Using IDE 3 &4 K7V Dragon Plus

Hi all ,
I have an existing win xp install that I decided I wanted to use ide 3 and 4
for my hdd's. I enabled ide/raid in the bios and then I thought I had to
install the promise ultra family drivers. Instead I have access to that
channel as when I moved my slave hdd to 3 I can save to that drive.

Why is this working without having to install the drivers? I want to avoid a
tug of war of having my new toshiba dvd burner and my plextor cd-rw as
master and slave on ide 2. Can I safely move the disk with the xp os to 3
without having to do a clean xp install ? IDE 1 and 2 can take cd drives but
not 3 or 4.
Keheikev

On Mon, 31 Jan 2005 20:48:52 GMT, "Keheikev"
<> wrote:

>Hi all ,
>I have an existing win xp install that I decided I wanted to use ide 3 and 4
>for my hdd's. I enabled ide/raid in the bios and then I thought I had to
>install the promise ultra family drivers. Instead I have access to that
>channel as when I moved my slave hdd to 3 I can save to that drive.
>
>Why is this working without having to install the drivers? I want to avoid a
>tug of war of having my new toshiba dvd burner and my plextor cd-rw as
>master and slave on ide 2. Can I safely move the disk with the xp os to 3
>without having to do a clean xp install ? IDE 1 and 2 can take cd drives but
>not 3 or 4.
>Keheikev
>
Your MB must be different than a million others than, all that I have
ever seen can take cd drives on any except IDE master on channel 1. In
fact I have a cd on channel 3 of my setup now! I did have one on
channels 3 AND 4 but decided I needed the hard drive space more than 2
cd's.
The problems with moving a main drive to a different channel than when
the OS was installed are all related to where the system will look for
things. In the beginning it will look to that channel for the boot
device. Later on it will look to that channel for all the software
links. If you know how you can trick the system into thinking that
drive C is still drive C thru the Windows system, but I am not sure
that will work for the booting process because that is BEFORE Windows
loads.

Keheikev wrote:
> Hi all ,
> I have an existing win xp install that I decided I wanted to use ide
> 3 and 4 for my hdd's. I enabled ide/raid in the bios and then I
> thought I had to install the promise ultra family drivers. Instead I
> have access to that channel as when I moved my slave hdd to 3 I can
> save to that drive.
> Why is this working without having to install the drivers? I want to
> avoid a tug of war of having my new toshiba dvd burner and my plextor
> cd-rw as master and slave on ide 2. Can I safely move the disk with
> the xp os to 3 without having to do a clean xp install ? IDE 1 and 2
> can take cd drives but not 3 or 4.
> Keheikev

IDE 3 and 4 can quite hapilly accept CD drives. Just enable IDE/raid (you
did that) then you have a jumper on mobo to select wither IDE or RAID ...
select IDE. Then install ultra drivers and go.

as of comment to fgeorge...
most SOYO mobos can't allow CD Drives on IDE 3 or 4, but this mobo does. i
did run two CD drives there, until i switched to RAID.

MY advice is to move your CD drives to 3 and 4 - both master.
But, if i remember correct,you can run XP from ide 3, but you must set boot
order to SCSI instead of IDE or similar...can't remember, but if you'll
have problems, reply and i'll check out.

The reason your drives are working on IDE 3 or IDE 4 on your
motherboard is because your running Win XP. Win XP comes with drivers
for your Promise Raid/IDE controller chip.

When you moved your slave hard drive to IDE 3 WinXP loaded a driver for
the Promise controller into your system. So it should be possible for
you to now move your hard drive with the operating system to the
Promise controller. Before you try go into the Hardware Manager and
confirm that the Promise controller is showing, it should be listed in
there under SCSI and RAID controller and there shouldn't be a yellow
exclimation mark next to it. If there is a yellow exclimation mark then
it doesn't have the correct driver installed and will need to be
updated.

If it list the controller there without the yellow exclimation mark you
should be able to move your hard drive to IDE 3 without having to re
install the operating system. You will be required to change your boot
order. With the operating system on this controller you will need to
set your first boot device to SCSI.

