On Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:33:29 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.com> wrote:
>I can give you an approach, but it isn't completely foolproof.
>
>Download a copy of HDTach.
>
>http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public...request=HdTach
>
>When it starts up, there will be a menu with hard drives in it.
>The drive letter (C is shown to the left of the rest of the
>drive identity information.
>
>Start the Quick Bench running, by clicking the "Run Test" button.
>When you get to the "Random Access Test", the head on the disk
>will fly around, and the drive will shake a bit. The drive with
>the shakes, will in that case, be the C: drive (because you selected
>C: from the test menu).
>
>Why isn't the test foolproof ? Because the vibration shakes the
>whole frame of the computer case. I tried my C: drive and
>my E: drive, and I could feel the shaking in the C: drive in
>both cases. So it'll be a judgment call, as to which one is
>doing the shaking, during the Random Access test.
Paul,
the above sounds terrifying!
>The C: drive is not related to the SATA port. Your C: could be
>connected to SATA 0 or to SATA 1. Perhaps looking at the drive
>serial number in the BIOS, or with a utility, and looking for a
>sticker on the outside of the drive, with the same information,
>would be another way to do it. I have one drive, that does have
>the serial number printed on the outside. And a more recent
>drive from the same company, where there is no serial number
>on the outside. I bet that saved a whole penny of manufacturing
>cost, by not printing the serial number on it. And makes it
>real easy to determine if the warranty is still valid, if that
>drive dies on me (fat lot of good a serial number stored on
>the platters is going to do, if the drive fails).
On Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:33:29 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.com> wrote:
>The C: drive is not related to the SATA port. Your C: could be
>connected to SATA 0 or to SATA 1. Perhaps looking at the drive
>serial number in the BIOS, or with a utility, and looking for a
>sticker on the outside of the drive, with the same information,
Paul,
I couldn't find any ref to hard disk serial numbers in the BIOS but
there was this info.
IDE Channel 0 Master -[ the DVDRW]
IDE Channel 0 Slave - [the DVD]
IDE Channel 1 Master - [S_ATA1-Hitachi etc]
IDE Channel 1 Slave - [S_ATA2-Hitachi etc]
(NB the S_ATA1 and S_ATA2 above)
also
x SATA Port 0 configure as IDE Sec. Master
SATA Port 1 configure as IDE Sec. Slave
Looking inside the PC case I can see that
SATA0 socket is connected to the top hard disk and
SATA1 socket is connected to the bottom hard disk
Does above tell you whether the top hard disk is the C: drive?
In message <8pm074t14njamris9b4o5682ehf3otu8i4@4ax.com> Geoff Cox
<gcox@freeuk.notcom> wrote:
>I have just found a diagram of the motherboard on the Net and it shows
>the two SATA sockets, SATA 0 and SATA 1 so I assume SATA 0 is the C:
>drive and SATA 1 is the D: - could this be wrong?!
It could. Open device manager, find the disk drives and open them, see
if the "Location" field gives you any clues. If the "C" drive is the
lower number then SATA 0 should be the "C" drive.
You may not see locations of "0" and "1", spending on how the
motherboard is designed, I've got an older mobo here where SATA drives
start at 4, IDE drives take 0 through 3, despite being labeled as 0
through 3 on the motherboard.
On Sun, 06 Jul 2008 04:48:08 -0600, DevilsPGD
<spam_narf_spam@crazyhat.net> wrote:
>In message <8pm074t14njamris9b4o5682ehf3otu8i4@4ax.com> Geoff Cox
><gcox@freeuk.notcom> wrote:
>
>>I have just found a diagram of the motherboard on the Net and it shows
>>the two SATA sockets, SATA 0 and SATA 1 so I assume SATA 0 is the C:
>>drive and SATA 1 is the D: - could this be wrong?!
>
>It could. Open device manager, find the disk drives and open them, see
>if the "Location" field gives you any clues. If the "C" drive is the
>lower number then SATA 0 should be the "C" drive.
cannot find a location field!
Cheers
Geoff
>
>You may not see locations of "0" and "1", spending on how the
>motherboard is designed, I've got an older mobo here where SATA drives
>start at 4, IDE drives take 0 through 3, despite being labeled as 0
>through 3 on the motherboard.
> On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 18:37:55 -0500, Joel <Joel@NoSpam.com> wrote:
>
> >Geoff Cox <gcox@freeuk.notcom> wrote:
> >
> ><snip>
> >> 'afraid the drives are identical in make and size!
> >>
> >> plus! as I said I had the previous bad experience with the 50:50
> >> approach in that the PC failed to boot off what wa the D: drive but
> >> after putting the C: drive back I couldn't access the D: drive.
> >>
> >> can I tell which is which from the cables?
> >>
> >> Cheers
> >
> > You may not be able to tell from the cable *unless* you know which PORT
> >the cable connected to. Example Port-0 is usually drive C: and Port-2 is
> >drive D
> >
> > Of course with EIDE which you can connect up to 2 EDIE devices to same
> >PORT, and drive D can be changed depending on how you FDISK your drive
> >(partition). But drive C still on Port-0
> >
> > So, I guess it should work the same with SATA.
>
> Joel,
>
> I have just found a diagram of the motherboard on the Net and it shows
> the two SATA sockets, SATA 0 and SATA 1 so I assume SATA 0 is the C:
> drive and SATA 1 is the D: - could this be wrong?!
In general you can't be more right than what you say above, and what
others and I have been saying <bg>
<snip>
> thanks for this - will look in the BIOS setup.
