Can't remove slave drive

[dmiddl]

What is the proper way to remove a slave drive from a system? When I physically disconnect the slave drive (D , Windows will not restart. I have removed D: drive in Device Manager, shut down and disconnected controller cable and power cable then when I try to boot, the machine can't find C: drive. It goes to a DOS screen giving me the option of starting with or without CD-ROM Support.
I want remove the D; drive to make room to install a new 7200 rpm drive which will eventually replace the present 13 GB drive which will go into another machine along with the 4.3 GB drive if I can ever get it removed from this machine.
Need help, don't understand what is happening.

AMD350
ASUS P5A main board
13.6 GB WD C: drive Master on Primary IDE
4.3 GB WD D: drive Slave on Primary IDE
Plextor CDRW, Master on Secondary IDE
Sony CD-ROM, Slave on SecondaryIDE
256 MB RAM
Win 98SE

Dave

[catfishjoe_1]

Try removing the other drive and see what happens.
cat

[dmiddl]

Not sure I want to do that, Cat, because I previously removed everything from D: and put it in a folder on C:.

[edge345]

It sounds like you have a floppy in the A: drive. if so remove the floppy and reboot.

[dmiddl]

No Floppy, Edge.
Cat, I disconnected the other one ( the 13 GB Master) and the boot saw the slave, the CDRW and the CD-ROM and issued the message "Press a key to reboot" which I did and it went through the same endless loop.
So where it stands now is this:
With Master disconnected it sees the Slave drive and both CD drives but can't boot because no C: drive.
With slave disconnected it sees the 2 CD drives but can't see C: or D: - Startup screen shows "Detecting HDD Master - NONE". Next line "Detecting HDD Slave - NONE". Then it goes on and properly detects the 2 CD drives.

The 4 GB Slave drive was at one time the only drive and therefore the boot drive. Then the 13 GB drive was installed using Western Digital EZ-Install and became the boot drive. Due to this change, I think there is some kind of partitioning problem. Does this sound plausible? And if it is a partition problem What must I do to partition the drives correctly without losing all of the data?

[TwoRails]

.... opps
TwoRails

[reboot]

You'll probably have to change the jumper(s) on your C drive.
Some hard drives have a jumper for master, master with slave connected, etc. Now that there is no slave connected, it won't be recognized in BIOS. You'll have to pull it out and look.

[mike breck]

Yes,

If there is no Slave present, you should set the WD to Standalone by removing ALL the jumper caps.

Also, a word of warning about your Slave drive. You may not be able to access the data unless the Master on the same IDE cable has EZ-BIOS installed.

EZ-BIOS usually makes changes to the MBR and Partitions on the Slave drive when it is installed on the Master (Boot) drive.

If you're going to wipe the Slave, then it doesn't matter.

HTH

[dmiddl]

Reboot and Mike, you were correct. When I removed the 4 GB Slave and the totally removed the jumper from the 13 GB Master, the system booted up properly. Flush with success I Installed a new 40 GB drive with the jumper set to Master and changed the jumper to Slave on the 13 GB drive, as per WD instructions that came with new 40 GB. Booted and neither drive was recognized. Went intio BIOS and used Auto Detect drives. Neither was found. Shut down, changed jumpers and cables to make old 13 GB the Master and brand new 40 GB the Slave. Booted, neither drive recognized. Shut down, removed new 40 GB drive, removed jumper and changed cable on 13 GB , booted and it works fine. Ready to give up and return 40 GB for refund. Will have to live with old 13 GB but strangely it runs faster ( opens programs quicker) since all the shenanigans I have put it through.

Edited for typos. Dave

[dmiddl]

Finally got the new drive installed. Tried the alternate jumper settings where two jumpers are installed on Master and two jumpers are also installed on Slave and it worked perfectly. Apparently this method makes it possible for older BIOSes to detect large drives. Thanks to all for help.
Dave

[mike breck]

Hi again dmiddl,

A better answer to the BIOS limitation is a Ultra100 TX2 PCI Promise controller card. They cost about $30.

www.promise.com

This plugs into a PCI slot and you just plug your HDs into it. This will enable you to use all your HDs at full capacity and performance.

Much better than using EZ-BIOS or the Alternate Jumper setting on a hard drive.

HTH

[dmiddl]

Hi Mike, when I first thought about getting a 7200 rpm drive I went to a Users Product Review board, I think it was on the Promise Website, and the almost all of the users complained about the results they were getting with the controller card. Lots of grumbling about VIA chips and many complaints that the Promise card caused their CD Writers and CD-ROM drives to not be recognized. Not many good things were said. All the problems scared me off. In addition, I have been given to understand that the biggest performance gain is from the higher rpm not from Ultra 100. But thanks for the suggestion. Maybe if I get bored and go looking for trouble maybe I'll give A Promise card a try. But then how would I ever get rid of EZ-BIOS?
Dave

[mike breck]

Yes Dave,

I've seen a few of these user reviews on commercial sites. I think the main problem is they are trying to use optical drives on the Promise HD controller.

When I've set them up, I just put the HDs on the card and then put any optical drives on the mobo IDE1 and IDE2.

I'm sorry, I haven't read of a definite problem concerning Via chipsets.

To get rid if EZ-BIOS, you just boot up with the WD Life Guard Tools and uninstall it.

Drive Overlays like EZ-BIOS are considered the last resort as they can affect HD performance, compatiblity, and the code is easily corrupted.

[dmiddl]

Hi Mike,
Now that I have the 7200 rpm drive installed and the old 5400 removed from the box there is no noticeable performance improvement so maybe I will try an Ultra 100 controller card just to keep me occupied on these cold winter days. You believe Promise is the best one, right? I noticed in the instruction sheet that came with the new drive that Some WD drives are shipped with an Ultra ATA controller card. They show the drives connected to the controller card, as you described. Do you know whether WD uses their own proprietary Ultra ATA card or a Promise or some other generic unit?
Dave