win partition issue

[ckamin]

and there was certainly no offence intended by it.

No real offence taken either. I just like the challenge on occasion and am used to the confrontation. It's something about being born in NY and raised on strong coffee, along with frequent steroid injections. If you can't tell by my accent (can't seem to find a keyboard configured as NY), it's the attitude that really gives it away. I promise to drink decaf on occasion, although it's like having intercourse without a partner.

You were curious about the old WD drive issues, where they would not play nicely with other drives. Look at the following link for one explanation.: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/conf.htm
WD is not the only culprit, just the most commonly encountered.

It reads: As long as one drive is jumpered as master and the other as slave, any two IDE/ATA/ATAPI devices should work together on a single channel. Unfortunately, some older hard disks will fail to work properly when they are placed on a channel with another manufacturer's disk. One of the reasons why drives don't always "play nicely together" has to do with the Drive Active / Signal Present (/DASP) signal. This is an IDE/ATA interface signal carried on pin #39, which is used for two functions: indicating that a drive is active (during operation), and also indicating that a slave drive is present on the channel (at startup). Some early drives don't handle this signal properly, a residue of poor adherence to ATA standards many years ago. If an older slave drive won't work with a newer master, see if your master drive has an "SP" (slave present) jumper, and if so, enable it. This may allow the slave drive to be detected.

A few good links for cabling and drive configuration info:

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confCS-c.html

http://www.ata-atapi.com/

http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/h...le-select.html

http://www.unixwiz.net/techtips/ide-cable-select.html

Now about that FUD. I am not one to play the part of Chicken Little and knowingly spread it around. The sky is not falling, at least not yet. I have extensive experience with PCs and have observed many strange behaviors over the years, just like the weather, cars, wives, ex-wives, girlfriends, and children. They are all unpredictable, some require maintenance, and all do weird things on occasion. I have encountered a few Compaq DeskPro EN workstations, I believe the 6500 is one, that do not appear to work with an ATA drive attached with jumper settings other than cable select. Some Dells, Optiplex series with late P2 or early P3 cpu, had displayed the same preference as did one HP that I can recall. All issues were resolved simply by setting the drive to CS. Exactly why that was, I am at a loss, but I suspect it may be a cable or bios issue. These systems were all about 5 years old and were being re-purposed and distributed out to various locations. I still have one of the DeskPros here and intend to experiment with it when I get the chance. I am attempting to locate some of the others, so I might have some more data to work with. It might just be that these large OEMs are notorious for using proprietary hardware and who knows just what they can do to it. The issue is duplicatable on the units I have encountered.

Here is a link to an odd post in a forum. This is what sometimes happens when inexperienced people set out to build their own.: http://www.flexbeta.net/forums/lofiv...php/t6287.html It appears that they may have encountered some issue of a similar nature.

In any event, I apologise if my reaction appeared a little severe. It's just what I do and have done for many years when the need arises. I have seen many situations where a group of people run around peeing on each other's legs and forgetting what their original purpose was. It usually required some "counselling" and "direction", or some sort of wake-up call to get them focused on their objectives again.

The main thing is simply that the original poster resolved the issue. Possibly guided by some of the information posted here, or entirely by himself. It's fixed, it now works, and he has found happiness and joy!

[JBN]

JBN Wrote:
Guess what? IDE cable went south, I dont know why, I just replaced it with a new one and everything is ok now.

JBN, Great job on the diagnosis AND thank you so much for posting back with your solution!

Well, I couldnt have done it without help I got here

Knoppix project has win over yet another win$hit user. Me.


I would have ditched win OS long time ago but I need certain programs (photoshop, flash, DWW etc...) that run only under win...


As for jumper & hdd configuration, all I can say is that with some hard drives only CS works, with others master/slave and with some (old matrox, for example), combination of both...

:P

[JBN]

Tnx for the links!

The main thing is simply that the original poster resolved the issue. Possibly guided by some of the information posted here, or entirely by himself. It's fixed, it now works, and he has found happiness and joy!

You can say that againi!



With dead drive and IDE cable dying, knoppix and this forum saved me a lot of time and some bucks too.

[ckamin]

JBN Wrote:
Tnx for the links!

You are quite welcome!

