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General discussion

master slave issue

Apr 4, 2007 6:49PM PDT

I have a problem setting up two drives as one master and one as slave on the primary interface connector on the motherboard.
the drives are jumpered correctly the problem is only the master is seen in bios.If i unplug the master the slave only is seen.I don't understand this because i had these drives working before with this setup.I disconnected the slave to hook up to another computer and when i reconneted back up i now have this problem I decided to hook it up as a slave on the secondry Ide connecter master being cd writer and slave being the second hard drive and both drives are seen.I can't use this arrangement without getting a longer ide cable as my 80 way cable is too short.There must be a logical explanation Any sugestions would be most appreaciated

Discussion is locked

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Because. . .
Apr 4, 2007 10:06PM PDT

The 40 conductor is only for Cable Select. You need the 80 conductor for Master/Slave. It's the way it's wired.

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Are you sure?
Apr 5, 2007 12:34AM PDT
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master/slave
Apr 5, 2007 3:25AM PDT

If you read my post you will note i am using an 80 way data cable not a 40 way The 40 way would not work and it worked before with the 80 way? So what's changed

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I didn't reply to your post.
Apr 5, 2007 3:28AM PDT

I was asking if the first reply was sure or not.

I'll reply to your post shortly.

Bob

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(NT) Senior moment.
Apr 5, 2007 4:02AM PDT
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If you mean by "80 cable" that you are using..
Apr 5, 2007 3:32AM PDT

An 80 conductor cable then using MA or SL jumpers only works "sometimes." The article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT_Attachment covers not only the cable types but which jumper system to use with each selected cable.

If this was my machine I'd use CS (cable select) when using 80 conductor cables. But this area is sort of a quagmire since old school 40 conductor memories (human) keep them from trying it the new way.

Bob

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masrer/slave
Apr 5, 2007 3:51AM PDT

I understand now bob

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master/slave
Apr 5, 2007 3:57AM PDT

The thing is bob i had it jumpered as master/slave before not c/s my understanding is a 80 way cable can work either way

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About work either way.
Apr 5, 2007 4:03AM PDT

This area can consternate many as what you say may be true for your devices then fly apart on another machine. As such I've taken to doing this "by the book" to avoid confusion.

Yes, it might work, then again it might work and then stop working later for no apparent reason. This would lead some owner to a shop counter and some will want to know "why?"

Bob

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c/s
Apr 5, 2007 4:07AM PDT

Ok i will jumper them both c/s and let you know the results

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Sorry. I forgot to add this trivia.
Apr 5, 2007 4:13AM PDT

I had a failure in one of our office machines in which no matter which jumper scheme I used would have both drives working on the same IDE channel and cable. I swapped cables, machines and still these 2 units would not work proper. Eventually I placed one on it's own channel and left the other to work with another device. That cured it but does point out that device failures can be partial failures and drive us to find that "it doesn't work."

Later that year I found a firmware update for the DVDROM drive and as if a miracle occurred the drive would then work with the other device that it didn't before.

What this all means is that you may have to bow to the absurdity of it all and go with what works.

Bob

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master /slave
Apr 5, 2007 4:53AM PDT

Hi bob changed both drives to c/s no change What now?

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Then we go back to one drive one cable tests.
Apr 5, 2007 4:58AM PDT

A failing drive can kill us from figuring this out. Try each drive on it's own as see if the BIOS finds it. As you may read in a later note I had a failed drive from time to time that thwarts conventional settings. So we go back to one drive one cable and see if the unit functions on its own. You can find drives that won't work with other units to which we have to bow to the absurdity and find a way around that by shuffling drives etc.

Bob

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master/slave
Apr 5, 2007 5:06AM PDT

refer to post one the drive is reconised as either master or slave but not to gether

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Then there is that other issue.
Apr 5, 2007 5:53AM PDT

I've noted various drive failures so we've covered that ground. There is a software issue but you are noting BIOS recognition and not Windows so I have not written about the common upperfilters and lowerfilters issues.

I hope we are not looking at that common issue.

Bob