
optical drive.

 

[Ismo Salonen]

Hello,

I have a Dell PowerEdge 600SC running the A09 BIOS. The mobo has 3 IDE
controllers. I have two IDE hard drives connected to the Primary IDE
controller, with one jumpered as the master and the other as the slave.
I have a DVD drive and a CD-ROM drive connected to the Secondary IDE
controller with the DVD drive jumpered as the master and the CD-ROM
drive as the slave. The system also has a connected 3.5" floppy drive.
There is currently nothing connected to the Tertiary IDE controller.

The BIOS and Windows XP both see all the drives, and I can use all the
drives without problems. However, now I have a need to configure both
the DVD and CD-ROM drives in the boot sequence, but I can only get one
of them at a time to show up in the boot sequence setting in the BIOS.
I can make it the DVD *or* the CD-ROM, but not both at the same time.

I've tried putting the DVD and CD-ROM drives on different controllers
and changing the jumper settings accordingly, but none of the
combinations I've tried have worked. The only combination that I have
not tried is putting the DVD drive on the same cable as the primary hard
drive, and the CD-ROM drive on the same cable as the secondary hard
drive, or vice versa (I've heard that can slow down hard drive
operation). What I would like is a boot order like the following:

DVD drive
CD-ROM drive
Hard drive
Floppy drive

How can I connect and jumper the drives in the system to get that boot
order?

Thanks for any help that you can offer.

--Tom

This might be limitation of the bios, they do not support always all
boot orders. Why do you need extra cdrom for booting ? the dvd drive
can boot from cd perfectly well.

ismo

 

[Thomas M.]

While I am pondering your question, let me ask one.

Why do you want both the DVD drive an the CD drive to be capable of booting
the PC? Invariably, a bootable disc would only be inserted in one drive and
not both. Why can't you just put the bootable disc in whichever drive you
configure as bootable?

It may be a limitation of your BIOS that you can only have one bootable
optical drive.

Ordinarily, I would put only the DVD drive in the boot sequence.
However, I currently find myself in a situation where I want to wipe the
drive and install Windows 7. I have a bootable CD for wiping the drive,
but that disk is not recognized by the DVD drive for some reason. It
works fine in the CD-ROM drive. I also have a DVD containing Windows 7
that I will need to boot from once the drive has been wiped.

I can do this by manually changing the cabling and jumpers between the
wipe of the drive and the installation of Windows 7, but it just seems
like I should be able to make it work better than that.

I have considered that it might be a limitation of the BIOS.
Unfortunately, there are no updates to the BIOS listed on the Dell site,
so if it is a BIOS limitation then I guess that I'm stuck with it. I've
also considered that it might be some quirk of the drives themselves. I
think that's a stretch, but it wouldn't be the oddest thing I've ever
seen from a hardware device.

--Tom

 

[Thomas M.]

This might be limitation of the bios, they do not support always all
boot orders. Why do you need extra cdrom for booting ? the dvd drive
can boot from cd perfectly well.

ismo

See my reply to M.I.5. for details.

For some reason the DVD drive will not recognize the bootable CD that I
plan to use for wiping the drive. I'm not sure why. The disk works
fine in the CD drive. I suppose that I could burn a DVD copy of the
disk, but that just seems like a waste of a disk.

--Tom

 

[Paul]

See my reply to M.I.5. for details.

For some reason the DVD drive will not recognize the bootable CD that I
plan to use for wiping the drive. I'm not sure why. The disk works
fine in the CD drive. I suppose that I could burn a DVD copy of the
disk, but that just seems like a waste of a disk.

--Tom

My BIOS supports a "popup boot" function key. I press F10
and all the bootable devices appear in a list in place of the
BIOS screen. I select the device I want to boot from, and
booting begins. Unfortunately, not all brands of BIOS
support that feature. I checked the manual for your computer,
and did not see that option. The function key used, isn't even
a constant, and varies from one design to the next. Just like
some of my machines use <Del> to enter the BIOS, while others
use <F2>.

