Tech Question

[Slutacus]

This should be an easy one, for the technically inclined.

I need to install a second hard drive on my PC. The installation seems pretty easy, except for the dipswitch part. The hard drive was a super good bargain but one of the prices I paid was no documentation. How do I know which switchs to set on my original drive to make it the master and which ones to set on the new drive to make it the slave? Also, are dipswitchs standardized or are they brand-specific?

 

[TBKahuna123]

This should be an easy one, for the technically inclined.

I need to install a second hard drive on my PC. The installation seems pretty easy, except for the dipswitch part. The hard drive was a super good bargain but one of the prices I paid was no documentation. How do I know which switchs to set on my original drive to make it the master and which ones to set on the new drive to make it the slave? Also, are dipswitchs standardized or are they brand-specific?

there is some variation. I would go to the manufacturer's website. They all have this kind of information there.

 

[hades]

if you look on the hard drive there will be a little picture of the jumper settings. The one in your pc will already be on master or at the very least cable select (which should still work). Just look on the new hard drive for the picture and change the jumpers according to the picture, then hook up the cables.

 

[Tele2047]

Whatever the first drive is set as, you should be able to set the second one as CS (cable select) and it'll work fine, though if you're comfortable with it, I'd probably take out the first one and make sure it's set to master (MA usually), and set the second one to slave (SL).

 

[Slutacus]

Thanks folks, I'll try this over the New Year's weekend. If I get stuck I'll probably post again.

 

[MagicFingers]

Google it

Do a web search on the make and model numbers. Somewhere there, like in the manual or setup info, you will find the settings.
Switches? Do you mean jumpers? I haven't seen switches in years except in an external drive maybe. It's not external is it? That is a different animal.

Be sure you have a dual cable, usually 80 pin nowadays, set the master to master, the slave to slave.
However, some PCs require the settings on both to be cable select. In that case, the location on the cable determines which is master and slave.
Go to BIOS setup to see it they are selected right.
Be sure power is unplugged before doing this! Not just turned off.

Good luck.

 

[Slutacus]

No manual, no setup instructions (part of the bargain, as I believe I said above), and the mfg. has been very hard to track down via google, and I am an expert researcher--part of what I do for a living. Korean or Chinese maker for an American brander. Initially, I think I found some doc in an asian language, but even after I applied the best translation software to it (none of them are very good with Asian translation), it was mostly incomprehensible.

That's why I was asking here, hoping for some generic suggestions on how to set the master to master on one drive and the slave to slave on the other. I got some good suggestions already.

Yes switches is another name for jumpers in my message.

Thanks for the bios tip. I'll check. And yes, unplugging in mandatory in my laboratory--and should be in everybody's!

 

[TBKahuna123]

No manual, no setup instructions (part of the bargain, as I believe I said above), and the mfg. has been very hard to track down via google, and I am an expert researcher--part of what I do for a living. Korean or Chinese maker for an American brander. Initially, I think I found some doc in an asian language, but even after I applied the best translation software to it (none of them are very good with Asian translation), it was mostly incomprehensible.

That's why I was asking here, hoping for some generic suggestions on how to set the master to master on one drive and the slave to slave on the other. I got some good suggestions already.

Yes switches is another name for jumpers in my message.

Thanks for the bios tip. I'll check. And yes, unplugging in mandatory in my laboratory--and should be in everybody's!

Well one option is just pull all the jumpers or move all the dip switches to the off position on both hard drives and try to let the Cable select the master and slave. This will either work or it won't. It just depends on the HDD maker. Some use a no jumpers setting for cable select, on others it' the master selector.

Still, it's the best guess I can give you.

 

[Weird Harold]

No manual, no setup instructions (part of the bargain, as I believe I said above), and the mfg. has been very hard to track down via google, and I am an expert researcher--part of what I do for a living. Korean or Chinese maker for an American brander. Initially, I think I found some doc in an asian language, but even after I applied the best translation software to it (none of them are very good with Asian translation), it was mostly incomprehensible.

That's why I was asking here, hoping for some generic suggestions on how to set the master to master on one drive and the slave to slave on the other. I got some good suggestions already.

Yes switches is another name for jumpers in my message.

Thanks for the bios tip. I'll check. And yes, unplugging in mandatory in my laboratory--and should be in everybody's!

This image is of a Western Digital set to "Primary" The crossways positioning is I believe the equivalent to removing all jumpers.

The Quantum and Conner Drives I have in thepare parts bin also use "no jumper" as the Master/Primary setting.

If the jumper in the image were upright over the two right-most pins it would be configured for "Cable Select" or CS. The Quantum and Conner drives agree with a CS is closest to the power connector configuration.

The Western Digital drive in the image uses a vertcal jumper on the second set of pins from the power connector to configure as a "Slave" -- Again, Quantum and Conner drives follow the pattern.

If I had to make a guess at where the jumper goes, I'd say remove it completely (or put it sideways across any two ground pins for safe-keeping) and put the jumper on the second pair of pins from the power connector to configure it as a Slave.

One nice thing about Drive Jumpers is that putting them in the wrong place is unlikely to harm the drive; it just won't work right -- that means you don't have to guess right the first time and can just experiment until you find a setting that works -- for most applications there is only one jumper to move and only three sets of pins it can go on.


http://www.pcguide.com/byop/diagrams/figure79.jpg
http://www.pcguide.com/byop/diagrams/figure79.jpg

 

[Tele2047]

If you don't want to connect any pins, take the jumper off completely, or stick it on one pin and over the spot where another one would be (there's usually a space with no pin in my experience).

And sorry, master's DS, not MS.

 

[JRaven]

Be careful of the CD-rom drive!

If there is a cable from the mother board to the original hard drive to the CD drive, the CD drive will already be configured as a slave. In this case, you will need to purchase another cable to connect the new hard drive to the mother board. Nearly all motherboards have two places to plug in drives.


If the CD drive is not daisy chained from the exiting harddrive, it will already be plugged into the second spot on the mother board and be configured as a master. If this is the case, follow Weird Harold's instructions.

Jenny

 

[Sportland]

One important factor is speed of the new drive. If you purchased a 7200rpm drive and set it as slave and your master is a only a 5400rpm drive then your new 7200rpm drive will only perform at 5400rpm. It does matter. Faster drive goes on the IDE cable as Master. As for Secondary IDE, usually your CD/DVD drives you are usually better of with a writer being the master.