HDD Master/Slave Issue, Please Help!!

cbb2

cbb2

New Member
I just got a new computer with an SATA drive, and I need to slave an older ATA drive to it. Well, It's obvious that I can't slave it to the SATA, so I've attempted to slave it to the DVD-RW drive in my new PC, but when I turn it on, it says "Invalid System Disk."

It seemed to me like it was trying to boot from something that it couldn't, so I checked the DVD drive and it was empty, I checked the jumpers to make sure it wasn't some kind of master/slave issue, and they're both definitely correct. I even changed the boot order, making sure that the original HDD was first, and it still won't work.

I would just hook up my old PC, and use a flash drive to transfer the files, but the PC no longer functions at all.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Once you installed an ide hard drive even as slave to a dvd burner which is also an ide device the ide controllers overrode SATA. You may as well as have installed the drive as master on the primary ide cable. With that seeing the invalid disk error is mainly due to now being connected to a different and obviously newer board possibly different make. If you have XP on both you can perform a repair install on the older ide drive to get it to boot normally. Once this is done files can be copied to the SATA drive. You would also need to install SATA drivers on that drive to have it see the first drive.

Linux "Knoppix Live for cd" anyone? The effectiveness of a Live Linux distribution like Knoppix or ubuntu can readily access drives with Fat, NTFS, or VFat in order to transfer what you need off of a drive with problems. The other method since the old case is now foobar is to slave the drive in someone else's case for temporary storage there. Do you know someone esle with a dvd burner to backup your files that way?
 
I don't quite understand what you're saying because you can't "slave" an SATA drive with a PATA drive. They are totally different channles and interfaces, so it's just not possible. Actually, SATA, being single connections, don't really run in a master/slave configuration. They just work in the order you set in your BIOS.

Are you sure the boot order is correct. On many newer computers, you they seem to work in groups. Like, you can try to boot from the harddrive group first, but then within that, you can boot from say your PATA drive then your SATA drive.
 
You wouldn't be slaving one drive to the other no matter which one is the host drive. Once added as master on the primary cable that would override the SATA controller. If connected on the secondary cable slaved to the cd rom the question will be seeing if the partition is accessible. If not then the option of using a Linux Live distro like Knoppix is one recommendation.
 
Blah. None of this is correct. I had a SATA/PATA configuration in my machine. You can install the PATA as the primary master and still boot off SATA no problem.

What it sounds like you are running into is some drives do not take well to being slaved to optical drives. It makes them do funny things. Take it off of slave and make it the master to the DVD/RW for starters. That will solve your first problem more than likely.

Next, ensure that the SATA controller is enabled in the BIOS (some have this feature, some don't)

Now, depending on your motherboard, it might have a harddrive configuration in the BIOS. Make sure that they are all visible (and if memory serves me correctly, make sure the SATA is at the top of the list)

Finally, go into your boot order and select the DVD as the primary boot device, the SATA as the second boot device and the floppy or network last.

When you go to install Windows, make sure you created the SATA driver disk from your motherboard CD and press F6 when it asks you if you want to install any RAID drivers or whatever the hell that was. Again I can't remember exactly what it says (funny, I've only done a zillion of them).

That should fix your problem. If it doesn't, report back and we can all see if there is something that was missed.
 
If the partition information is intact you should still be able to read off a drive slaved to a cd drive on the secondary cable as well as hooking it up on the primary since cd/dvd drives are also ide controlled. By default board will look to the primary unless set otherwise in the bios. Sometimes SATA drivers still won't get on there for some reason.

A friend still hasn't been able to use a WD 200gb SATA drive as a stand alone with the floppy driver disk being read by the XP installer but the SATA still wasn't seen by the installer when detecting hardwares. He was advised to use the SATA as a backup drive sind he just had to wipe the ide drive loaned out to him. A repair install failed to see results there. With a full install he can simply have Windows copy the needed drivers through the device manager.

