Problems after installing 2nd HD

Goose · 24 Jul 2007 at 13:07

This is my initial thread if you want the background.

Basically, i just installed my 2nd HD and for some reason my new HD is set as master while my old HD (with and windows and such installed) is now slave. This confuses me as i did not fiddle with the jumper settings of either drive so surely my old HD is the master drive seeing as it was the only drive i had until now. My computer still loads up fine except for the fact that it now tries to boot from CD first. I've checked in the BIOS for the boot order and HDD-0 (or something) is set as first boot. Does any of this even matter seeing as everything does still work? (Currently formatting the new HD).

My second problem, and possibly more important, is that i'm fairly sure that from watching all the boot info on the screen as i turn my PC on is that both HD's are running at ATA33 and not ATA100 (old HD) and ATA133 (new HD). Both HD's are running off the same cable which i bought with the new HD, its a rounded ATA33/100/133 IDE cable so it shouldn't be an issue.

If anyone can help with these issues i'll be eternally grateful.

Cheers.

Goose · 24 Jul 2007 at 15:38

Right well i've fixed the problem of which one is master and which one is slave. It was to do with running them off the same cable.

I still suspect that both drives are running at ATA33 though and not 100 and 133 as they should. Is there anyway of determining this for sure? If they are running slow how do i correct this?

In case you were wondering my old drive is a 40gb Quantum Fireball. Although old im certain it is an ATA100.

Cheers.

[Edit] I've just taken a look in device manager and both my HD's are indeed running at UltraDMA 2 - Ultra33. Both drives have 'Let BIOS select transfer' mode. I've been althrough my BIOS and i cant find where the transfer speed is. Is it safe to unselct 'Let BIOS select transfer' for both drives and set them at 100 (old HD - Quantum) and 133 (new HD - WD Caviar)?

fobose · 24 Jul 2007 at 16:45

In device manager under Primary IDE channel in the advanced settings mine says transfer mode: DMA if available with the option to change to PIO (Which is very slow), and the current transfer mode is ultra DMA mode 2. (No IDE HDD connected tho).

With regards to having 2 hard drives on the same ribbon cable you need to set the one with the OS on it to master using the jumper (there are instructions on the hard drive about which pins make it master) and set the new hard drive to slave. Then in the bios you would have needed to set the boot order to HDD0 to first boot device as that would be the master drive.

I really have no idea as to why your drives are running in ata33. Unless you have a really old motherboard.

<edit> On looking at my laptop as that has a IDE hdd, in device manager it has a transfer mode of ultra DMA mode 5, I dont see the options you have though.

Goose · 24 Jul 2007 at 18:29

Yeh i managed to sort out the master/slave situation to my satisfaction so its just the speed they're running at that is the problem.

I've manually set them both to Ultra DMA 5 100 (there's no option of 133, presumably they have to both be at the same speed). But i have no idea whether or not they are truly running at 100.

Cheers.

fobose · 24 Jul 2007 at 19:44

None of the drives would be able to make use of ATA 133, or probably ATA100 - I would have thought they would only give you ATA66 speeds anyway(the number is just how fast they can transfer in MB/s).

Why not run HD Tach/HD Tune to see how fast the drives average is, then you can see if they are running at the speed they should be. Your old drive probably wont hit over 40MB/s and your new one maybe about 55MB/s.