HD help

[Unclebill]

Originally posted by Jim_Henson
I thought of that Uncle Bill, and it is a possibility that I'd look into, but how can I fix it if I cant turn it to master to get it to boot?



Yeah the Bios gives the correct parameters.

If there's anything important on that drive that you want to keep, back it up while the drive is Slave and you can still access it.

Then, the first option I'd offer is, IF the system will boot from a CD-ROM, use a Windows BOOTABLE CD-ROM and install your OS over the existing. That should install the right drivers and save your data and installed software [he said crossing his fingers ].

If that does not work or you don't have a bootable CD-ROM, use FDISK and FORMAT to clear the drive, then install the OS on the clean drive either by booting from the CD-ROM or from the Windows Installation floppy that comes with your Windows CD-ROM.

You can run FDISK from the OS on the other HDD while this disk is Slave or you can do it from the installlation floppy while the drive in question is Master. When using FDISK, be sure you are accessing the disk you intend to wipe. I think it's option 4 that gives drive info but it has been awhile since I used FDISK. But FDISK does detect multiple drives automatically and permits you to select either drive to manipulate partitions.

I also seem to recall that if you are installing from a BOOTABLE CD-ROM, the target disk MUST BE FORMATTED before the installation can be accomplished. The Windows Setup program will NOT format a disk I believe.

 

[Jim_Henson]

Its obviously staying a slave then

The master is 4 gig, and the slave 40... and already near half full.

Looks like it will stay that way somehow

 

[Weird Harold]

Its obviously staying a slave then

The master is 4 gig, and the slave 40... and already near half full.

The slave is 40 GB, not Mgabytes, correct?

The larger drive should be the slave on a windows system.

It's going to save you you weeks of defrag time over the life of the drive not having it as drive C: because drive C: gets most of the defragmentation from normal operations of the operating system. A slave drive only fragments as files are modified and archived files, once defragmented generally stay defragmented.

 

[Jim_Henson]

Yes its a 40gig slave.... the reason for me trying to get it to be able to master was if I upgraded to XP and screwed the 4 gig. Also the email thing, but we fixed that... I just want it as a safety valve. Also so I can clean up double copies of things on both drives.