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Primary & secondary slave-where to find?

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by Alicia J, 2006/01/10.

  1. 2006/01/10
    Alicia J Lifetime Subscription

    Alicia J Geek Member Thread Starter

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    Hi,

    I have a Lite ON CD burner/DVD Rom drive and a Lite ON DVD Dual drive.
    I forget where to look for hardware configuration. (primary, slave etc)

    Thanks
     
    Alicia J,
    #1
  2. 2006/01/10
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Right-click the "My Computer" icon > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  4. 2006/01/10
    Alicia J Lifetime Subscription

    Alicia J Geek Member Thread Starter

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    And then what? I see the two drives there. Properties says one is location 0 the other 1. I just wanted to know if there is a place to see the relationship of the drives C, D, G etc to eachother. D is my Dual DVD drive G is my CD burning/DVD drive.

    Sorry I'm not sure how to explain this. I came across the info somewhere. I just forget where.:confused:
     
    Alicia J,
    #3
  5. 2006/01/10
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    Some motherboards have 2 IDE ports. Each IDE port can support 2 devices connected to it using a ribbonn cable with 2 IDE connectors on it. One of the IDE ports on the MB is called the primary and the other is called the secondary.

    The primary's 2 devices would be:
    primary master
    primary slave

    The secondary's 2 devices would be:
    secondary master
    secondary slave

    Master & slave are determined by jumpers on the devices, a small tab type connector that fits over 2 pins. There are sets of pins and fitting this connector over certain pairs determines if the device is master, slave or cable select, among others too.

    AFAIK, windows does not show anywhere which devices are using the primary & secondary channels. Some utilities like AIDA32, Everest and others MAY show this.

    edited: changed "do show this" to "MAY show this ".
     
    Last edited: 2006/01/11
    TonyT,
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  6. 2006/01/10
    mattman

    mattman Inactive Alumni

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    I was interested so I looked in Everest (was AIDA32) and Sandra. Everest did not have the configuration from what I saw. Sandra said my CDrom was master, but it was not clear whether it was on the primary or secondary IDE Controller[Edit: it obviously could not be master on the primary controller, unless I was booting from a SATA drive], it did not mention any configuration for my DVD burner.

    You may find the infomation in the first menu of the BIOS settings. If you can see the computer going through POST (the screens at startup), there should be a "configuration" screen. You should be able to pause at this screen by pressing/tapping the Pause key.

    Matt
     
    Last edited: 2006/01/10
    mattman,
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  7. 2006/01/11
    Alicia J Lifetime Subscription

    Alicia J Geek Member Thread Starter

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    Tony, thanks for the explanation.

    Mattman, I finally got the boot up screen and pause break (after a few tries)
    to reveal, well nothing really. It just lists the CD ROM drives. I did check in the BIOS and there the two drives were listed with more info

    the CD burning/DVD Rom drive as secondary IDE slave and
    the DVD Dual as secondary IDE master

    I have the tool SIW but I didn't know where to look in all the info it displays.

    Thanks.
     
    Alicia J,
    #6
  8. 2006/01/11
    charlesvar

    charlesvar Inactive Alumni

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    Hi Alicia,

    I think you already have your answer to the original question (primary, slave etc), Locations 0 and 1 are respectively Master and Slave. That also means that they are on the same ribbon.

    Normally, ROM's are on one ribbon, and Disk drives are on another. Sounds like you have two ROM's on one ribbon. A secondary internal hard drive, like I have, would be placed on the primary hard drive's ribbon at location 1 (slave).

    I just wanted to know if there is a place to see the relationship of the drives C, D, G etc to eachother.
    If you want to see drives/partitions in graphic form:

    Right click My Computer > Manage > Disk Management.

    Regards - Charles
     
    Last edited: 2006/01/11
    charlesvar,
    #7
  9. 2006/01/11
    Alicia J Lifetime Subscription

    Alicia J Geek Member Thread Starter

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    I have a primary IDE, a secondary IDE, & Standard Dual channel PCI IDE
    controller

    Disk 0 Basic (C)
    Disk 1 (E) removable
    Disk 2 (F) removable

    CD-ROM 0 (D) DVD dual
    CD Burner/DVD 1 (G)

    So how would these be set up? Are all drives : C,E,F using the Primary IDE
    and the CD ROMs using the secondary IDE, right?

    What's the Standard Dual channel PCI IDE used for?
     
    Alicia J,
    #8

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