Gateway DX 430X w/SATA Drives (2)

I just recently added a second SATA drive. My question is could I
clone the primary HD to the second one without causing any problems?
I read someplace that the SATA drives do not have the settings that
make primary and secondary drives. I bought it to clone my HD to
preclude losing information. Any information would be helpful. I was
not sure if both drives have the same info how would it know which to
boot from. Would renaming the drive make a difference? I use the
Apricorn Clone program. Or would I need another external HD?

Lee (confused in Florida)

Added info: Using Vista

Hi!

> I just recently added a second SATA drive. My question is could I
> clone the primary HD to the second one without causing any problems?

Simply put, no. Each SATA port is intended for use with one drive, and what
you read about the lack of master/slave settings on SATA is correct. The
drives don't have such settings because they don't need them.

To hook up the second drive, you will need to find another SATA port on the
motherboard in your computer. If there isn't one, you may have to add a port
by way of a controller card installed in an expansion slot.

The computer has a few ways it can determine which drive to start up from,
but the most common is to simply try a preconfigured list of choices...like
floppy drive, CD/DVD-ROM, hard disk 0, hard disk 1 and so on until it runs
out of options or manages to find something that is startable. You can
adjust this by going into system setup (your computer should tell you what
key to press when it is starting).

When you run a cloning program on one drive and transfer its contents to
another, the data on each drive should then be identical. And it is, for the
most part. If this utility you mention runs in Windows, however, there are
files that may not be cloned or that will change slightly during the cloning
process. However, most of these programs work manually--meaning that you
have to run them and let them work in order to keep things up to date. It is
easy to forget about doing this until disaster strikes.

Hope this info helps.

William

Hi William

I do have the SATA drive up and running and had several SATA ports to
hook it to. I had figured with the Vista set up and McAfee if the
computer could recognize and boot from the Master drive and ignore the
cloned drive it would be easier to keep up with cloning the master
drive for backup. If I understood you correctly it seems if the
Master drive is HD 0 and the Cloned drive is HD 1 then the computer
would boot from HD 0 and there would be no confusion by the computer
as to which drive to boot from? Do I have that right? The program I
run is from Apricorn.com called EZ Gig II and it worked great on XP
and I just got the update for Vista and the program can be installed
on the computer so it will do a complete restore etc. But on cloning
a drive you have to boot with the disk and it does a complete cloning
of the Master HD. At my advanced state of decay (68)sometimes I don't
understand it all and you have been a big help with your explanation.
If you see anything above that may have been a wrong conclusion
please feel free to comment.

William R. Walsh wrote:
> Hi!
>
>> I just recently added a second SATA drive. My question is could I
>> clone the primary HD to the second one without causing any problems?
>
> Simply put, no. Each SATA port is intended for use with one drive, and what
> you read about the lack of master/slave settings on SATA is correct. The
> drives don't have such settings because they don't need them.
>
> To hook up the second drive, you will need to find another SATA port on the
> motherboard in your computer. If there isn't one, you may have to add a port
> by way of a controller card installed in an expansion slot.
>
> The computer has a few ways it can determine which drive to start up from,
> but the most common is to simply try a preconfigured list of choices...like
> floppy drive, CD/DVD-ROM, hard disk 0, hard disk 1 and so on until it runs
> out of options or manages to find something that is startable. You can
> adjust this by going into system setup (your computer should tell you what
> key to press when it is starting).
>
> When you run a cloning program on one drive and transfer its contents to
> another, the data on each drive should then be identical. And it is, for the
> most part. If this utility you mention runs in Windows, however, there are
> files that may not be cloned or that will change slightly during the cloning
> process. However, most of these programs work manually--meaning that you
> have to run them and let them work in order to keep things up to date. It is
> easy to forget about doing this until disaster strikes.
>
> Hope this info helps.