How do I make my slave drive be the boot drive

I have 2 hard drives. My slave drive has been the boot drive. My master drive now has a bad block. I tried to replace it but, when I did my computer wouldn't boot. The replacement has an OS on it but, all I got was a black screen w/ a blinking underscore. Windows never came up. I want my slave drive to stay the boot. How or what can I do to fix it so my slave boots to my OS after replacing my bad drive?

 

there are two thing you can. do the first is make sure the juumpers on the hard drives are in the right place. make sure the new drive is marked as master an the old one is marked as slave.
The second is when you computer first starts press f12, (I think it's f12 key), go into your startup change the boot order so the computer looks for that drive first. These would be the first things I'd try if they don't work hold on someone else will correct me and post another suggestion.

 

If your drive is Slaved then it must be connected to the appropriate ribbon connector ie. the middle one it will not function as slave when connected to the top connector unless it is set to master.

Master/slave technology is part of the legacy Parallel ATA (PATA) standard. ATA stands for Advanced Technology Attachment and is with us today in a newer serial flavor known as Serial ATA or SATA. The newer standard has many advantages over the master/slave setup of PATA; however, PATA is still in wide use in older systems.

The master/slave relationship is part of a transmission protocol that bridges communication between a hard disk and the motherboard it’s attached to. In a master/slave setup, a flat, wide parallel cable runs from an interface on the motherboard to the hard drive(s). Each parallel cable has two female ports to accommodate up to two drives. The primary port connects to the master drive, the secondary port to a slave drive. The master drive is the boot drive.

When installing two PATA drives on a single parallel cable, each drive must be configured with a jumper to designate it as the primary or secondary drive, master or slave. Failure to set the jumpers will prevent the system from recognizing the drives properly. The parallel cable itself might also be labeled as to specific master/slave ports. Information about the master/slave designations of a system is available within the motherboard’s BIOS menus.

 

Hi All,

To add to what Toke said: Some older cables are master/slave only and must be plugged as such. Makes no difference which connectors are used where. Some Cables are Cable Select only. Drives must be plugged CS. Position on the cable determines which is Master and which is slave. Usually, as Toke says. Some intermidiate cables are both Master/Slave or CS and it's up to you how you use them. Cable select has been around since the early 80s. Still used on floppy drives. That's the twisted leads in the flat cable at the Master (drive 0). Was invented to keep us 'Dummies' from having to move the select jumper.

Hope this clears things up a little.

Luck, Jim

 

thank you i tried it, no go.

 

ok i've got my cables and jumpers correct but still won't boot from my boot drive (slave)

 

Hi, ok I've got everything where its supposed to be. w/ everything connected proper but still get a blank screen w/ u blinking underscore. I'm totally stumped should i make my slave the new master?

 

Does the BIOS detect the drive and say all is well, but XP won't start? It should say No OS found. Recheck your connections. If you can get it to the No OS found, you probably need to repari the Master Boot Record. http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ht/repairmbr.htm

If you are not getting the no os detected error, keep on looking hardware wise.