switching primary IDE and 2ndary IDE

[bleucheese]

About a few weeks ago, my computer started slowing down a lot. I checked my hard drive, ram, everything...it all seemed to be fine. And then i noticed that the fan on my mobo chip had stopped spinning. Dust had caused it to stop, and i wasnt sure if there was permanent damage or anything to the mobo. SO i was about to buy a new mobo, but to try something before, i put my first and second hard drives, which had been on the primary IDE channel, on the 2nd one, and put my DVD drive and CDRW drive on the primary one. Now my computer seems to be running back to normal. So either something is up with the Primary IDE channel, or the IDE cable. What I'm wondering is, is it alright to have my hard drives on the 2nd channel?

-Roshan

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

There aren't any problems running your HDDs on the second channel AFAIK.

 

[PCHPlayer]

I don't know the answer to your question, but I can probably explain the performance problems. More than likely Windows detected errors on the hard drive and reduced it to PIO mode. When you moved the drives to the other channel Windows reset the mode back to Bus Master. If this was the problem, the solution is to remove the IDE controller and the hard drive, then reboot.

 

[crapito]

Primary is to Secondary as A is to B; Black is to White; 1 is to 2; Left is to Right; etc...

thus, in theory, it won't matter what drive is plugged into what slot. the bus mastering crap PCHPlayer mentioned is likely your problem.