2nd Drive on notebook is bumping system disk to Disk 1 position.

Hello

I have an HP DV7 notebook that I recently added a second SATA 500 G
hard drive in the expansion bay. The purpose of the drive is to serve a
a data drive. I also intend to store an image of my system disk on thi
internal expansion drive so that I can restore my system and apps when
am in the field. For most purposes the drive seems to be functionin
normally.

However, I recently noticed that, without my instructions, HP Update
were installing suipport files on my expansion disk rather than on m
system disk and I have become concerned that Windows Updates may als
end up on the expansion drive (so far they appear not to have don
this). On further inspection in Computer Management - Disk Managment
discovered that when I put the expansion drive into the 2nd bay, m
original system disk was automatically bumped from the Disk 0 positio
to the Disk 1 position and my expansion disk became the new Disk 0

In Computer Managment - Disk Management the system currently looks lik

Disk 0 - F: Expansion Drive - Healthy, Primary Partitio
Disk 1 - C: - Healthy, System, Boot, Page File, Active, Crash Dump
Primary Partition

If I physically pull out the F: drive from the machine the C: driv
returns to the Disk 0 position

I am concerned that my system and application updates are going to ge
splattered across two drives when I want them to remain on the origina
C: drive

I can find no way in BIOS or Computer Management - Disk Management t
assign the Disk # and physically swapping the drives makes the syste
disk unbootable

1) Am I at risk of splattering my Window updates across two drives

2) Should I instruct Vista to regard my system disk C: as Disk 0 an
how to I do this

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

--
TangentRW

TangentRW wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have an HP DV7 notebook that I recently added a second SATA 500 GB
> hard drive in the expansion bay. The purpose of the drive is to serve as
> a data drive. I also intend to store an image of my system disk on this
> internal expansion drive so that I can restore my system and apps when I
> am in the field. For most purposes the drive seems to be functioning
> normally.
>
> However, I recently noticed that, without my instructions, HP Updates
> were installing suipport files on my expansion disk rather than on my
> system disk and I have become concerned that Windows Updates may also
> end up on the expansion drive (so far they appear not to have done
> this). On further inspection in Computer Management - Disk Managment I
> discovered that when I put the expansion drive into the 2nd bay, my
> original system disk was automatically bumped from the Disk 0 position
> to the Disk 1 position and my expansion disk became the new Disk 0.
>
> In Computer Managment - Disk Management the system currently looks like
>
> Disk 0 - F: Expansion Drive - Healthy, Primary Partition
> Disk 1 - C: - Healthy, System, Boot, Page File, Active, Crash Dump,
> Primary Partition.
>
> If I physically pull out the F: drive from the machine the C: drive
> returns to the Disk 0 position.
>
> I am concerned that my system and application updates are going to get
> splattered across two drives when I want them to remain on the original
> C: drive.
>
> I can find no way in BIOS or Computer Management - Disk Management to
> assign the Disk # and physically swapping the drives makes the system
> disk unbootable.
>
> 1) Am I at risk of splattering my Window updates across two drives?
>
> 2) Should I instruct Vista to regard my system disk C: as Disk 0 and
> how to I do this?
>
> Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
>
>


If your bios does not have the option to set which disc is sought first
in the boot order (it should though)

