Added auxilliary/slave HDD - Now very slow startup!

Greetings All - :wave

I just installed a WD Caviar Blue 500GB PATA HDD on my older computer.

• IBM Thinkcenter
• Windows XP Pro SP3
• P4
• 3.0 ghz
• 2 gb ram

I did go into Disk Management and initialized & formatted. I did format using NTFS

I also physically installed it as follows:

• Same cable for main HDD with OS
• 1 end of cable on the 2nd drive
• Other end on Main drive
• Middle connector is connected at MoBo
• Main jumper is set on Master
• 2nd HDD is set on Slave

Now, the computer starts VERY slow. Approximately 45-60 seconds, maybe longer. Meaning... the Windows screen is displayed, just sits there, for a LONG time before desktop appears!

Is this normal? Or should it start up just as quick as it did prior to this install, no matter if a 2nd drive is installed?

Thanks. I truly appreciate the help of this forum.

 

Middle connector of the IDE cable to the Mobo? Umm, no - from memory, blue end to the MoBo, middle (grey?) connex for the Slave, free (black?) end to the Master.

 

Not sure of the colors but I believe one end is further from the middle than the other, the furthest from the middle goes to the motherboard. So the two closest together go to the HDs. As satrow said the middle is the slave drive.

*When properly connected there should be virtually no difference in the start up time from that of having only one HD.

 

Thanks guys!!!!

I did not know that piece of important information :-o and now I do.
I will check that & connect the cable as suggested.

Thanks again, as far as the jumpers... are they correct?

Will post the result.

 

Drive jumpering varies - you're the one reading the settings for your drives

Generally, with modern drives/cables - yes, you should be fine.

 

Hi,

General Rule:

Boot drive set to M(aster) second drive set to S(lave). Any connector can go to anywhere even middle connector to MB.

Both drives set to CS (Cable select). Connectors determine which drive is which. Blue to MB, Black to "Master", Center to "Slave".

Hope this helps.

Jim

 

Well damedic_mt.
Any improvement?

 

Good Morning All,

That was It!

You :major 's are awesome! Yet once again, set me straight.

Boot up took less than 20 seconds from pushing the button to the desktop, or there abouts.

I can understand now what (CS) Cable Select means from this quoted post:

I thought I remembered something, and I did make both jumper settings to CS-Cable Select. When I powered on, I got a BIOS message, "NO Operating System Found". I guess nothing works right in this configuration if the cable is not connected properly! rolleyes

Thanks jlphlp, satrow, & sach.

You guys have your connector ends down.

I used to install HDD's quite often, and :-o 'ly, thought I still could do it from memory. Although it had been many years since. So when I did "Actually" read the instructions as satrow suggested I do, there it was. Instructions to make proper connections if a 2nd drive will be installed & set as (S)lave.

So, for anyone that might have a question as to how to do this properly, like I needed advice, here is just a repeat of what these guys said to do:

• Three (3) connectors on an IDE Cable
• On one end is BLACK - Goes to "Master" drive, the one that is Bootable, w/OS
• Other end is BLUE - Goes to IDE Connector of MotherBoard
• Middle connector is GRAY - Goes to "Slave" drive, your 2nd HDD

So, anything other than above - is "incorrect". It will work, but man -will it make your computer SLOW! I know.

Once again - I truly appreciate your help! Hope all of you have a pleasant week!

 

And one other piece of information is that each HD has a diagram/markings for the proper jumper settings either on the HD itself or available on the net.

So for example: if you buy a new Western Digital HD and want to set it to use as Master, you would use the diagram on that new HD. If you want to move your current Seagate HD to slave position in this scenario you don't use the WD diagram but must look for the diagram on the Seagate drive itself to determine how to set it to Slave. The settings are not uniform between manufacturers or even HD models.

Glad you got things sorted!

Good memory for colors satrow

 

For someone with defective colour vision, I suppose so ^^

 

Hi,

Glad you got it sorted. There is a lot of misinformation about this subject. Probably partly because of the slightly different meaning of "Master" and "Slave" for each type of connection. It's been around for many years but CS was rarely used for HDs until a few years ago. It has always been used for Floppys and still is (note the twisted cable).

Jim