Master/Slave vs. Cable Select

[Bubba]

Does it matter how you have the jumpers set for CD-DVD  drives ?

I have my 2 IDE rom drives set to master/slave, with the master on the end connector, the slave at the mid point connector,  [ have a 3rd DVD-RW but that is SATA connected ]  All seem to work fine, I reset d letters in the  Admin Tools, Disk Management screen to make them alphabetical top to bottom. [ just a quirk I have ] I got a message form the motherboard tech to set the roms at cable select. Am I losing anything by having Master/Slave settings ?

[scuzzy]

It does matter how you set the jumpers. Generally, you set up the jumpers for:

1. Master
2. Slave
3. Cable Select

The latter will automatically set the component to either master or slave, based on where it gets connected to the cable. If it's connected at the end of the cable, it will be assigned as master for that channel. If it gets connected closer to the center of the cable, it will be assigned as slave for that channel.

SATA is different. You simply connect it, no need to mess with jumpers. You set the priority for SATA drives in the BIOS.

After making any changes, you might have to reset drive letter assignments to your liking in the Admin Tools.

[Bubba]

Thanks Scuzzy,,,,

So,,,,, it matters but it may not matter in my case,,,,

Connecting a rom drive, to the 'end' connector, it can either be set to Master or Cable Select, it will be the master drive.
Connecting a rom drive to the mid-tap, it can be set to either slave or Cable Select, it will be the slave drive.

That is how I have mine set up, Master [ end]  Slave [ mid-tap ],,, just wondered if the Motherboard needed roms set to CS, or for some technical reason.

The SATA thing,,,,,I had a hard drive disaster a couple weeks ago,, because of a no boot problem, I did a format and reinstall of WINXP Pro, on my C drive [ SATA 1 ]  . After that,,,, my D drive [ SATA 2] was dead !!! It was very hot, and was very hard for WinXP to recognize, when it did find D drive, it said  0 space available and 0 used space, or something, and asked if I would like to format drive !!! Yikes,,,,, lost all files on D drive. I wonder if since both my hard drives were SATA connected, ports 1 and 2, the C drive format somehow, got into the D drive ???  Never checked the  bios,,, even now with a NEW D drive on SATA 2, do not know bios SATA status, but everything works fine.    Or,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, maybe the D drive 'blew-a gasket' ,, and that caused the original  no boot up.


Dang computers,,,,