just try switching the data cable's

Hi,

Much software, by design, will create temp folders for downloads where the
most space is available. This is normal, expected behavior. The system will
still install applications to the default location (ie: the \Program Files
directory), the same goes for Windows Updates (the location of the system
directories cannot be moved in any case). The drive enumeration occurs
because that is the way your system BIOS handles the connection points, it
really shouldn't be a problem.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
Vote for my shoe: http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"TangentRW" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Hello,
>
> I have an HP DV7 notebook that I recently added a second SATA 500 GB
> hard drive in the expansion bay. The purpose of the drive is to serve as
> a data drive. I also intend to store an image of my system disk on this
> internal expansion drive so that I can restore my system and apps when I
> am in the field. For most purposes the drive seems to be functioning
> normally.
>
> However, I recently noticed that, without my instructions, HP Updates
> were installing suipport files on my expansion disk rather than on my
> system disk and I have become concerned that Windows Updates may also
> end up on the expansion drive (so far they appear not to have done
> this). On further inspection in Computer Management - Disk Managment I
> discovered that when I put the expansion drive into the 2nd bay, my
> original system disk was automatically bumped from the Disk 0 position
> to the Disk 1 position and my expansion disk became the new Disk 0.
>
> In Computer Managment - Disk Management the system currently looks like
>
> Disk 0 - F: Expansion Drive - Healthy, Primary Partition
> Disk 1 - C: - Healthy, System, Boot, Page File, Active, Crash Dump,
> Primary Partition.
>
> If I physically pull out the F: drive from the machine the C: drive
> returns to the Disk 0 position.
>
> I am concerned that my system and application updates are going to get
> splattered across two drives when I want them to remain on the original
> C: drive.
>
> I can find no way in BIOS or Computer Management - Disk Management to
> assign the Disk # and physically swapping the drives makes the system
> disk unbootable.
>
> 1) Am I at risk of splattering my Window updates across two drives?
>
> 2) Should I instruct Vista to regard my system disk C: as Disk 0 and
> how to I do this?
>
> Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
>
>
> --
> TangentRW

Thank you for your response.

The HP Pavilion DV7T-100 notebook has two drive bays for SATA drives
and came from the factory with one 250 GB system drive in the first bay.
I have added a second 500 GB drive for data and system disk image
storage purposes. So far there have been no obvious useage malfunctions
but some HP update software has been installing support files on the
expansion disk rather than on the system disk. To recap the problem in a
nutshell, when I add the expansion drive (simple partition) it is being
recognized in Computer Managmenet - Disk Management as Disk 0 and the
original system disk is being bumped to the Disk 1 position. This is
happening even though the original system disk has not been touched. I
believe that at least some HP update software is expecting the system
disk to be in the Disk 0 position and I am concerned that Windows
software may also have that same expectation.

Since your reply I have reviewed my system for a second time. I have
reviewed the BIOS settings, the physical bays themselves, HP's service
guide (which I downloaded from HP) and briefly checked Western Digital's
SATA documentation (they manufactured my expansion drive). The HP
service guide was of little use except to confirm that I have physically
installed the hard drives correctly. In the Western Digital
documentation I could find no mention of master-slave relationships in a
pure SATA configuration (and plenty of mention of such relationships in
an EIDE configuration).

When I rechecked the BIOS it recognized the existence of the second
drive and can diagnose both drives (no problems were found). However the
BIOS controls for setting boot order only allow the user to set the boot
order between different kinds of devices (floppy, DVD, hard drives,
network device); it is not possible to set the boot order inside one of
these levels to prioritize one device of the same kind over another.
This is contrary to my own limited experience of the BIOS on other
computers.

That leaves hardware. I have already tried swapping the drives and the
system will not boot so that leaves, as you suggested, changing the
connector cable connections to the disk controller itself and possibly
changing jumpers (if any) on the disk controller. If that is the only
way to solve the problem, that is the only way. However, in this case
that clearly will not be a trivial task and I will have to employ an
experienced technician to do that. The hard drive connector wires are
buried under the main chassis of the notebook and accessing the
motherboard will be a major disassembly job.

I guess this is boiling down to determining how serious my problem is.
So before bringing in someone who is more experienced than I am, I will
rephrase my questions to anyone who is interested:

1) Does Windows Vista require that the system disk occupy the Disk 0
position?

2) Is there a method within Vista software to force a system disk to be
recognized as Disk 0? Note that I am not talking about changing the
drive letter; I know how to do that.

Thank you again for your response.


--
TangentRW

philo - Thanks again.

Mr. Rogers - I did not see your reply until after I posted my second
post in response to philo. However, I am going to take to heart your
point that the BIOS is managing the problem in its own way and that
Vista does not depend upon the Disk # for the system disk. I think that
answers my questions. Thank you.


--
TangentRW