With the idea here to copy files from the drive installing Windows may not be what you are looking for since XP likes a fresh or recent good working partition to install onto. Slaving it in another case or using a Live version of Linux that can access both drives for file transfers is what could work the best here.
 
SirKenin said:
Blah. None of this is correct. I had a SATA/PATA configuration in my machine. You can install the PATA as the primary master and still boot off SATA no problem.

What it sounds like you are running into is some drives do not take well to being slaved to optical drives. It makes them do funny things. Take it off of slave and make it the master to the DVD/RW for starters. That will solve your first problem more than likely.

Next, ensure that the SATA controller is enabled in the BIOS (some have this feature, some don't)

Now, depending on your motherboard, it might have a harddrive configuration in the BIOS. Make sure that they are all visible (and if memory serves me correctly, make sure the SATA is at the top of the list)

Finally, go into your boot order and select the DVD as the primary boot device, the SATA as the second boot device and the floppy or network last.

When you go to install Windows, make sure you created the SATA driver disk from your motherboard CD and press F6 when it asks you if you want to install any RAID drivers or whatever the hell that was. Again I can't remember exactly what it says (funny, I've only done a zillion of them).

That should fix your problem. If it doesn't, report back and we can all see if there is something that was missed.
Click to expand...


Quick question. I get to the part where it tells me to hit F6, and I've hit F6 a million times and nothing happens. I have no clue what's going on, but I can't configure anything.. Any ideas?
 
That is probably due to it being another F key on that model board. Upon the initial bootup you should see a request for the RAID/SATA driver disk(usually a 3 1/2" floppy) where the installer then copies those onto the drive(supposedly? a friend's SATA drive isn't even detected by XP while seen in the bios.).
 
No, you press F6 during the Windows installation. It has nothing to do with the model of board. It is software specific, not hardware specific.

I'm racking my brain trying to figure out why it won't work. I've had it happen to me once some time ago but I can't remember how I fixed it.
 
Not being specific to Windows itself I have seen the F2 or F4 at post as the option to set up RAID controllers. That has more to do with the bios settings there. When using the F6 function to have the installer read the floppy driver disk try leaving the disk in the drive until the system is ready to restart after all setup files have been copied to the drive. A few other ideas and techniques to look over can be seen at a few links here.
http://www.techbuilder.org/recipes/59200981
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1778&page=6
http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid5_gci1002836,00.html
 
Umm. You're thinking of the wrong thing. I'm well aware of configuring drives through the RAID BIOS, but that's not what we're talking about here.

During Windows setup you sometimes have to install RAID or SATA drivers in order for the Windows setup program to be able to detect and utilize your controllers. That is what we are talking about here.
 
I had to loan an ide drive out on a friend's new build when the XP installer failed to detect the WD 200gb SATA drive he planned to use as a stand alone primary. More then once the driver disk was made up and tried. But the installer still failed to see the new drive despite it's clear detection by the bios. Finally I loaned an older drive with an XP/Linux dual setup on it to make sure the rest of the new build was in working order. He still runs it now while being told he could try formatting the SATA to see if the drive is good.

The point is that more then one floppy along with repeat downloads was used on the two day effort to get XP to even detect the drive. The system would simply restart after going to the floppy with the F6 option where it seemed to be failing to grab and load the drivers.
 
sorry for thread steal but i will have same issue.

i dont know what any of you are saying but i will have to do the same thing soon

and from the sounds of it, it wont turn out well.


i will be getting a new 320GB SATA HDD but i will have an old 40GB IDE HDD from my old computer that i need to copy files off of.

i asked before and people jsut said to set the old HDD as a slave and boot from the SATA but from what you are saying i can't do that

so how would i boot from the SATA and just have the old IDE set in as an extra drive through which i can copy files from and then probably get rid of it

i have this mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131013

and it says it only has one IDE controller
 
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You could easily slave the ide drive off of your cd drive after the SATA drive saw Windows installed correctly onto it. That board offers more support for using a SATA drive as the host drive over models where the ide controller will often override SATA controllers by default. The 40gb drive would just be an added drive until files were copied from it. The problem we are discussing here has more to do with boards where the ide controllers have dominion.
 
