Advice on Dual HDD 2

[Crustyoldbloke]

Hi Everyone

I have been thinking about installing an extra HDD as a removable on my PC. The trouble is that I'm not sure how to config it.

Do I simply just plug it into one of the IDE cables or should it be in some special order for the BIOS to recognise them individually?

I've always thought that the cable from CD next goes to HDD and then to the Board, so would it be OK to connect a cable to the new drive and directly into the second IDE slot on the board?

Do I just set the BIOS to AUTO select?

Thanks a lot for reading and hope fully replying. Regards
Phil
Si fractum non sit, noli id reficere.

 

[madonnac]

Use the bios to auto select the drive, so it can set up the drive if it is there, and ignore it if not.

Ideally, set the drive as the only one on the second IDE cable - set the drive as master/single drive as appropriate.

The jumpers on the back of the drives set the order that they are recognised, not the position of the cable [exception: using a machine that uses cable select mode for identifying drives]

Your current set up sounds like your main drive is set as master, and your CD is set as slave on the 1st IDE channel.
Assuming the drive is set up to be one huge drive, and not split, your main drive is C and your CD is D. when you put the 2nd drive in, that drive will become D, and your CD will become drive E. To avoid this moving around when you will have to set the CD drive letter to E. (how to do this depends on what OS you are using)

 

[jimioz]

First I must assume you are not using a Compaq or someother type of machine that doesn't allow you add parts you buy from other than the manufacture...

Also, I have always given the advise not to use two hard drives, just by a bigger one when yours gets full. Its alway easier to use just one hard drive. That way you won't have to remember what drive your data is on.

Anyway, from the primary IDE port on the motherboard, run the ribbon cable to your first hard drive, then to the second hard drive. From the secondary IDE port, run it to the CD Rom. Make sure all your drives are set to cable select (thats the jumper on the back of the drive and should be marked CS or something other than slave or master). Your CD's drive letter will change as stated in the previous posting, but you can change it back via the device manager is you want. If you have games that use a CD key (meaning the original CD must be in the drive to run the game) they might get lost if you CD is now "E" instead of "D" like it is use to. You can change this in the program's .ini file, which will be in the game's directory, the windows directory, or the windows/system directory...

By keeping your CD on a different IDE port from your Hard drives, you will be able to transfer data faster on both devices. CDs are slower than hard drives, so don't force your hard drive to wait for the CD...

Let me know if this helps.

 

[Crustyoldbloke]

Thanks for the info guys

The reason for a second HDD is really quite simple. I am fed up of formatting and reloading my son's HDD after he has surfed through who knows what, and managed to screw it up.

I thought that if I had a second HDD, I could at least transfer worthwhile files to the other and then reformat the corrupt disc with no appreciable downtime.

The reason for making the second drive removable is twofold; 1. I have a removable disc carrier and 2. it's easily accessible in needs of crisis (like the police calling to enquire why my telephone line is permanently downloading from a bad site or something else equally obnoxious like MP3's of heavy metal or WWF videos).

Kids, who'd have 'em?

Regards
Phil
Si fractum non sit, noli id reficere.

 

[Snickle]

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it"

I have such an arrangement in my wife's computer on a peer-to-peer network. I use a Mobile Rack [from one of the on-line drive dealers] that supports UDMA100 drives. The Slave is set as Auto in the BIOS. Whenever I need to back up a drive of a clients', I shut down her computer, put the drive in a cartridge, insert the cartridge in the rack, turn the key, and boot up the computer. I can then copy files as needed to a CD. The OS on the slave drive hasn't been a problem yet as only the Master can be active.

There would be no problem with having 2 Mobile Racks, just be sure to mark the boot drive.

I also have put a Mobile Rack in a parallel-port case that will hold either an IDE CD-ROM or an IDE hard drive. Then I have a portable drive for backups on a client's site, bring it home and plug into the computer.

Think of the security angle, kid makes the wrong remark, shut down the computer, remove the cartridge, and lock it away until the atmosphere improves. Also great for companies with 2 or 3 workshifts as each shift could have their own setup without messing with the others, 1 computer with numerous setups.

 

[Crustyoldbloke]

Thanks to both Madonnac and Jimioz

Your advice has led me to a computer with two drives that both work..............Hooray!!!!

I selected CS (cable select) on both drives and wired to the same IDE plug and yes, it works well. I couldn't figure out why using master and slave wouldn't work - still can't, but hey, I'm not complaining.

Since WIN98 on the old drive was screwed, I transferred files by using cut and paste to the new drive and then formatted the old one. So far, so good and there is a but............. for the life of me, I can't get the modem working. I've always struggled with this particular modem, but don't know why.

Usually I have to add a couple of COMMS and then assign the modem to comm4 (it worked well on the old HDD), but I can't get it to work on the new one. When I go to CONTROL PANEL - MODEM - DIAGNOSTICS - MORE INFO, I get two dialogue boxes; the little one reads COULDN'T OPEN PORT. Also I noted that on the old one in SYSTEM PROPERTIES - DEVICE MANAGER, HSFMODEM was listed, but not in the new one.

I am going to take all PCI cards out and run from the MOBO's on board graphics and sound, and the add the modem, sound and finally graphics cards in that order to see what results I get.

If there is anyone out there, who understands modems, please write. I must have the modem working to add to the new set up via download sites.

Thanks again guys.

Regards
Phil
Si fractum non sit, noli id reficere.

 

[jimioz]

If you still have the original driver that came with the modem, use it. I have had HSF type modems before and they work fine only when you use the driver that came with them. It will have you load a COMM first then select it as you load the modem.

If you don't have the original driver, you might as well toss it out and buy a new one. These modems change their setting (and thus their drivers) all the time, and without the proper driver you're sunk. But new modems can be found for as little as $10 these days...

 

[Crustyoldbloke]

Wow!

Now listen up! because I think I have saved a lot of people from having heart attacks. This modem problem is seemingly very widespread, certainly according to the pages on this site for modems. I have the problem which many others also suffer and I resolved it by drastic means.

I read everything to do with modems, visited countless sites; but not one told me the answer. I got the old message from WINDOWS saying that "new hardware has been detected, and windows will now look for......... blah blah blah!

The answer is in the registry. Apparently, WINDOWS does a poll of all H/ware & S/ware on the PC, and records/sets it's parameters. So, if you've booted WINDOWS with H/ware in situ, there will be an entry (key, value and data). Now faced with my prospect of either destroying the machine with a large hammer through frustration or locating the problem, I decided to read everything on modems and discovered, thanks to the WINDOWS technical services, that the reason installing a modem from its driver doesn't help is because WINDOWS has already allocated an entry in its registry.

So, run REGEDIT, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, ENUMERATOR, PCI and find the problem device. They are labelled Graphics, Screen, Sound, Media etc. Now here comes the brave bit, delete the key which starts "BUS" and mentions the bit you're having problemd with (PCI COMMUNICATION DEVICE). Reboot and WINDOWS will find all of your H/ware and install correctly.

I think I deserve at least 5 stars for that snippet of information, and no longer will I have to try and work out what I have done wrong in not getting a modem to work.

To be perfectly honest, I was at my witts end, and by deleting the key, I wasn't really bothered by the outcome because I thoutht that I was looking at a FORMAT C: anyway.

Regards
Phil
Si fractum non sit, noli id reficere.