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How can I change the boot sequence?

Discussion in 'Windows XP' started by Richard T, 2004/11/29.

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  1. 2004/11/29
    Richard T

    Richard T Inactive Thread Starter

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    I have a Intel Desktop Board D865GBF which has the SATA controller chip. Here is the way my system is set up.

    C: 200gig SATA HD BOOT UP DRIVE SET AS MASTER with XP Home on it
    D: 60 gig ATA HD USED FOR STOREAGE JUMPER SET AS MASTER
    E: 60 gig ATA HD USED FOR STOREAGE JUMPER SET AS SLAVE

    I would like to know if I can reformat drive C: the 200 gig SATA drive and use it for storeage and install XP Home edition on the D: 60 Gig drive? Don't know if you have a choice to install to any drive letter except C: so any help will be appreciated.
    I thought maybe I could do this and change the boot sequence to boot from the d: drive first.
    Thank You
    Richard
     
    Richard T,
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  2. 2004/11/29
    charlesvar

    charlesvar Inactive Alumni

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    Hello Richard,

    I would like to know if I can reformat drive C: the 200 gig SATA drive and use it for storeage and install XP Home edition on the D: 60 Gig drive?

    Yes, you can put an OS on theoretically any drive letter. I for instance have XP on D. The boot.ini however will always be on C. So do the reformat before install on D. The XP cd does have the option for formating. A reference on clean install http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp

    I would also, if you weren't planning on it, partition that big drive. Not necessary, but I think would be much more managable in terms of system processes such as defrag or chkdsk.

    And while you're at it, partition D as well. Create a 10 gig partition for the OS alone. Makes future options such as drive imaging of the OS so much easier.

    Regards - Charles
     
    Last edited: 2004/11/29
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  4. 2004/11/29
    Richard T

    Richard T Inactive Thread Starter

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    Thanks Charlesvar
    I think I will give it a try. Just a couple more things about your response.
    When I format D: and partition it as 10 an 50 gig will it change the letters to D for the 10 gig and E for the 50?

    Also on the SATA drive 200gig I will format and partion it as 2 100meg. Should I change the jumper to make it a Slave or just leave it as Primary.

    Last, if I understand everything, which might questionable I should end up with something like this.
    C: 100 gigs
    D: 100 gigs
    E: 10 gigs and xp installed on it.
    F: 50 gigs
    G: 60 gigs

    Thanks and let me know if I have this right.
    Richard
     
    Richard T,
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  5. 2004/11/30
    charlesvar

    charlesvar Inactive Alumni

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    Hi Richard,

    C: 100 gigs
    D: 100 gigs
    E: 10 gigs and xp installed on it.
    F: 50 gigs
    G: 60 gigs

    I don't know whether its going to end up like that - only that whatever partition the OS gets to be on, should be a "primary" partition. You're going to put XP on what is now a primary partition D, so I would keep that so it overlaps drive letter - same for C. If you read thru the references, explains what primary partitions and extended partitions are. So the first partition on the drives are primary.

    What will happen is that the system will assign letters to the HD partitions first, then re-jigger the removable drives (cd rom) with the exception of the floppy (always A & B).

    The advantage you have is that you're starting from scratch - no OS or software, those will be loaded into the environment you will create.

    Post back on how it ends up.

    References:
    http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/part_Letter.htm

    http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article02-024

    I see no reaon to change the current jumper settings.

    Regards - Charles
     
    Last edited: 2004/11/30
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  6. 2004/11/30
    BillyBob Lifetime Subscription

    BillyBob Inactive

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    I would suggest that you change the 60gig to the Master drive and make the 200 a slave. Then but the OS on the C: drive ( the 60Gig )

    Also if I assume correctly you are starting fresh. So as a further recommendation I would partition the 60gig into C: 10gig and D: 50gig.

    60gig is one hell of a lot to lose if something goes wrong.

    And also partition the 200gig. Thereby having the capacity to keep thing separated better. ie: one partiton for backups and the other for the actuall programs. Again 200gig IS A LOT to loose.

    And other thought, ( be it wild or otherwise ) MOST ALL software looks for the OS to be on C:. And some may have problems it it is otherwise.

    BillyBob
     
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  7. 2004/11/30
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    BillyBob,

    The 200 giger is a SATA and it is not possible to make it "slave ". Every SATA is on its own as opposed to PATAs where two (master and slave) can share one IDE channel.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  8. 2004/11/30
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Richard,
    Charles and I had a discussion behind the scene and here are a few thoughts on this based on my own experience with mixing SATA and PATA:

    Why sacrifice the fastest harddisk (SATA) to storage? The only reason may be that the other two harddisks are of the same generation but PATA. The performance difference between the first generation SATA and their PATA counterpart isn't noticable other when benchmarking. (The interface isn't the bottleneck.) If the PATA's are of a previous generation, I would think twice about it.

