Multidrive SuSE Install
 

I have two ide drives I want to use with openSuSE 10.2 the first I want to contain the install and the second I merely want as storage.

I've been able to reformat and install SuSE on the secondary drive and get it to boot on it's own. But it seems impossible to get Linux to recognize this drive when connected in combination with the first.

The main drive is a Seagate and the secondary a Western Digital. It doesn't matter if I set the pin on the Seagate to Master this secondary drive isn't recognized in linux when both are connected.

Is there any way I can set this up at the time of install? I'm about to go to the local MicroCenter store and pay them to set things up for me.

can you see the 2 drives in the bios? or scsi/sata bios? are the 2 drives on the same controller? when you set the seagate to master did you set the wd to slave?

are you trying to boot off the secondary drive? depending on your bios you may only be able to boot off the master.

It doesn't seem to matter if I set the seagate as master or the wd as slave, when both are connected to each other then the motherboard...only one is visible in the bios

it seems like the only way I can get the bios to recognize both drives it to connect them each separately via their own cable and each on a separate eide connection on the motherboard. When I do this I'm unable to connect my dvdrw

is there any way to get my system to see both drives on the same ide cable? this worked before, but I don't know how my jumpers were set then

my motherboard is a Microstar PM8M3-V

It's been a while since I looked at the jumper pins on a hard drive, but, it I remember correctly, there are 5 pair of pins.

Among them, one pair is for Master - Single (meaning it's the only drive in the box), and there is another Master (for multiple drives, it's the primary master). Then the second drive must have the jumper set for Slave.

It's possible you have the jumper pin for the Master on the wrong pair of pins. Move it to the other Master for multiple drives.

Then verify that the WD has the pins set for Slave.

Then check the BIOS to see that the Seagate is set to Primary Master, and the WD set to Primary Slave.

Beyond that, perhaps a BIOS upgrade is in order.

Part of the problem is that each of the drives I'm using is by a different manufacturer. The Seagate has only four rows of jumper pins, whereas the Western Digital has five. I followed the instructions from the WD site (and set the Seagate as 'cable select' as it's first on the ide channel) but the bios on my Microstar mobo doesn't see both drives with this configuration.

ok i think you are jumpering the drives wrong.

if you have 2 drives on a single controller you need to have 1 master and 1 slave.
(you can use cable select if your ide controller supports it but i would doubt it unless it is sata)

if you put 2 drives on seperate controller then both drives need to be set as master/single or just single. Some drives have a seperate pin for single and some need no pins to be single. check the docs.


*** a long time ago i remember a problem with wd and maxtor that would cause the drives to not be seen if they were on the same controller but this was like 10 years ago with 1gb and 500mb drives. probably doesnt apply but anyways.

I've tried both having the Master (Seagate) set as Master and as Cable Select in addition to the Slave (Western Digital) being set to Slave and either way my bios doesn't see both drives when attached to the same ide

Why not set one drive as master on its own cable, set other to master on its own cable, then set dvdrw as slave to one of the hard drives? I have encountered problems with hard drives using master/slave if they are using a cable select cable. The easy way to tell if it is a cable select, it will say master, slave near the plug; or hard drive one, hard drive two; or hard drive/ cdrom. Cable select does work, only if both drives are set to cable select, and both are on a cable select cable.