dead HD?

[blue&whiteman]

I have had so many issues with my 120gb western digital ata 100/8mb cache that its driving me crazy. first thing I noticed about it when I got it about 4 months ago was that it doesn't like being alone on a cable. it wouldn't even install osx when alone on my blue&whites built in ata/33 bus (it was set to single) I have had temporary success with the wd set to slave and the original maxtor to master and the other way around. it went a month or more as my boot drive without problems whether set to master or slave.

now my mac won't even see that its there and only shows my 6gb maxtor.

does it matter which part of a cable the master and or slave is connected to? ie. the one on the cable or the one at the end. I would think since the master is the one it goes to first that having it connected to the first connector where its a shorter pather and have the slave connected to the one at the end since its a slightly farther path. am I on the right track or way off?

fyi: my current config is maxtor set to master and wd to slave.

what about both set to cable select?

please help me

 

[Horrortaxi]

Not sure about your B&W, but my MDD G4's manual said to set all drives to cable select. I've added 2 drives like that and never had a problem.

 

[blue&whiteman]

update

I zapped the pram and changed the jumpers on both drives to cable select. I then booted from an emergency cd, it saw the drive, formated it fine.

should I have been using cable select all along? I am afraid to even bother installing panther on it again or am I ok now?

I would like to use the 120 as my boot drive since its faster. I know both drives are on the same slow ata 33 bus but the 120 is 7200rpm and has 8mb cache and it does seem to make my system a bit faster when i'm booted from it. the 120 is also much quieter.

should I just use the original 6GB as my boot drive or with both set to cable select will my past problems not come back?

bottom line is that I just want my system to be stable again.

 

[Crikey]

What Cable Select means is that which drive is master and which is slave is determined by where you plug them in on the cable, rather than by jumpering each drive. If you jumper one drive to master and one drive to slave, then it doesn't matter where you plug them in on the cable.

I think my G4 too came with a recommendation to use Cable Select. I'm not sure why it matters; I've built PCs both ways before.

I am not sure why your WB1200JB is behaving that way. I wonder if it is objecting to your ATA-33 data cable? Are you using the cable that came with your Mac, or a random IDE cable? I wonder if using a newer ATA-100 style cable would help.

Good luck,


Crikey

 

[blue&whiteman]

the cable I use is the original factory cable and since my b&w is a rev. b there is a dual drive stacked bracket and the cable has 2 connectors on it. I don't see how its the cable at fault as the wd drive worked about 5-6 weeks just fine on it. also I thought ultra ata 33 through 133 all used the same connectors?

so which cable connector is for master when both drives are jumpered to cable select? the first one or the one at the end.. right now the first connector is of course in the top drive which is the 120 wd and the end connector is in the maxtor at the bottom.

also is it best to have your main boot drive be the one set as master or doesn't it matter?

sorry for all the questions people but i'm in dire need.

 

[IndyGopher]

With cable select, the connector on the end is drive 0 (master) and the connector in the middle is drive 1 (slave)
While a 40-conductor, 40-pin cable should work, the "right" cable for ATA-66/100/133 drives is the 80-conductor, 40-pin type. Both the (newer) drives and (newer) computers sense which type of cable is used.
Drive 0 is generally the most logical choice for a boot drive. While you can set your Mac to boot from either, a wiped PRAM will look for the system on drive 0 first.

 

[blue&whiteman]

thank you all for your help.

it seems that on this ata bus with the factory original cable that the western digital does not like to be alone on a cable.

it seems to like being a slave so thats what it will be. I know its best to boot from the master but I have to take what I can get. besides, the wd runs fine on the slave setting as the boot drive so I guess all is well.... for now at least