Manuals

EIDE Subsystem: Dell Dimension XPS M166s/M200s/M233s

The EIDE subsystem includes 2 EIDE interfaces (primary and secondary), each of which can support up to 2 EIDE devices such as high-capacity EIDE hard-disk drives, CD-ROM drives, and tape drives.

When an EIDE tape drive or CD-ROM drive is connected to the same interface connector as a hard-disk drive, the performance of the hard-disk drive is degraded. Therefore, the primary EIDE interface should be used for connecting hard-disk drives only. Any EIDE tape drives or CD-ROM drives should be connected to the secondary EIDE interface.

When two EIDE drives are connected to a single EIDE interface cable, a master/slave relationship must be defined between the two drives so that they will operate correctly while cabled together.

Assigning the master and slave designations usually involves resetting jumpers on the circuit card on the underside of each drive. The master/slave relationship is defined in different ways for different types of drives. For details about your specific drive, refer to the drive documentation included with the drive. When you replace a drive, look at the jumpers on the removed drive to set the jumpers on the replacement drive.