NERO - full backup vs ??? and CD-RW size?

I reckon it's well worth a try. Let the BIOS, the OS and the software get used to it's new location (in other words, give it a while to settle in). Hope it works. At least the BIOS will not have to reconfigure the changes of the drives.

Matt

 

Hi mattman,

Always feel that setting up a computer is like training a new puppy; it seems to take time to get used to what it's supposed to do.

I keep my opticals on the second IDE too, unless the HDDs are SATAs.

 

Hello sparrow ,
You have reminded me to let you all know that I am off to the Australian Motor Cycle GP. You won't hear from me for a week, unless I can access public internet.
VVVRRROOOOMMMM!, oh yeah!
or maybe

Matt

 

Go ahead, Mattman, rub it in!

When i hear something like that, I sure miss my Honda GoldWing.

Both my HDDs are SATA. Maybe thats why the dvd is on the primary?

 

That's how Gateway set it up, with 2 Sata HD's and the DVDRW's on the Primary IDE?

Actually there's no reason for that not to work that I know of. The Primary IDE is just an IDE Channel, just like the Secondary IDE. If both the HD's are on SATA channel's then the Primary IDE is just a channel to be used.

Like I said, on my home built A7V880, I have the one SATA HD then I skipped the Primary IDE and just put both my CDRW and DVD-ROM on the Secondary Channel. That seems to be what has been recommended for you here, but I can't see why using the Primary IDE Channel for them would make a difference.

Aside from the traditional place for them being on the Secondary IDE, that is.

I don't think computers care about tradition, do you? It's not as if they're religious!

Did your Gateway actually come with this stuff? Your question about both your HD's being SATA so maybe that's why the cd drives are on Secondary says to me that the computer came setup this way.

If so, then Gateway quality tested all this and however it's working was the best they could get.

You can always try moving stuff around though. Mattman thinks it's the setup, but I kind of still think it's the DVDRW drive.

I thought that DVDRW drives write to cd's at speeds like 52x, but only write to DVD's at the highest speed of 16x. Perhaps your system is working just fine? You just might not have been aware of that?

 

Ok, I put the new drive in (Plextor-740A) and it seems to be writing at the
cd/dvd rated speed so i guess its fixed now. Biggest change was the cable. It
had a 40 wire cable and i used the 80 wire cable (guess this might account for
the speed problem???).

I was looking at the MB and could only see a Primary IDE slot!!! There was no
Secondary IDE anywhere.... The primary is listed as a "Parallel" Primary slot.
The software "Everest" kept showing the secondary as not having any device
assigned to it but listed the drivers, etc. I think the software does that as a
default (it expected to find a secondary, so it listed it). A review of a picture
of the MB also shows only 1 slot....... Strange!

But the speed is where its supposed to be so all is ok in clif's land (for now!).

 

No secondary slot? That's weird. I've heard of proprietary hardware and cases, and even motherboards missing jumpers where the board was designed to have them but OEM's nix them to prevent user modification but that takes the cake.

But then they left the board's circuitry active for the channel so Windows still provides the unneeded resources for it? Okaaayyy...

That's a weird motherboard, there. But, as long as you've got all you need then I'm glad your burning speed problems are now solved.

Cd/DVD drives are only supposed to require the old 40 pin cables. It's possible this new drive just works properly, unlike the old one, and whichever cable you used would have given you these improved results.

It's hard drives that need the 80 pin cable. But, if using the 40 pin cable you can't use cable select. It's possible that was the problem with the old drive. They need to be specifically set to master or slave if using 40 pin cables.

Most drives that come with cables now include the 80 pin variety for the improved bandwidth and the use of cable select. Maybe Gateway just left the drive at cable select while only giving the box a 40 pin cable. That's a mistake.

Heh, maybe the old drive is fine too!

Oh well. The new Plextor is probably a better quality unit anyway.

 

Eck,

You got it right. The old drive with the 40 wire was set to cable select.
I have it set to cable select with the 80.

Seems like the quality of gateway systems is not the only thing going down but
the quality of technical "expertise" is also on a downward spiral. Shame really,
they used to put out a good, middle of the road, system. Sorry to see that
happen because i have had some good machines from them in the past.

Which begs the question - what ever happened to Quality Control? Gone with
the dodo bird!

 

Just another loss provided by modern economic cost cutting. I'm sure certain area's of developmental folks are qualified, knowledgable staff, but those kind of employees are expensive.

Actually, I used to think it was lots better in the old days but consider this:

Now, with my years of accumulated factoids about computers I can look at what exactly came as the finalized and HP "thousand points of light" (heh, heh) recovery cd on my first computer, an HP Pavilion 4430.

They actually took a Windows 95 installation and upgraded it to Windows 98 Gold. They did this in Windows GUI mode as opposed to Dos, and the result is that many, many files never got replaced by the newer versions included with Windows 98.

They also used this cd for several versions of the 4400 series, so the original software includes installed drivers for on board Soundblaster audio and the Ensoniq audio drivers completely installed. This, even though they sold most of these machines with no audio chip on the motherboards, and the Riptide PCI combo audio/modem card instead. This caused users who would turn on their systems for the first time to experience Windows 98 scurrying to install the proper drivers for the audio and modem, which HP just stuck all the files for in the Windows folder and so would also remain there if later upgrading the card, along with all the Ensonic Audio/Creative stuff. And, if one checked device manager in safe mode, you would find the confused Windows had installed there all the left over ghost drivers for the SoundBlaster/Ensoniq stuff, as well as multiple drivers for the current Riptide Audio/Modem. I know how to fix all this now, but what about novice users who just bought a new pc and expected it to at least be running optimally from the start?

So a first time installation of a fresh system of this whole series of HP computers was a hodge podge that results in the kind of Windows installation that most techs advise folks to format, as it has had so many file changes and hardware driver changes. The old Windows is decayed so reformat and start fresh advice. Except that these systems came new in this condition!

So maybe quality of design and implementation was always pretty bad. It's just that we were too green in our computer knowledge to realize what we were buying. Today's cost cutting just makes it even worse.

 

Yes, right again, Ech (must be a two'fer day your having).

I've been in computers for 35 years, mostly main frames and i've noticed that
when a company is small, or just starting, the quality is high. As time goes on
and a good customer base is established with the company growing then the
quality starts dropping.

First rule of any company - Self preservation!

 

Heh, heh. Thanks. Maybe I'll quit while I'm ahead.

I've been playing Baseball Mogul for several hours the last few days. Gotta get away from the computer for a bit before my muscles disappear. Geez, I remember when playing baseball was a healthy thing. Must have been before I discovered the keyboard.

Tomorrow's another birthday. Hmmm. I'll think I'll venture outside. I'll leave the 'puter fix'n to others for a bit.