Laptop Hard Drives,how to set master and slave

[jgore]

When i start my laptop with both installed nothing happens post bios,i believe the master slave settings are the probem,and it has something to do with the four extra pins,any help would be great,thanks.

 

[PCcashCow]

Great intro.....how about some specs? What laptop are you usinsg, drives?

 

[mesarectifier]

You don't get laptops with multiple internal hard disks so master/slave cannot be a problem

There's something wrong with your BIOS or hard disk.

 

[zyberwoof]

You don't get laptops with multiple internal hard disks so master/slave cannot be a problem

There's something wrong with your BIOS or hard disk.

Alienware's MJ-12 m7700i has two internal hard drives I think.

 

[mesarectifier]

Just had a look - you're absolutely right. However I think they're RAID disks in which case there probably won't be a master/slave issue.

 

[PCcashCow]

I have a similar Alienware Laptop too. Such a pain in the butt those things are. My configuration has the staked ontop of eachother which is useless. They get too hot for normal use, So now I use one drive for OS and the other for backups via Veritas.

Even though it sucks, I would take you time and install one drive at a time in the chasis. You should be able to Identify which on is master by how it boots up. I don't think the controler can idenitfy cable select, and wont function of the the raid controler is disabled. ( for some reason it says my is sata? highpriced crap)But check it out, but be careful, that 2 inch HDR is very delicate. And with Dell's aquistion of Alienware, oem parts will be hard to come by.