[What does primary master/slave; secondary master/slave do?]

question: what does primary master/slave; secondary master/slave do?
and which one should i put into primary master/slave; secondary master/slave?

I have 2 Hard disk; 1 DVD ROM; 1 CD-RW

any response is gratefully appreciated. [laman's term, please]

 

Hi Tyler,

IDE (PATA) controllers can handle two drives per controller, there is three settings for the drives...

1) Master, This is the main drive on the controller preferably connected at the end of a twin drive 40/80 cable.

This is usually reserved for the boot drive of the system. In your case your primary master would be the 1st Hard drive on your system. My decision for the secondary master would be the CD-RW drive.

2) Slave, This is the secondary drive on the controller, preferably connected to the inner connection of a twin drive 40/80 cable.

In your case it would probably be the 2nd hard drive on the primary IDE controller or (my choice) the DVD ROM on the secondary.

3) Cable Select (CS), If you have an 80 core cable and a reasonbly modern BIOS then CS makes the choice for you, if at the end of a twin drive cable the drive would be Master, if inside it will be slave.

It's less complicated than it reads and seriously it is quite simple.

Long story short, for your system

HD1 -> Primary Master
HD2 -> Primary Slave
CD-RW -> Secondary Master
DVDROM -> Secondary Slave.

This is my opinion, of course you may decide otherwise.

 

wildfire
thanks for the quick post.
i'd rather do what you said. and i might have a follow up question after setting it up.
thanks

 

Hi wildfire,

i don't think i have further question about the topic here.
i was able to set everything up fine.

thanks. advance happy holidays.

 

No problem,

Happy to help and enjoy your holidays also.