Your motherboard must have a Promise controller on it for IDE 3 and 4.
They can use optical drives on SOME of there controllers.

Highpoint controllers on the other hand do not support optical drives.
You may find a drive that will work on one. But Highpoint doesn't
recommend you connect the device to there controllers and states the
device doesn't support them.

There is also no need to trick the system into thinking drive C: is
still drive C: once WinXP has been loaded on a drive and assigned the
drive letter it will still have that drive letter when moved to a
different channel. It's the drive thats assigned the drive letter not
the motherboard. Also you can change the drive letters of any other
drives, be it hard or optical in WinXP, you could change the drive with
the operating system as well but then you would have the problems with
programs as you discribed.

Thank you both for your well thought out answers to my questions. According
to soyo tech support the IDE 3 and 4 on my Promise raid/ide controller is
indeed only for HDD drives not optical. I checked in device manager under
scsi/raid controllers ( I didnt know to look there )) and I saw no
exclamation point next to the promise controller. So I will change the boot
order and put my HDD drives on IDE 3 and 4 and the optical drives onto the
IDE 1 and 2 channels.
Kevin "keheikev"

<> wrote in message
news: ups.com...
The reason your drives are working on IDE 3 or IDE 4 on your
motherboard is because your running Win XP. Win XP comes with drivers
for your Promise Raid/IDE controller chip.

When you moved your slave hard drive to IDE 3 WinXP loaded a driver for
the Promise controller into your system. So it should be possible for
you to now move your hard drive with the operating system to the
Promise controller. Before you try go into the Hardware Manager and
confirm that the Promise controller is showing, it should be listed in
there under SCSI and RAID controller and there shouldn't be a yellow
exclimation mark next to it. If there is a yellow exclimation mark then
it doesn't have the correct driver installed and will need to be
updated.

If it list the controller there without the yellow exclimation mark you
should be able to move your hard drive to IDE 3 without having to re
install the operating system. You will be required to change your boot
order. With the operating system on this controller you will need to
set your first boot device to SCSI.

wrote:
> Your motherboard must have a Promise controller on it for IDE 3 and 4.
> They can use optical drives on SOME of there controllers.

True---later mobo's had Highpoint one...
and, like i said, it does work...

>
> Highpoint controllers on the other hand do not support optical drives.
> You may find a drive that will work on one. But Highpoint doesn't
> recommend you connect the device to there controllers and states the
> device doesn't support them.

It is working perfectly now. aaaaah.
Thanks
Kevin
"Keheikev" <> wrote in message news:YlQLd.21$Dc.2@trnddc06...
Thank you both for your well thought out answers to my questions. According
to soyo tech support the IDE 3 and 4 on my Promise raid/ide controller is
indeed only for HDD drives not optical. I checked in device manager under
scsi/raid controllers ( I didnt know to look there )) and I saw no
exclamation point next to the promise controller. So I will change the boot
order and put my HDD drives on IDE 3 and 4 and the optical drives onto the
IDE 1 and 2 channels.
Kevin "keheikev"

<> wrote in message
news: ups.com...
The reason your drives are working on IDE 3 or IDE 4 on your
motherboard is because your running Win XP. Win XP comes with drivers
for your Promise Raid/IDE controller chip.

When you moved your slave hard drive to IDE 3 WinXP loaded a driver for
the Promise controller into your system. So it should be possible for
you to now move your hard drive with the operating system to the
Promise controller. Before you try go into the Hardware Manager and
confirm that the Promise controller is showing, it should be listed in
there under SCSI and RAID controller and there shouldn't be a yellow
exclimation mark next to it. If there is a yellow exclimation mark then
it doesn't have the correct driver installed and will need to be
updated.

If it list the controller there without the yellow exclimation mark you
should be able to move your hard drive to IDE 3 without having to re
install the operating system. You will be required to change your boot
order. With the operating system on this controller you will need to
set your first boot device to SCSI.