Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (
More info?)
Great
thanks
"Timothy Daniels" <TDaniels@NoSpamDot.com> wrote in message
news:Xa2dnSNYffn6UIDeRVn-pA@comcast.com...
>" **Developer**" wrote:
>> Is it true that for IDE hard drives the connector at the end
>> of the cable is for the Master and the other connector is
>> for the slave?
>
>
> Yes, for Cable Select, as the other respondent says.
> Master and Slave roles are really arbitrary, though.
> They are primarily just to differentiate the 2 devices
> on the same channel for the controller. If you have
> 2 HDs, and they are on different channels, i.e.
> different cables, they can both be Master or both
> Slave, or the Slave can be on channel 0 with the
> Master on channel 1. If you have only one device on
> a cable, though, put it on the end connector to avoid
> having the length of cable between the middle connector
> and end connector act as an "echo chamber" for signals.
>
> The only other use for Master/Slave is as a convenient
> way for the BIOS to choose its *default* HD boot order,
> in which it puts the channel 0 Master first, then channel 0
> Slave, then channel 1 Master, then channel 1 Slave.
> But this default order can be changed in the BIOS at
> any boot time by entering the BIOS and manually
> changing it with keyboard input, making if you choose,
> a Slave drive on channel 1 boot the OS. This order will
> persist in the BIOS until manually changed again or until
> the lithium battery runs down. This can be used as a
> conceptually easy way (by not using dual booting) to
> switch between OSes on different drives.
>
> *TimDaniels*