Re: Upper Lower Filters in XP Registry

Tech Tip: Click here to run a free scan for Windows Errors and optimize PC performance

From: Neal Lavon (nlavon_at_comcast.net)
Date: 02/26/05 

Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 23:08:50 -0500

Jim--thanks for getting back promptly.

When my son and I put in the new CD, we kept the slave jumper on the
new CD just as it was configured when it came out of the box. We
rehooked everything back up the way it originally was, but then I
started having trouble seeing the drive. The CD is hooked up as a
slave to the Plextor 708A DVD drive master.

The two optical drives are attached on one IDE cable going to the
motherboard. I have two hard drives also hooked as master and slave
going to the other IDE channel on the motherboard.

What we did with the optical drives was cable the middle connector on
the drive to the slave CD and the top connector to the master DVD. If
that's the case (and I think it is), we can try reversing the IDE
cable connections to each drive. I do believe the slave and master
settings on the drives are okay as that's the way they had worked
before.

Right now, the master drive sits in the top of the computer with the
slave drive below it. Changing the cable connection with the middle
connector going to the master and the top connector to the slave
indicates it would be a lot easier just to swap the drives out and
reconnect with the CD slave on the top and the DVD master in the
middle, keeping the jumpers the same. That certainly is an option. Or
I suppose one could reverse the jumpers and make the DVD the slave and
the CD the master, although the Plextor guide seems to say it should
be the master which I think is probably the better way to go.

In fact, now that I recall, that is the way I had them before the new
system was configured to XP and the drives reversed. Hmmmm. I think
you may have hit the jackpot here. At least in theory, this sounds
like it could be the problem.

The documentation never says anything about which cable connection
should go to master or slave, it just mentions hooking them up unless
I really missed it (which is possible).

Wow, could that be it? I'll have to try that. That seems to be the
logical conclusion of what you're suggesting.

That seems to make sense to me. What do you think?

Neal Lavon
Takoma Park, MD
USA

On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 18:15:49 -0800, "Jim Byrd"
<jrbyrd@spamlessadelphia.net> wrote:

>Hi Neal - Well, I'd certainly try reseating the cables on BOTH ends first,
>taking a VERY careful look for bent pins, etc. on the components. It's very
>easy for a connector to get partially pulled out of the component's socket,
>also. It can be awkward to get into and hard to see, so be sure to have
>good bright light locally available when you look. If no joy there, then
>replacing the cables may be in order, but I'd make a good visual inspection
>first.
>
>How are you cabled up? Do you have both CD/MVP's on one cable, one master
>and one slave or Cable Select? or one on each of your IDE channels and, if
>so, as Masters or Slaves, or what. Have you made any physical change in
>your setup near coincident in time with your problem that thus might account
>for it? How you're cabled up and how the dipswitches/jumpers on the
>components are set (M, S, CS) can have significant impacts on their
>operation, particularly if not compatible with each other. A "typical"
>setup that works in most cases is to set the components as Slaves on their
>jumpers and then cable them as the slave components, one each of your HD
>channels (If you have two HD's). This is usually the end connector on the
>cable (the Master is usually the middle one.) If that doesn't apply, you'll
>need to make appropriate adjustments if things aren't set right. Note that
>on some machines I've found in the past that the CS approach doesn't always
>work and specifically selecting for M or S may be needed for proper
>operation. Read any available documentation CAREFULLY.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Help installing Fedora
    ... Each IDE/ATA channel can support either one or two devices. ... giving each device a designation as either master or slave, ... the reasons why drives don't always "play nicely together" has to do ...
    (comp.os.linux.setup)
  • Re: Cannot use fourth IDE HDD with FC3 ?
    ... I change it to master and slave on both IDE but there is still some ... Two drives on different cables should both be their own masters, ... Also check both cables individually. ...
    (Fedora)
  • Re: Upper Lower Filters in XP Registry
    ... I'd just switch the middle and end connectors (moving the drives ... currently have jumpered as Slave should be that way - some drives cannot ... support being a master. ... > the drive to the slave CD and the top connector to the master DVD. ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.registry)
  • Re: Fedora vs. Ubuntu (hijacked: can I dual boot FC and Kubuntu?)
    ... can't seem to keep master and slave out of each other's hair. ... You could plug something like "master slave ata corruption" in a search at Google and get some interesting reading, ... In the MSWindows universe they were familiar with, there were enough reports of silent corruption they figured it was best to stay with one channel, one drive, particularly when building RAID on ATA controllers. ... I have seen drives fail much earlier than was reasonable, but the failure patterns seemed to be more related to the issue of ATA drives failing to sync the cache to the disk when told to, or maybe even just cheap recording surfaces. ...
    (Fedora)
  • Re: Cant get Win2K to detect CD/RW drive...
    ... I mentioned that both drives appear in Safemode. ... Jim Byrd wrote: ... > Master and/or Slave, as appropriate to their position on the cable, rather ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.general)