In general, BIOS setting could be a useful place to find out the drive
letter. But it's usually better if it has 2 *different* drives, or if both
drives are exactly the same then it may not be easy to tell the difference.
Example if both drives are WD SATA 500GB, same model and everything.
> On Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:33:29 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.com> wrote:
>
> >The C: drive is not related to the SATA port. Your C: could be
> >connected to SATA 0 or to SATA 1. Perhaps looking at the drive
> >serial number in the BIOS, or with a utility, and looking for a
> >sticker on the outside of the drive, with the same information,
>
> Paul,
>
> I couldn't find any ref to hard disk serial numbers in the BIOS but
> there was this info.
>
> IDE Channel 0 Master -[ the DVDRW]
> IDE Channel 0 Slave - [the DVD]
>
> IDE Channel 1 Master - [S_ATA1-Hitachi etc]
> IDE Channel 1 Slave - [S_ATA2-Hitachi etc]
>
> (NB the S_ATA1 and S_ATA2 above)
>
> also
>
> x SATA Port 0 configure as IDE Sec. Master
> SATA Port 1 configure as IDE Sec. Slave
>
> Looking inside the PC case I can see that
>
> SATA0 socket is connected to the top hard disk and
> SATA1 socket is connected to the bottom hard disk
>
> Does above tell you whether the top hard disk is the C: drive?
Well, back the the general information many others already suggested.
1. Port-0 has much more chance to be drive C than any others.
That's it!
I also would suggest to forget about the whole thing, but give it a very
last try one for all.
1. Unplug the drive on Port-1
2. Reboot the system (you may be in BIOS setting menu)
3. If it boots fine then you make the right decision to unpluf Drive D
4. If it won't boot or saying no OS (assuming you boot from drive C) then we
are all wrong. Or drive C is on Port-1
That's it! and you the only one with the answer, and it won't be too
complicate to unplug the connector.
> On Sun, 06 Jul 2008 04:48:08 -0600, DevilsPGD
> <spam_narf_spam@crazyhat.net> wrote:
>
> >In message <8pm074t14njamris9b4o5682ehf3otu8i4@4ax.com> Geoff Cox
> ><gcox@freeuk.notcom> wrote:
> >
> >>I have just found a diagram of the motherboard on the Net and it shows
> >>the two SATA sockets, SATA 0 and SATA 1 so I assume SATA 0 is the C:
> >>drive and SATA 1 is the D: - could this be wrong?!
> >
> >It could. Open device manager, find the disk drives and open them, see
> >if the "Location" field gives you any clues. If the "C" drive is the
> >lower number then SATA 0 should be the "C" drive.
>
> cannot find a location field!
It may be hard or too small to read, and you haven't tried hard enough.
Cuz I am vey sure there should be labels for just about all parts on the
motherboard. Especially the ones being used by owner like
- Power Connectors, Speaker, Power, Led, USB port, Hard Drive, Serial,
Parralell port, Floppy etc..
> Cheers
>
> Geoff
>
> >
> >You may not see locations of "0" and "1", spending on how the
> >motherboard is designed, I've got an older mobo here where SATA drives
> >start at 4, IDE drives take 0 through 3, despite being labeled as 0
> >through 3 on the motherboard.
"Geoff Cox" <gcox@freeuk.notcom> wrote in message
news:t37174dfath300hrgjr6uu0k9f7h4a50f8@4ax.com...
> On Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:33:29 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.com> wrote:
>
>>The C: drive is not related to the SATA port. Your C: could be
>>connected to SATA 0 or to SATA 1. Perhaps looking at the drive
>>serial number in the BIOS, or with a utility, and looking for a
>>sticker on the outside of the drive, with the same information,
>
> Paul,
>
> I couldn't find any ref to hard disk serial numbers in the BIOS but
> there was this info.
>
> IDE Channel 0 Master -[ the DVDRW]
> IDE Channel 0 Slave - [the DVD]
>
> IDE Channel 1 Master - [S_ATA1-Hitachi etc]
> IDE Channel 1 Slave - [S_ATA2-Hitachi etc]
>
> (NB the S_ATA1 and S_ATA2 above)
>
> also
>
> x SATA Port 0 configure as IDE Sec. Master
> SATA Port 1 configure as IDE Sec. Slave
>
> Looking inside the PC case I can see that
>
> SATA0 socket is connected to the top hard disk and
> SATA1 socket is connected to the bottom hard disk
>
> Does above tell you whether the top hard disk is the C: drive?
>
> Cheers
>
> Geoff
The common convention is that Drive 0 connects to the lowest
numbered SATA connector, but it's no guarantee. You've
already determined that your boot drive, C:, is Drive 0.
Something in you original post that puzzles me, is that you
said booting off D: made the files inaccessible. If a bootable
drive is not present, the BIOS boot process should give you
an error message and suspend. If you do have boot files on
D:, the best thing to do is rename them so that if the system
does try to boot from D: it will give files not found errors and
halt the boot process, therefore no harm done, and you know
which HD is C:.
>Something in you original post that puzzles me, is that you
>said booting off D: made the files inaccessible. If a bootable
>drive is not present, the BIOS boot process should give you
>an error message and suspend. If you do have boot files on
>D:, the best thing to do is rename them so that if the system
>does try to boot from D: it will give files not found errors and
>halt the boot process, therefore no harm done, and you know
>which HD is C:.
the above happened some time ago on a previous PC.
Re: which is the "C" drive? 
is shown to the left of the rest of the
Linear Mode