PC eye said:
You could easily slave the ide drive off of your cd drive after the SATA drive saw Windows installed correctly onto it. That board offers more support for using a SATA drive as the host drive over models where the ide controller will often override SATA controllers by default. The 40gb drive would just be an added drive until files were copied from it. The problem we are discussing here has more to do with boards where the ide controllers have dominion.
Click to expand...


oh so i would just install XP on the SATA normally(would i have to install any drivers for the SATA or does the MOBO already have them and do it for you)

also would i be able to acess the files off of the old IDE if the OS is corrupt on the IDE
 
Personally I'm still waiting to add a SATA array planned for the next build which turned out to be delayed when a board failed prematurely last month. At that time I would have kept just the single ide drive instead buying the second for storage reasons. SATA like SCSI was originally intended for faster access to data stored on drives other then the primary drive.

When booting with the installation cd you also need a floppy with the correct SATA drivers for that model board handy. Once the option comes up for the F6 key you browse to the floppy drive to have the XP installer copy and load those allowing the installer to proper detect and setup the drive(s). You will have to prepare the floppy before attempting this. Your board is geared towards seeing SATA not ide as the default. The ide controller is there mainly for the optical drives(cd/dvd roms/writers).
 
PC eye said:
Personally I'm still waiting to add a SATA array planned for the next build which turned out to be delayed when a board failed prematurely last month. At that time I would have kept just the single ide drive instead buying the second for storage reasons. SATA like SCSI was originally intended for faster access to data stored on drives other then the primary drive.

When booting with the installation cd you also need a floppy with the correct SATA drivers for that model board handy. Once the option comes up for the F6 key you browse to the floppy drive to have the XP installer copy and load those allowing the installer to proper detect and setup the drive(s). You will have to prepare the floppy before attempting this. Your board is geared towards seeing SATA not ide as the default. The ide controller is there mainly for the optical drives(cd/dvd roms/writers).
Click to expand...


so i will need a floppy drive and DVD but wont those take up both IDE or not

and in the pics theres no sign of a floppy which ive read are suppose to come with it
 
A floppy drive runs on a separate controller from the ide you would use for a cd, dvd, or hard drive. SATA cables are round smaller cables smaller even then the round cables available for ide drives that plug into either the SATA master #1 or #2 or into the secondary if available #1 or #2 there on the board. On the average board you will see the primary and secondary ide connectors back to back with the floppy connector to one side of the primary.

The floppy drive mounts in a 3 1/2" drive bay usually but not always above the 3 1/2" drive bays for internal hard disks. Where the smaller opening for that is depends on the case you have. Gaming cases like the one here have the floppy located right above the front usb and audio plugins at the bottom of the face plate while they are generally found just under the 5 1/4" bays for cd and dvd drives as well as control panels seen for Creative Live and other front access type panels.
 
ah well im prob gonna get a Lian-Li Pc60BPlusII but that dont matter

so with my mobo i will be able to have the IDE HDD and DVD drive in and get files from the HDD
 
First you will want to have the system up and running to avoid any configuration issues and improper hardware detection when installing XP. Once you have a smooth running system going you should be able to add the 40gb in and easily copy your data and files freely from it. If for some reason you find that the drive is inaccessible one easy fix for that is to boot a Linux Live for cd distro. The one rated the easiest to use is Knoppix Live for cd. You simply need a software for burning iso images to cd-rs. The image is about 500mb in size roughly speaking.

The live distros take a little bit to get used to. But a distro like Knoppix is a good live version to have around for accessing drives when something prevents normal access(missing or corrupted mbr info etc.). With a standard ide controller on the board there you should be able to copy without problems. But if something comes up try a live distro or slave the drive in a working case for temporary transfer/storage. Knoppix has a slight difference in copy commands. But nothing major. In fact I have to refamiliarize myself again. But I keep a distro onhand anyway since it can access Fat16, Fat32, and NTFS partitions just as easy as if they were Linux types.
 
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