Master/slave

[Keith]

Hi

I know that it is conventional to have the system hard drive as primary
master, but is there any technical reason why this is better than
configuring it as a slave (even if it is the only device using that
channel)?

Regards
Keith

 

[badgolferman]

Keith, 1/19/2006, 11:03:08 AM,

Hi

I know that it is conventional to have the system hard drive as
primary master, but is there any technical reason why this is better
than configuring it as a slave (even if it is the only device using
that channel)?

Regards
Keith

I don't think you can boot from a slave device.

 

[Mike Walsh]

That used to be true. Most recent BIOSs will allow you to boot from any internal drive, and many external drives.

 

[kony]

Hi

I know that it is conventional to have the system hard drive as primary
master, but is there any technical reason why this is better than
configuring it as a slave (even if it is the only device using that
channel)?

There is no reason why it can't be slave and no detriment to
setting it as slave so long as the motherboard is not
ancient, as very old boards didn't alway support booting
from anything but the primary master device.

However, you do not set it as slave if the only device on
the channel. Do not put it in the middle of the cable
either, only on the end.

 

[Keith]

However, you do not set it as slave if the only device on
the channel. Do not put it in the middle of the cable
either, only on the end.

Why not?

 

[Toshi1873]

Why not?

I'd imagine for signaling reasons. But I'm not sure if it matters with
the 80-pin cables (as opposed to the older 40-pin IDE cables).

Regardless, I'd set it to master and put it at the end of the cable
since that's the generally accepted method when you only have 1 device
on the cable.

 

[kony]

Why not?

End of cable because it terminates the cable, doesn't pick
up stray noise. Master because that's how the parts are set
up to work... slave might work but not always and
unnecessary.

 

[Keith]

End of cable because it terminates the cable, doesn't pick
up stray noise. Master because that's how the parts are set
up to work... slave might work but not always and
unnecessary.

Thanks for the replies folks. Of course I always follow the conventions,
but I've seen optical drives set up as a slave when they've been the only
device on the secondary channel, and I've also seen ATA devices attached to
the middle connector when they've been the only device on the cable; these
have seemed to work for their owners, but if I see this at my work (as a PC
tech) I always change it to the conventional set up.

Regards
Keith