JBN Wrote:
Well, I couldnt have done it without help I got here

It just might have taken you longer, but it is nice to have a group of people to bounce the problem off of. Sometimes we get reminded of what we have everlooked. Sometimes we get set on the right track by something that someone says. Something as simple a a drive cable can take hours to diagnose. I usually try to isolate the problem to the drive or to the system. That's why I hook the drive up to another system to eliminate many possibilities. If it is the system, it is usually a quick fix, once the drive has been eliminated from the list. I replace the cables on my bench regularly, since they are installed and removed many times and they eventually fail from the stress. They get cut up and dumped. I don't want them getting back into a system and causing problems like the one you encountered. Thanks for the positive feedback.

JBN Wrote:
You can say that againi!

The main thing is simply that the original poster resolved the issue. Possibly guided by some of the information posted here, or entirely by himself. It's fixed, it now works, and he has found happiness and joy!

JBN Wrote:
Knoppix project has win over yet another win$hit user. Me.

Welcome to the Club!

JBN Wrote:
I would have ditched win OS long time ago but I need certain programs (photoshop, flash, DWW etc...) that run only under win...

I look for alternatives. Gimp has almost replaced Photosnot for me, but there are some legitimate uses for a Winblows machine. I keep a Mac handy too, just in case I feel the need.

JBN Wrote:
As for jumper & hdd configuration, all I can say is that with some hard drives only CS works, with others master/slave and with some (old matrox, for example), combination of both...

We should leave THAT discussion alone for the time being. It appears the issue has stirred up some strong feelings in that regard. My experience tells me that ANYTHING is a possibility and to look for a solution to the problem. If you find a cure for cancer and it means eating bat poop to keep on living, even though you would prefer not to, what are the alternatives? Don't question the cure, just reap the benefits of finding a solution.

Again, I'm pleased that your concern was resolved. Hope you keep working with Knoppix and Linux in general. We can use all of the converts we can get!

Thanks again for your thoughtful reply!

[JBN]

It just might have taken you longer, but it is nice to have a group of people to bounce the problem off of. Sometimes we get reminded of what we have everlooked. Sometimes we get set on the right track by something that someone says. Something as simple a a drive cable can take hours to diagnose. I usually try to isolate the problem to the drive or to the system. That's why I hook the drive up to another system to eliminate many possibilities. If it is the system, it is usually a quick fix, once the drive has been eliminated from the list. I replace the cables on my bench regularly, since they are installed and removed many times and they eventually fail from the stress. They get cut up and dumped. I don't want them getting back into a system and causing problems like the one you encountered. Thanks for the positive feedback.

Yes.

Old cable is already in a trash outside.

Yes, I seem to stressed the cable quite a lot during last few days. All that pluging/unpluging was bad karma for it... LOL

Anyhow, in this case, a network would do the trick as well. I will build one ASAP.

The main thing is simply that the original poster resolved the issue. Possibly guided by some of the information posted here, or entirely by himself. It's fixed, it now works, and he has found happiness and joy!

LOL :P

I look for alternatives. Gimp has almost replaced Photosnot for me, but there are some legitimate uses for a Winblows machine. I keep a Mac handy too, just in case I feel the need.

I have heard of Gimp, yes.

Will look into it, no doubt.

We should leave THAT discussion alone for the time being. It appears the issue has stirred up some strong feelings in that regard. My experience tells me that ANYTHING is a possibility and to look for a solution to the problem. If you find a cure for cancer and it means eating bat poop to keep on living, even though you would prefer not to, what are the alternatives? Don't question the cure, just reap the benefits of finding a solution.

Yep.

Again, I'm pleased that your concern was resolved. Hope you keep working with Knoppix and Linux in general. We can use all of the converts we can get!

Thanks again for your thoughtful reply!

Do converts get some special treatement, like few gallons of (non-alcho) beer?
LOL

cheers

[ckamin]

JBN Wrote:
Do converts get some special treatement, like few gallons of (non-alcho) beer?

If you were closer (I'm in the Eastern US, at least for today, tomorrow is another question), I would probably buy you a beer at the local watering hole. High test or not (non-Alcohol), it's almost less expensive than gasoline these days.

Regards from accross the BIG bay!

[JBN]

JBN Wrote:
Do converts get some special treatement, like few gallons of (non-alcho) beer?

If you were closer (I'm in the Eastern US, at least for today, tomorrow is another question), I would probably buy you a beer at the local watering hole. High test or not (non-Alcohol), it's almost less expensive than gasoline these days.

Regards from accross the BIG bay!