    The i865 chipset seems to prefer booting from a PATA. A friend of mine has a computer (which I built and installed) based on ASUS P4P800 with that chipset. He has one SATA as bootdrive and one PATA for backups (and rearwards compatibilty with older storage drives). The PATA is in a mobile rack and each time the computer has been running with an empty mobile rack, the next time he puts the PATA back, the computer tries to boot from the PATA. A detour in BIOS is necessary to set the boot order back to SATA first. I haven't found the reason for this but it has been discussed on forums other than the Windows BBS. If the harddisks are permanently connected, then this is not a problem.

    A consideration on the size of the system partition:

    If You intend to have the operating system and the programs together on the system partition, 10 GB may be too small.

    I have a 12 GB system partition with 4 GB used.

    My friend with the computer related to above has a 16 GB system partition with 12 GB used. He has a lot of Photo and Video editing software that I don't have. (He also has more RAM. 1 GB of RAM requires 1.5 GB disc space for the pagefile and another 1.5 GB free to allow the pagefile to expand to its maximum size.)

    Think though what You are planning for that computer, get to the maximum disk space that You are likely to need ...... :cool: ...... and multiply by 1.5!

    From Charles' post:

    Not on XP-pro and I doubt that it is correct for XP-home. If You install XP-pro on a single harddisk with two partitions (one primary and one extended with a single logical) plus a DVD-R/RW (secondary master) and a DVD-ROM (secondary slave) then the drive letters will become:

    C: = system partition
    D: = second partition
    E: = DVD-R/RW
    F: = DVD-ROM

    If a second harddisk with an extended and two logical partitions is added, they will be added as G: and H:

    XP-pro doesn't shift drive letters around, unless a new harddisk with a primary partition is added.

    To avoid getting the optical drives "in the middle ", I assign new drive letters to them immediately. My CD-R/RW is X: and my DVD-ROM is Y: which makes it possible for me to use any harddisk with any number of partitions in the mobile rack without the risk of confusing drive lettering.

    I would wait for confirmation that what I say about drive lettering, applies to XP-home as well!

    If I was making this decision, I would do it like this;

    - disconnect the two PATA's;

    - during the installation of XP-home, I would remove all existsing partitions and have it create the system partition and format it NTFS (full format). It's Your decision but 20 GB would be my choice of size, the system partition will become C:;

    - when the installation is completed, go to Disk Management and change the drive letters of the opticals to V W X Y Z or any letter "at the far end ";

    - reboot and go back to Disk Management and create an extended partition of the remaining space on the SATA and create two logicals of 90 GB each and format NTFS (full format). You will now have C: D: E:, all on the SATA;

    - shut down and connect the first PATA as Primary Master (assuming that the opticals are Secondary Master and Secondary Slave);

    - reboot and go to Disk Management, remove the existing partition(s) and create an extended with one logical and format NTFS (full format). This will become F:;

    - shut down and connect the second PATA as Primary Slave;

    - reboot and go to Disk Management, remove the existing partition(s) and create an extended with one logical and format NTFS (full format). This will become G:;

    As I commented on BillyBob's post, SATA's aren't master and slave. (I don't think any SATA has jumpers.) They are always single drives, connected in series.

    Christer
     
    Last edited: 2004/11/30
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  9. 2004/11/30
    BillyBob Lifetime Subscription

    BillyBob Inactive

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    OK. THanks for the info.

    Then how about making the 60gig Master on one IDE channel and the 200gig Master on the the other IDE channel ?

    Would that work ?

    BillyBob
     
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  10. 2004/11/30
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    The SATA doesn't get connected to any IDE channel. It gets connected to a separate SATA connector.

    These days, motherboards have chipsets supporting both PATA (IDE) and SATA. This is not all friction free, as I related in the post above.

    In a few (?) years time, SATA will have made PATA obsolete and "Master and Slave" will subside into oblivion.

    Christer
     
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  11. 2004/11/30
    BillyBob Lifetime Subscription

    BillyBob Inactive

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    Well, Well. My day has been well spent already.

    Good education here.

    Thanks Christer

    BillyBob
     
    BillyBob,
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  12. 2004/11/30
    charlesvar

    charlesvar Inactive Alumni

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    Hi Christer,

    On Dell, which I have, the drive jumpering is cable select - no master/slave although the option is there. Sounds very much like the description of the way Sata drives are hooked up.

    Regards - Charles
     
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  13. 2004/11/30
    BillyBob Lifetime Subscription

    BillyBob Inactive

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    PS
    :) Now all I need to do is hope and pray that I can remember it. :)

    BB
     
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  14. 2004/11/30
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    BillyBob,
    You're welcome ...... :) ...... !

    Charles,

    I have only built one computer with a SATA and I don't remember it having optional jumping of any kind.

    When it comes to PATA and optical drives, I always use Cable Select as my first option. If it works (needs 80-conductor cables) then the drives can be moved around and the devices set themselves to M/S according to the position on the cable. Some motherboards don't handle CS very well and in those few cases, M or S will have to be used.

    Christer
     
    Last edited: 2004/12/01
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  15. 2004/12/01
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    I refreshed my memory on Hitachi's homepage:

    Deskstar 7K250 Jumper settings

    Seagate SATA's do have a jumper block but only for factory use. It is possible/probable that other brands do too.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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