Disabling DVD-ROM Drive

[frogman]

As I don't have any spare 5.25 standard drive bay covers I am really wanting to know the best way of disabling an unused DVD Rom Drive.

The drive I which to disable is currently the Master Primary and my writer is the Slave secondary drive.

I understand all I need to do is to remove the power cable and the IDE cable for the drive that I want to disable, but after I have done this will the Master show in the Bios as what was previously the Slave? or is there anything I need to do to correct this, or does it really matter.

I thought that perhaps the only thing I needed to do was remove the power and IDE cable to the drive concerned, then remove the drive from device manager, is this correct?

I was thinking of removing the drive physically, but someone said being that I have no spare bay covers it would be best to leave it in but just to disconnect it.

One of the reasons I wish to remove this drive as it opens and closes on occasions for no reason, and I have no virus.

All help much appreciated

[lightning slinger]

I thought that perhaps the only thing I needed to do was remove the power and IDE cable to the drive concerned, then remove the drive from device manager, is this correct?

Not exactly!

Before you start make a note of the BIOS settings that are currently in use!

You need to reconnect your drive to the 'Master' connector of your secondary IDE cable, if it's not marked as such, it's the connector at the opposite end from the motherboard connector, (the slave connector is the one between these two), and leave the 'Slave' connector free.

Disconnect the power connector to the old drive.

Check the 'jumper' settings on the back of the required drive are correct, if it has been set to 'Secondary' change the setting either to 'Master' or 'Cable Select'(CS).

In BIOS it's now best to set the 'Slave' on the secondary IDE channel to 'Not installed'. Set the 'Master' to whatever settings that drive was in the original setting for that drive when it was the 'Slave', if something other than 'Auto'. Don't forget to 'Save Changes' before exit of BIOS!

The BIOS should then see the correct drive at the correct position and it should all appear correct in Device Manager.

HTH

[frogman]

You need to reconnect your drive to the 'Master' connector of your secondary IDE cable, if it's not marked as such, it's the connector at the opposite end from the motherboard connector, (the slave connector is the one between these two), and leave the 'Slave' connector free.

When you say reconnect your drive, I take it you are referring to the drive I want to use i.e my Writer?

Check the 'jumper' settings on the back of the required drive are correct, if it has been set to 'Secondary' change the setting either to 'Master' or 'Cable Select'(CS).

I have it set already as cable select which is the 3rd from the left.

Do you think I should leave things as they are until the opening of the drawer on the DVD-ROM starts to get worse? as the burning works fine for the Writer drive.

I also meant to say I have 2 separate IDE cables for the 2 drives, does that make a difference to what you said earlier?

Am I right to say I should move my slave secondary drive which is my DVD writer to the master primary where the drive that I want to disable was originally? In other words moving the slave to the master primary? Have I got that right?

Edited May 4, 2010 by frogman

[frogman]

To be honest I didn't think it was wise to move the writer to the Master being that the hard drive uses the master I thought.

This is the set up showing in Nero Info Tool.

Primary IDE Channel

DVD-ROM Samsung

DMA ON

Autorun Off

-----------------------------------------

Secondary IDE Channel

DVD Writer LG

DMA ON

Autorun Off

-------------------------------------------

Win9xPromise IDE Controller

HDD

Edited May 4, 2010 by frogman

[lightning slinger]

Ah! You didn't say you were using a Promise IDE Controller Card. No Matter, I still stand by what I said in my post but normal way of doing things is the Main Boot HDD is on 'Master' on Primary IDE and any second HDD as 'Slave' on Primary IDE.

The Optical drives on the 'Secondary' IDE channel and the main optical drive DVD-RW as 'Master'.

[frogman]

How do I tell if the main optical drive DVD-RW is on the Master slave channel without opening the case?

Here is the Nero Info Tool as it stands.....is it looking as you expected? for instance does this show the Main Boot HDD on 'Master' on Primary IDE

It is the secondary IDE channel that has the DVD writer attached.

