HDD BIOS settings

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2011/12/09 08:58:25 (permalink)

HDD BIOS settings

I'd be grateful for any advice on the following 2 queries.
In my BIOS setup under CMOS Standard Features, my 2 HDDs are listed like this (extract):
IDE Channel 0 Master          [None]
IDE Channel 0 Slave              [None]
IDE Channel 1 Master          [Hitachi HDP725050GLA]
IDE Channel  1 Slave              [None]
IDE Channel 2 Master          [None]
IDE Channel 3 Master          [None]
IDE Channel 4 Master          [ST3500413AS]
IDE Channel 4 Slave              [None]
IDE Channel  5 Master          [Optiarc DVD RW AD-72]

The HDD at channel 1 is my ‘data only’ disk with a single volume on it, I added it shortly after buying the PC.   The one at channel 2 is the ‘system’disk with the two  Windows 7 partitions on it.    One result of this order of disks is that if I put in, for example, an OS installation disk, and view the partitioning page, the Hitachi ‘data only’ disk is assigned drive letter C:, not a big problem but confusing given the different lettering of drives as they appear when viewed from within Windows . 
Question 1:  This current configuration is not causing problems but I was wondering if I could (if I wanted) change the listing by amending the CMOS Standard Features table so that the positions of the HDDs are swapped.    Or will this only change if they occupy different physical connection points on the board? 
Question 2:  Also, the Hitachi ‘data’ disk appears first in the Hard Disk Priority list in Advanced BIOS Settings.  I can, of course, just quickly reverse this order but was wondering what the priority refers to – does it only refer to boot order priority or are there other implications?
Thanks for any advice. 

SONAR Platinum rolling updates:  Intel i7 2600k on Gigabyte P67A UD 7: 16GB RAM:  W7 x64 Home Premium.
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    bvideo
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    Re:HDD BIOS settings 2011/12/09 12:31:35 (permalink)
    The drive letters probably got assigned by your Windows installation in the time order you actually connected them to the system. If you wanted to change a drive letter, you could do it through the disk management control panel, not by recabling. Drive C: is much harder to change. It's probably not a good idea to change any drive letters once you've used them for a while or installed any software or samples there. ****** An OS installation disk or a CD-based OS probably won't look into the registry of your installed Windows and therefore does not know the drive letter assignments. It just makes up drive letters in the order drives are detected.
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    jcschild
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    Re:HDD BIOS settings 2011/12/09 13:26:03 (permalink)
    what i want to know is why it shows IDE anything if you have a P67/2600
    you should have not installed in IDE mode...

    the OS drive should have been placed on channel 0
    only time you would place an OS drive elsewhere is if it were an SSD thats Sata 600

    Scott
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    Re:HDD BIOS settings 2011/12/09 13:33:52 (permalink)
    bvideo


    The drive letters probably got assigned by your Windows installation in the time order you actually connected them to the system. If you wanted to change a drive letter, you could do it through the disk management control panel, not by recabling. Drive C: is much harder to change. It's probably not a good idea to change any drive letters once you've used them for a while or installed any software or samples there. ****** An OS installation disk or a CD-based OS probably won't look into the registry of your installed Windows and therefore does not know the drive letter assignments. It just makes up drive letters in the order drives are detected.
    Thanks for that reply but reading my post back I'm sorry I have not been clear so apologies for that.  It's not the drive letters I want to change really.  At the moment (sorry I didn't mention) I'm about to reinstall W7 and all appns from scratch so will have to reset all paths etc anyway.    Currently there is no OS installed on that PC, apart from a temporary installation of XP (nothing else) which I've put in for a couple of days just to look at the data drive (long story).
     
    My query really is, if the Hitachi 'data only' drive is first on the Priority List in the Advanced BIOS Settings, and the system HDD is second, it seems less logical than the other way round.  I can reverse the order - if I do will this change the boot order and speed up the boot process (which has been decidedly slow in the past)?  Also, will that priority change affect other aspects besides boot order?  
     
    Following on from that query is my second: I assumed the data drive was appearing first in that Priority List in the Adv BIOS Settings as a consequence of its position in the CMOS Standard Features list (i.e. at Channel 1, with the system HDD at Channel 4).  So can these relative positions simply be swapped in that list by shifting the entries?  If so, I probably would do that - just to get the more logical priority in place.   Or can that change can only be done by recabling?  If so, I'll probably leave it.
     
    Thanks again and sorry for not being clearer.

    SONAR Platinum rolling updates:  Intel i7 2600k on Gigabyte P67A UD 7: 16GB RAM:  W7 x64 Home Premium.
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    Re:HDD BIOS settings 2011/12/09 15:07:06 (permalink)
    jcschild


    what i want to know is why it shows IDE anything if you have a P67/2600
    you should have not installed in IDE mode...

    the OS drive should have been placed on channel 0
    only time you would place an OS drive elsewhere is if it were an SSD thats Sata 600

    I don't know, I think I read that somewhere else before I posted but that's how it was installed when I got it and I thought the guy who built it would know better than me what would be a good configuration for that MOBO.    I'll look into it, thanks for the heads up.
     

    SONAR Platinum rolling updates:  Intel i7 2600k on Gigabyte P67A UD 7: 16GB RAM:  W7 x64 Home Premium.
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