i saw a mod on techtv's site talking where you could flip a switch and it would either connect or disconnect the jumpers on a hd, and either turning on the "master" setting, or having it result in cable select since no jumpers would be activated. i need to do this, but i've found that a lot of my HDs need a jumper of some sort to be set to the master or cable select setting. here's a (uber paint skillz) pic, then i'll explain basically, there's going to be a total of 2 jumpers on each hd and i'd like the have it so that when the switch is in one position, it behaves like the first part of the pic, and of course, when the switch is in the other position, have the other jumpers activated instead. how would i do this? (i want to have just one switch - probably a key switch - to change between the settings) *EDIT* i found the techtv article i was talking about. look at it here
Im going to try and figure out a correct way to switch the HD's with the jumpers only.. keep in mind i know that theres that default to cable select thing. But I like to do things the hard way anyway. For those of you who read what was here earlier.. i was really tired and what i wrote.. was craptastically retarded!
thanks prans7er! my, uh... search button was broken? anyways, i was trying to get it to where i could have both drives accessed (depending on which OS i'm running) but some one in another thread windows has trouble reading linux drives anyways so ill just have one active at a time. in the thread pranks7er posted, i found this link and it looks like what i need, but i'm a bit confused on how it works. it's got 3 positions: left-HD 1, middle- no HD, right-HD 2. but i don't understand how it prevents both HDs from booting up and being detected by the OS. all they seem to do is turn on/off the master jumpers on each one. (it might make more sense once i get some sleep )
What i have figured out already... is that i dont know a **** thing about electronics.. if i did.. i could have a decent circuit... but im so unsure of it that id make a bet it would kill a HD to try it!
from http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/howto/story/0,24330,3425846,00.html this one uses a SPDT switch
Could anybody point me in the direction of a good tutorial for electronics? I'm having no luck finding something useful!
da_bacon, the point is the siwtch just ocmpletes the circuit of the jumpers on the hard drives,, when there are no jumpers it should normmaly be on cable select. thats how tech tv explains it.
yeah, but thats the problem - i'm lookin at a western digital drive right now and for cable select, it requires a jumper, and for master, it still requires a jumper. also pranks7er, i said i need/want to use a keyswitch, and all the keyswitches i've seen have only been spst, so that method won't work. another thing: now all i'm worried about is having one drive active at a time, so i can cut the power off to one or something, but my main problem is the fact that the keyswitch is only spst. (i hope i havent confused the poop out of anyone ) *EDIT* i know zap did something this complex with the usb ports, power, rest, and cd buttons on his lan pc and they can all be turned on/off with just one keyswitch. he used a relay, but i have next to zero knowledge of electronics, so i don't know how to wire something like that up. *EDIT EDIT!* i was lookin for info on this and happened to come across this same thing but on an xbox. they said that you could cut pin 23 on the ide cable and the drive would not be detected. is this true? even if it is, i think i'll still have the problem with the spst thing
You may need Zaps Help try getting his attention by changing title to Zapwizard please Help with harddrive switch!!!
If you want to do it the jumpers way, you could, but I wasn't satisfied with that, so I worked about 2 months on this, with help from Zap, and others. It uses a SPDT Key switch ( to prevent accidental switching, and switches which drive is powered on to switch them, the beatuty of this, is it will work for my main system so I can run Linux on a craptastic drive, but still have my media drive and windows drive that are accessed when the switch is in the windows position. I'm tried to figure out a way to make it so that no matter what I did, it wouldn't switch while th epower was on, but I never did, so a keyswitch was the only way I could be sure of that. Unfortuanately I lost the diagram for it, so I'll make a better one if anyone wants it.
Shwang, a diagram would be great! also, do you remember where you got a spdt keyswitch from? the only ones i've found have been spst. thanks!
About the keyswitch. Well Maplin has them, but I don't know where you can find them in NA. I found one in my local radshack. You could also try searching around local garages to see if you can find one from an old car that works like you need. Just make sure you have at least 1 extra key, and get more cut so that you don't lose them. I also reccomend storing one inside your case, taped down. I'll work on the diagram tonight. If you got any questions just ask. I remember asking and not many people were helpful. How old are your drives anyway? I haven't seen a drive that needed jumpers to operate in CS in a long time.
i've found a few places that sell spdt keyswitches, so i've got that part covered one of them (the one i'll use for linux) is a good couple years old, so thats probably why it needs jumpers, but im gonna try to plan this so just in case i get a new drive that still needs jumpers
Too much work! I dont know about messing with circuits! This place makes it for you www.romtecusa.com, found them on TechTV also http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/products/story/0,24330,3421982,00.html What do you guys think about the Trios II Plus? I don't think I can use a Trios II on my asus P4C800.
Damn it I'm an idiot. I've deleted the diagram asecond time, but it's the weekend so I should have a better chance to redo it without interuption. Sorry anyone who was waiting with baited breath.
