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Hard disk issue

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nicoliani

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2006
I changed some thing with my hard-disk motherboard connectors.
To start with this is how my setup looked like:

Primary Master (DVD-ROM) IDE1
Secondary Slave (-)
Secondary Master (-)
Secondary Slave (Hard-disk) Springer set to CS IDE2 "connected with grey cable to hard-disk"

So I changed it to:

Primary Master (Hard-disk) Springer set to Master IDE1 "connected with black cable to hard-disk"
Secondary Slave (-)
Secondary Master (DVD-ROM) IDE2
Secondary Slave (-)

This I did because I saw that the springer on my hard-disk was set to CS so I changed it to Master and switched the motherboard IDE1 to hard-disk and IDE2 to DVD-ROM, it used to be the other way around.
Now I can clearly see a big differences of the hard-disk performance. On some games the picture would freeze for some seconds because the hard-disk was reading extremely during gameplay, now this is not occurring any more.
To say my setup was wrong connected at first so now it seemed fixed.
But now I get the problem at startup. When turn on my comp it goes into auto detecting mode to find the hard-disk and DVD-ROM. This procedure takes 30 seconds before continuing loading WIN XP. I looked at my BIOS and everything seemed right I also loaded the optimal settings.
How do I fix the boot. Do I need to do a WIN repair or is there a easier way?
 
Last edited:
When you install Windows it creates a file called boot.ini that defines where the OS is stored (which controller, which drive and which partition) As you have moved your hard drive from controller 2 to controller 1 the OS has moved but boot.ini is unchanged. Having failed to find it where boot.ini has it listed it goes into the auto search mode and finds the OS.
Paste the contents of boot.ini from your OS drive here and we should be able to tell you what to alter.
You may need to alter your folder view setting to show system and hidden files to find it.
 
I found boot.ini in c:\windows\pss
I don't know if it's a backup or the original. This is how it looks like (also viewed in msconfig boot.ini):

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect
 
I think you can solve your problem by reverting back to what you started with and using cable select on both the hdd and dvd-rom. When you use a single drive as master, some drive/mobo combinations don't like it. The master/slave option was designed for the condition where you use two hard drives on the same channel.

Also, make sure that you are using an 80 wire cable to the hdd.
 
Midnight Dream said:
Real quick, by "springer" are you referring to the jumper? I've never heard it called that before.

Jumper that's what it was called!
I pretty sure its a 80 wire cable, its about 2 years old when I bought a new cable.
 
JimmyG said:
I think you can solve your problem by reverting back to what you started with and using cable select on both the hdd and dvd-rom. When you use a single drive as master, some drive/mobo combinations don't like it. The master/slave option was designed for the condition where you use two hard drives on the same channel.

Also, make sure that you are using an 80 wire cable to the hdd.

Will there not be any performance cutbacks if I have the HDD as slave instead as master using the black connecter as I first had it?

If using CS for both HDD and dvd-rom how do I connect? As before HDD gray?
Note that I used both IDE1 and IDE2 for connecting HDD and dvd-rom. Will there be no problem now if I use only one IDE?
 
nicoliani said:
Will there not be any performance cutbacks if I have the HDD as slave instead as master using the black connecter as I first had it?

If using CS for both HDD and dvd-rom how do I connect? As before HDD gray?
Note that I used both IDE1 and IDE2 for connecting HDD and dvd-rom. Will there be no problem now if I use only one IDE?

I don't think it will limit it, unless you are maxing out your burner.
 
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