SATA drive as slave

I finally took my external drive apart and it's almost the same as the Seagate 7200 in the computer. Plugged the external in using the CD cables. Recognizes both drives on boot up but they are both masters. We used to jumper drives for master/slave but read on Internet it might be a motherboard issue or a BIOS setup. Bootup stops with both drives and won't go further.

Motherboard plugs say SATA 0 and 1 but BIOS shows drive shows position 3/4 or 2/3?

You're right, no jumpers for SATA drives. However, the boot order, as set in the BIOS, chooses which drives tries to get Windows going. I can't tell you which menu item it's under, though; mobos are all different.

You can get into the BIOS by hitting the DEL key during startup, or by watching the screen for a brief (very) message about which F key to hit during startup. Then manoeuvre using the arrow keys.

BIOS found them both but the OS and a Seagate util said I only have one drive. It's back to the parts drawer for that one

Was this drive working in the external case, or is that why you took it apart?

(And in reference to your earlier post, the mobo numbers and the BIOS location numbers rarely seem to match, as the BIOS insists on referring to many drive locations as IDE, even when they are SATA.)

No it wasn't working externally. I wondered about the IDE in the bios but that must have been where the 2 drives showed up. Funny that it spins and tells the PC what it is .... but that's all

Okay, I can't remember, but recently added a second SATA to my desktop.
It wouldn't recognize it and there was something I had to do to initalize? the drive.
I remembered it after playing for quite a while and once I did it, everything was fine.
Google search initializing a slave or activating a slave and there are instructions out there that helped me.
Hope this helps

I just downloaded a flash bios upgrade, put it on a USB stick, booted to it and it and it could not read the boot sector. Primary drive was disconnected to avoid problems

Haven't had boot sector problems since the old Seagate 20meg IDE drives

You mean it wouldn't boot from the Flash drive? Well, see if it's formatted in Windows as NTFS, but it probably already is.

You can leave the boot HD in place, just ensure the Flash drive is selected as the boot.

Then try another Flash drive, or use the BIOS flash utility from the mobo itself or the mobo's website.

Flash drive worked fine. It ran it's program and could not read this troublesome harddisk

Ah, okay. But updating the BIOS does not go near the hard drive; only the chip on the motherboard.

According to many Seagate conversations there is a BIOS update for the drive. Maybe the software has to check whatever the drive has embedded or disk info on the drive ... and it just can't access.

I lost some classic movies and not a lot more. Whatever, it's history

BIOS updates for hard drives, hmmm. New one on me, but I'll keep it in mind. Thanks for posting your trials... every little bit of knowledge helps, in this field.

HelperGuy wrote:BIOS updates for hard drives, hmmm. New one on me, but I'll keep it in mind. Thanks for posting your trials... every little bit of knowledge helps, in this field.

Yep HD have Bios chips like motherboards and many times they can be updated.

Z

Well yeah, they all have BIOS, but I have never heard of updating them outside of factory repairs.