Master+Slave

[Guest]

I have one hard disk 160GB (split inro 5 partitions with 1 partition faulty)
and have just bought a second hard disk of lower volume 80GB.
Should the new hard disk be changed to slave because currently in BIOS they
are both registered as Master.

BIOS config:
Third IDE Master Maxtor 6Y160M0
Third IDE Slave Not installed
Fourth IDE Master Excelstor
Fourth IDE Slave Not installed.

What I want to do is Norton Ghost the C partition of the main hard disk to
the new hard disk in case the main hard disk fails.
Would the above config work or should I uninstall the new hard drive and set
it to Slave?
Many thanks

 

[Dave B.]

Are these IDE or SATA, if IDE it looks like it needs to be slave, if SATA
you can't set them, they are each on their own cable.

 

[JustMe]

Are these IDE or SATA, if IDE it looks like it needs to be slave, if SATA
you can't set them, they are each on their own cable.

Did you bother to read the post? The OP clearly stated that it was IDE.

 

[Dave B.]

Not too knowledgeable about this stuff are you? The OP DID NOT state that
they were IDE, he stated what he saw in the BIOS, All BIOS's that I have
seen (and that is many) will list SATA drives as IDE.

Perhaps you should have a clue before spouting off about something you know
nothing about?

 

[Guest]

Well that's strange. I assumed that they were both SATA because they are both
connected to the SATA ports on the motherboard with thin orange cables. I
checked that the new hard disk was SATA capable because I assumed that the
main hard disk was (I didn't build the system by the way). Could BIOS be
wrong in saying that they are IDE?
Thanks

 

[Dave B.]

See my reply to "justme"
Your BIOS is not wrong, that is normal.
You cannot set SATA drives to master or slave, just plug it in.

 

[Guest]

Simple answer:
If both drives are plugged into the same IDE channel then one must be master
& the other slave.
Two masters on same channel will conflict with strange results.

If each drive is plugged into a separate channel, doesn't matter about
master or slave.
EXCEPT that - some motherboards will not boot from a slave!

From your config printout, looks like you have 4 IDE channels with drives
plugged into channels 3 & 4; each on it's own separate channel, so both
master is fine like this.

You did not include listing of channels 1 or 2, is nothing plugged in there?

JLW.