IDE disk problem

[Rick Stevens]

David Curry wrote:
> Bob R. Taylor wrote:
> 
>> I purchased a 200G Maxtor drive for my Alpha which is not being
>> recognized by Fedora Core 2 (Fedora 0.9 Alpha). This HD is not my boot
>> disk. I have it installed as Master on the first IDE connector.
>> Not being familiar with IDE disks, what jumber(s) should be set? Could
>> the age of my mother board be a problem? What could the problem be? Any
>> help greatly appreciated!
>>
>>  
>>
> Inferring that your boot disk is also connected to the first IDE 
> connector, one might surmise that your boot disk is also jumpered as 
> Master.  Check the jumper settings on the back of each disk and make one 
> the master drive and one slave.  Most drives have diagrams stamped on 
> the drive casing (or sticker diagrams) showing how to set the jumpers.

I think a bit more explanation may be useful, David.  There are newbies
who ask this a lot.

Bob, an IDE connector may have two drives on it at most--a master and
a slave.  Drives generally have three places you put a jumper on.  You
may only put on ONE jumper.

One spot is usually labled "MA" or "MS".  Putting a jumper on that makes
the drive the master.  Another jumper spot will probably be labeled "SL"
and putting the jumper there will make the drive the slave.  There's
often a third spot, labeled "CS" (for "cable select").  Theoretically,
you can put a jumper on there and the drive will figure out if it's to
be a master or a slave.

Personally, I NEVER TRUST THE "CS" SETTING!  It is totally unreliable.
Jumper one drive as "MA" (ideally, the one you're using now) and the
other as "SL" and you should be fine.

By the way, the device names under Linux for those drives will be:

	/dev/hda	Master drive on primary IDE
	/dev/hdb	Slave drive on primary IDE
	/dev/hdc	Master drive on secondary IDE
	/dev/hdd	Slave drive on secondary IDE
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-       A squeegee, by any other name, wouldn't sound as funny.      -
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