Edited May 4, 2010 by frogman

[lightning slinger]

Right OK!

I see the WD 80 HDD is the only drive on the Promise Card. The unwanted DVD-ROM is the Master on the Primary IDE on the motherboard and the wanted DVD-RW is the Master on the Secondary IDE on the motherboard.

In that case, remove the power plug from the unwanted DVD-ROM and remove completely the IDE cable to that unwanted DVD-ROM. Then move the IDE cable connector from the wanted DVD-RW into the Primary IDE channel socket on the motherboard instead of the Secondary IDE channel socket where it was originally.

Edited May 4, 2010 by lightning slinger

[frogman]

Right OK!

I see the WD 80 HDD is the only drive on the Promise Card. The unwanted DVD-ROM is the Master on the Primary IDE on the motherboard and the wanted DVD-RW is the Master on the Secondary IDE on the motherboard.

In that case, remove the power plug from the unwanted DVD-ROM and remove completely the IDE cable to that unwanted DVD-ROM. Then move the IDE cable connector from the wanted DVD-RW into the Primary IDE channel socket on the motherboard instead of the Secondary IDE channel socket where it was originally.

That makes sense to me alright, I take it that image helped.

Thanks and I will let you know how I get on.

By the way I amended my Bios boot sequence too by disabling the floppy and making the ATA Onboard Boot Device the second, then the DVD writer the third, and of course the floppy disabled being the fourth.

What is an ATA Onboard Boot Device? is it something that all computers have?

[lightning slinger]

Always have the floppy first, then the Main Boot HDD second and the DVD third, some users have floppy first then DVD second and then HDD third as this sequence is needed if you boot from a Linux based Rescue CD etc. If the machine finds no media in either floppy or DVD it will go directly to HDD.

You may by the way need to swap the position of the audio cable from the wanted DVD-RW to the connector on the motherboard that was being used by the DVD-ROM to get any sound.

Edited May 4, 2010 by lightning slinger

[frogman]

I found out some info for the disconnect option in device manager.

After reading it would you say it is good to have it enabled or not?

Use this option if you do not wish to have the specified DVD/CD-ROM drive automatically connected to the virtual machine on its start.

What does that actually mean regarding the virtual machine?

Am I right in that if the disconnect button has no tick then the drive will connect to the virtual machine, but if there is a tick then the drive will not automatically be connected to the virtual machine.

I would also like to know what the differences would mean between the two as in performance etc.

At the moment I have the following ticked for both removable drives.

Disconnect, Sync Data Transfer, and DMA

Edited May 5, 2010 by frogman

[frogman]

You may by the way need to swap the position of the audio cable from the wanted DVD-RW to the connector on the motherboard that was being used by the DVD-ROM to get any sound.

Why would I need to do that as there is an audio cable already connected to the wanted DVD-RW, so please tell me if I have got this right, all I need to do now is remove the IDE cable from the Secondary Channel and move it to the Primary Channel, and also remove the cable connected to the unwanted drive too.

I can understand why you said that though as you may have thought I could only hear music from one of the drives, but I was able to listen from both, so that meant there must have been 2 audio cables connected from both drives to the soundcard.

Please see above post too.

Edited May 5, 2010 by frogman

[lightning slinger]

Leave the settings for the wanted drive just as you had them originally if it was functioning OK, I have those settings checked but never noticed any difference in performance whether the Sync data transfer was checked or not!

Regarding the audio cable, again just leave it where it is if it functions OK, it was just an afterthought that I had come across a couple of M/B's where the 'Master' optical drive HAD to be in the CD audio socket and any 'Slave' optical drive HAD to be in the AUX socket to function.

Any further queries please PM me as this thread is getting a wee bit drawn out!

Edited May 5, 2010 by lightning slinger

[frogman]

Touchwood, but the drawer hasn't opened on it's own since I had unticked the disconnect then ticked it again, so as you say perhaps due to the system telling the drive to open via the IDE cable I have perhaps done a small fix unknown to me.