Booting from the Slave Drive in IDE Desktops

[Woodwood]

I have a question:  how do I boot from the the Primary Slave HDD in an IDE system with the Peimary Master still connected ?

I have tried changing the boot order in the BIOS editor to HDD first, and the order within the HDD section to 1. Pri. Slave (Hitachi etc) 2, Pri Master (Seagate etc.) 3.....

With this set the computer still boots from the Pri. Master (a Seagate drive).

If I power down, disconnect the Seagate drive, (leaving the BIOS unchanged), and power up again the machine boots up as I expect, from the Hitachi Pri. Slave.

(A supplementary question for advanced users is how I get this computer to boot into Windows XP from a known bootable drive connected as a USB external drive ?  The BIOS seems to support this as the option appeaers in HDD boot order if both IDE are not connected (i.e., one or none)  

Woodwood

20.March.2017

[WAWood]

Have you tried swapping the drive jumpers so that the "master" drive is then the "slave" and vice-versa?

Also, I do not believe you will be able to boot XP from an external device, even though the boot options will let you select that device.

[Woodwood]

I've examined the jumper positions

the drive at the end of the IDE cable (black connector), a Seagate ST380011A, has the jumper set to the 'master' position.  It is difficult to access the jumpers, and the data cable on this drive, and it is equally difficult to remove it from the computer.

The other drive, in the middle the IDE cable (grey connector), a HDT725050VLAT80, did have only one jumper in place, a configuration not shown to be anything, although in terms short circuits it probably does mean something.  I put in another jumper which changed the drive to Cable Select - I believe the middle position on this cable is that assigned to 'slave', Drive 1.

I think the connection to the board uses a blue connector)

Then I switched on the power, went into the BIOS editor to check.  On the main page things looked ok, Seagate Primary Master Drive 0, and the Hitachi Primary Slave Drive 1. Then I went to Boot order page, and changed the order to

1.HDD

2.HDD

3.CD

4. can't remember, think it it might have been USB

Then HDD boot priority,,,uh-oh

1.

2. Add-in cards

3. USB device#

4.

No HDD !!

When I tried return to defaults (F5) it showed NO entries in the HDD boot order.  So I 'escaped' (did not save the defaault config.) and proceeded to boot; the computer tried to boot from the Seagate disc.

What is recommended now ?  disconnecting the Seagate, and trying to boot from the Hitachi ?  Or set Hitachi jumpers to 'slave' rather than CS, and try to boot with both HDDs connected ?  Or both (sequentially) to see if I can a result eitther way. With just one HDD connected and HDD set to top piority (1.) it tries to boot from whichever HDD I have connected.

The whole process is made slower because the CPU  fan isn't coming on at any time unless I can boot into Windows, so I need to wait for the CPU to cool down naturally before the next attempt (under discussion in another thread, to which I will reply)

Woodwood

23.March.2017

[Woodwood]

Swapping the Seagate vHDD and The JHitchi is, I think, an awkward job in my circumstances.

However it may need  to be done if the the Seagate drive fails (a real possibility)

In that case I will also consider upgrading the CPU in this model (I have an upgrade), as replacing the main HDD requires a major effort from me (though not for others maybe).

But I have tried setting the jumpers on the drives so that they are definitely hard wired to seagate = master, hitachi = slave, and this makes no difference.  The system always tries to boot from the primary master whatever the settings in the BIOS editor are.

It's a bit difficult for me to change the jumpers on the Seagate drive because of access difficulties at the present time: can't even remove the one that is presnt atm.

So until a suitable opportunity arises I am unable to remove the Seagate from the master status for a trial.  I suspect that in the case of swapping the stes of the two HDDs it will merely change nothing i.e., system refuses to attampt to boot from primary slave unless the master is disconnected.

Unless anyone has any different ideas as to what to try ?

Woodwood

6.April.2017