Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

I have a fairly new 320gb HD set as the 'Primary' drive in my machine. I used an older 500gb HD as a 'Secondary' data drive, both are connected with individual SATA leads to the Motherboard.

Tonight I have attempted to boot the PC and it has notified me that the 'Secondard Master' drive has a problem. Unplugging that drive has allowed the system to boot and run. So, with the Secondary drive being just that, why is it relied up for running the machine? Have I got it set up wrong?

I just need to be able to browse that Secondary drive as though it were external media, nothing runs from it as far as I'm concerned.

Lambchop

iTrader: (1)

Could noone help you in the IT room?

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

Didn't even bother trying, there's tumbleweed blowing around in there.

dojj

iTrader: (3)

it may be trying to boot up from both drives, hence the issue when you unplug one

have you tried to swap them about or changed the little plug things on the back of the drive?

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

The question is whether it is correct to have a Secondary data drive set up as 'Secondary Master'. Is that the reason why it's calling on it during the boot process?

martysmartie

iTrader: (1)

Even though it's not the master it will still complain if there is a problem during POST, this is the reason for SMART.

SATA drives do not have jumpers (The little plug things referred to)

Martin

alexno1dj

hope i dont sound patronising but did you change the jumpers on the back of the hard drive over so one is slave and one is master?

if all else fails, i put the jumpers so they were both on CS (cable select) and the computer sets them upo automatically

alex

martysmartie

iTrader: (1)

As I say SATA drives do not have jumpers!

Martin

alexno1dj

sorry mate didnt see your post there

danb21t

aye SMART has detected an issue with the drive

fraser9764

iTrader: (3)

your best bet would be to buy a SATA to USB adapter and plug it in when the PC has booted, just connects like a regular USB storage device.
although if the drive is knackered you have wasted your money.
have you tried running a checkdisk on the drive?

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

I reckon I'm going to buy a new Secondary drive, just found a 1TB Western Digital 'Green' for £43, so I'll get that. Once I do, is there a better way I can set it up? Or do I just assume that because its a new fault-free drive, I won't have these problems?

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

Incidentally, this Secondary drive was once the main drive for the PC and I don't recall changing jumpers. The drive is 5 years old, so it could have these?? Even though it is connected with SATA? I believe it had both SATA and IDE connectors.

Mk1-stu

Surely anything other than the Primary master, should be set up as the secondary Slave drive ? has the bios been reset ? if it has, it could be causing a conflict between the drive + whatever the bios has set as second boot device.

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

There seems to be a use for a Secondary Master and a Secondary Slave. I'm not sure what though.

Mk1-stu

secondary master is for raid i thought ?

if all else fails, google it

orionmojo

iTrader: (1)

SATA drives are controlled through the bios as already said. If its flagged up a problem with one, i'd disconnect it and get the data recovered asap if theres anything of value on it.

otherwise just buy the new one as you said. it could be a corrupt file or something equally as simple but they're not built to be troubleshooted. its a "plug and play" for life object, when it goes, it goes. You had it setup correctly as if it had been part of a raid or mirror, your machine wouldn't have booted at all.

*edit*

you've stated above it has both SATA and IDE connectors. if you've connected it using the SATA its still controlled by the motherboard bios regardless of the IDE being there or not.
it might be worth checking the config hasn't changed without you knowing.

danb21t

it wont have both interfaces, if its using sata there is no such thing as master and slave.
however you may come across jumpers on older sata drives, but it will be to set the drive to 1.5gbit/sec manually.

it could be that the SMART has detected a bad sector, which is relatively minor but it could be a dicky read head.
get a back up drive and copy the data over.

fish99

Dont bother with them Green drives.. If you want a good drive go for a 1tb Samsung SpinPoint F3. I use one as my secondary drive and its excellent. I have paired that with a Velociraptor 300gb 10000rpm as my primary and the machine flies.

nthorpey

Good drive I use 10 of these on my home server.

£41 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

I only looked at the WD Green as I currently has a WD Blue as my main drive and its been good. The Green seems to have good spec.

I assume this the Spinpoint you are talking about??

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/ss1tb...-89-ms-ncq-oem

fish99

Thats the Kiddy, very good drives... Thats my own personal opinion anyway.

S1

With some BIOS's if it detects a change in connected drives it alters the boot sequence. Go into the BIOS and change the sequence so it wont try to boot from the second drive. Set the first boot device to be the 320gb drive.

R4N SS

iTrader: (6)

thats what i would suggest