(Example of a popup boot menu at the BIOS level...)

http://docs.sun.com/source/820-6772/images/7-2-Boot-Device-Network-Menu.gif

Using that key, means I don't have to enter the BIOS, and change
the boot order in there.

Many BIOS contain a basic boot order (Floppy, CDROM, HDD), and
at each level, the list of drives can be ordered. So if you had
two optical drives, you could select one or the other to be the
top-most priority optical drive. Using such menus, on my machine,
I would not have to re-cable any drives, to get the desired boot
order. Either entering the BIOS, and editing the lists in there will
achieve the desired effect. Or, for temporary boot situations,
I can use the popup key instead. A change made with the popup key,
is not saved.

Paul

 

[SC Tom]

See my reply to M.I.5. for details.

For some reason the DVD drive will not recognize the bootable CD that I
plan to use for wiping the drive. I'm not sure why. The disk works
fine in the CD drive. I suppose that I could burn a DVD copy of the
disk, but that just seems like a waste of a disk.

--Tom

If this is a CD you created, you didn't use a CD-RW, did you? Some DVD combo
drives have a problem reading them.

SC Tom

 

[M.I.5?]

Ordinarily, I would put only the DVD drive in the boot sequence.
However, I currently find myself in a situation where I want to wipe the
drive and install Windows 7. I have a bootable CD for wiping the drive,
but that disk is not recognized by the DVD drive for some reason. It
works fine in the CD-ROM drive. I also have a DVD containing Windows 7
that I will need to boot from once the drive has been wiped.

I can do this by manually changing the cabling and jumpers between the
wipe of the drive and the installation of Windows 7, but it just seems
like I should be able to make it work better than that.

I have considered that it might be a limitation of the BIOS.
Unfortunately, there are no updates to the BIOS listed on the Dell site,
so if it is a BIOS limitation then I guess that I'm stuck with it. I've
also considered that it might be some quirk of the drives themselves. I
think that's a stretch, but it wouldn't be the oddest thing I've ever
seen from a hardware device.

Whilst I haven't used a Windows 7 upgrade disc myself, if they are like
other Windows discs it sould offer you the choice of upgrading the current
OS or performing a fresh install wiping the disc in the process.

 

[M.I.5?]

See my reply to M.I.5. for details.

For some reason the DVD drive will not recognize the bootable CD that I
plan to use for wiping the drive. I'm not sure why. The disk works
fine in the CD drive. I suppose that I could burn a DVD copy of the
disk, but that just seems like a waste of a disk.

DVD-RW? You can then reuse the disc.

 

[Thomas M.]

Whilst I haven't used a Windows 7 upgrade disc myself, if they are like

other Windows discs it sould offer you the choice of upgrading the current
OS or performing a fresh install wiping the disc in the process.

My CD contained a wipe utility that I had never used and wanted to try.

It turns out that after trying a bunch of different settings, I put
everything back the way it was originally and the DVD drive read the CD
without problems. I had previously cleaned the CD and the drive because
I've had dirty disks and drive lenses put a stopper in things before, so I'm
not sure why it didn't work the first time and did work the second time.
But suffice it to say, the problem is solved.

--Tom

 

[Thomas M.]

This might be limitation of the bios, they do not support always all boot

orders. Why do you need extra cdrom for booting ? the dvd drive can boot
from cd perfectly well.

ismo

I had a drive wiping utility on the CD that I wanted to try out, but I
couldn't get the DVD drive to read the CD, but the CD drive would read it
just fine. I tried cleaning both the CD disk and the DVD drive, and when
that didn't work I thought about putting both in the boot order. That way,
I could use the utility on the CD to wipe the drive, and then use the DVD to
install Windows 7. As it turns out, I was finally able to get the DVD to
read the CD, so I was able to do the whole thing with just the DVD drive.

--Tom

 

[Thomas M.]

For some reason the DVD drive will not recognize the bootable CD that I

If this is a CD you created, you didn't use a CD-RW, did you? Some DVD
combo drives have a problem reading them.

SC Tom

I don't have the disk in front of me, but I think it actually is a CD-RW.
But it's a moot point because I was finally able to get the DVD drive to
read the CD, so problem solved.

--Tom