"newbie" question

[wannabe_hacker]

Yes, once you set the jumper to slave, then you can format the slave drive. Formatting the drive will erase all data on it. Since you already have XP installed on your first HD you do not need ME on your slave HD. The file system is either FAT, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS. When you are going to format the drive you need to pick a file system. If your slave drive is over 32 gb the use NTFS. If not then you should choose FAT32. Or if you're going to get rid of XP and just use ME then you should use FAT32. Now, since you have two hard drives you will have two different letters assigned to them. Your master will still be C.

 

[Lone Wolf]

All that the slave means is that the OS is not on it. Its just a secondary drive. The OS must be put on the master jumper settings. As long as the jumper settings are correct, it doesn't matter what HD is connected to which connector.

Well that's not entirely accurate DumDum. The slave drive CAN and sometimes DOES have an OS installed on it. (like i had with my last dual-boot situation).

In the so-called old days on a IDE channel, you were limited to just 1 device per channel and there was no need to differentiate (between 'master/slave'). Today, on a EIDE channel, you can hook up a maxiumum of two drives (disk drives/or optical) PER channel.

The MB and the CPU needs to know which drive it is communicating with. And to that end, a naming scheme was created in order to give each device an identity. I suppose they could have said #1 and #2... but that's too confusing and generic. So Master & Slave was born.

I dunno... i just pulled that outta my a*s but that's the rough understanding I have of that based on the books i've read.

 

[Noxious]

I am trying to recover data, not just install a second hard drive. I do not want to format it and erase everything. I want stuff off of the old HD. I have a second computer also. Would it be better to just switch the HD with the one in the old computer to retrieve my stuff?

 

[Apokalipse]

you have to format a new hard drive so it is ready to be used

 

[Lone Wolf]

apokalipse, i think you misunderstood. He's say that this HDD already has data and he wants to recover it.

Noxious i hope you haven't forgotten about this and moved on already. This can be done. You just need to install that used HDD as a "slave" on either IDE channel #1 or #2. I swear i once saw a tutorial on how to install a HDD that was very well done. I don't have the time to post all the specific instructions right now. Someone else (maybe a mod can help you further).

 

[Noxious]

Nope, I haven't moved on.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Nope, I haven't moved on.

OK, here's a quick crash course. On a ATX motherboard, you will see two IDE channels marked IDE 1 and IDE 2. Each of those channels can have upto 2 devices each. They can be hard drives, cd-rom drives, cd-rw drives, tape drives, zip drives, etc... i think you get the picture. All of these devices will have a jumper setting on the back that tell you how to set it as either "Master; Slave, or CS". I'll get to the CS part later.

On a standard Ultra ATA 133 cable, (80 conductor/40 pin) you'll see 3 connectors blue, grey and black. They are color coded for Motherboard, Slave and Master accordingly. If you have a Ultra ata 100 cable, you will not see this color code scheme. Regardless, they operate the same.

Before you connect the HDD into the Slave (grey) connector, you must set the jumper as someone else told you earlier. Look on the back of the HDD and it will have a schematics drawing showing you how to set it as Slave device. If you use the CS (Cable Select) you are in essense telling the PC to determine whether it is master or slave by virtue of the position of the device on the cable itself. i.e.

A) IDE 1->========2nd HDD (Slave) =====Original HDD (Master)
B) IDE 1->========2nd HDD (CS) =====Original HDD (CS)


In case A) you are explicitly telling your BIOS which device is master/slave by setting the jumpers accordingly.

In case B), the PC knows that the original HDD is the Master drive because it is positioned at the end (black connector). Note that this will only work if you use a consistent method on all your devices. In another words, you cannot use CS in combination with Master or Slave jumper settings together. I usually do NOT recommend using the CS setting.

Once you have your 2nd HDD properly jumpered and connected, you can retrieve the data that's already on it. Just boot up to Windows and it should recognize the 2nd HDD. If it does not, come back and post.

Hope this helps.

P.S. Note that if you are using a Win9.x system, it will not recognize that new HDD, if it happens to be formatted with NTFS.

EDIT: Crap... i got my case a) and b) turned around. It should make sense now w/ my correction.

 

[cyberdeception]

nozius...lonewolf is absolutely right,no need to format the drive,just hook it in the coonector,set the drive's jumper to slave and bingo,but one thing is to be kept in mind,make sure the last end of the connector is fitted to ur first drive (that is the master)...
i can bet on it anytime...

 

[Noxious]

Thank you, will try it and post back later.