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Precision T5810 Two DVD drives, How do I change the one that is used to boot from when booting from optical drive
My Precision T5819 came with two DVD RW drives, one a slim line 8x, HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GTA0N SCSI CdRom Device, the other a full size 16x PLDS DVD+-RW DH-16AES SCSI CdRom Device.
To boot from a bootable CD (e.g. Acronis image recovery disc) at present it is the slimline drive (E:\) that is recognised from the boot once boot from optical drive menu. I would prefer it if it were the other one (currently F\:). What do I need to do to get the drives swapped in the system (so the 16x drive becomes E\: and from which I can boot, and the slim line drive becomes F\:)? Is it merely a matter of interchanging where they are plugged in, or is there a bios option (or both??)
RoHe
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September 16th, 2015 16:00
JR-
Guess swapping cables may be you're only other choice. Reboot and press F2 to open BIOS setup. Copy down all current settings, just to be safe. :emotion-5:
Then power off, unplug and press/hold power button for ~15 sec before opening the case.
If these are SATA optical drives, and the data cables reach, don't bother swapping drive bays. Just swap the cables. If they're IDE drives connected to the same wide ribbon cable, you might have to swap them in the drive bays. The one you want to make bootable should be connected at the end of the IDE ribbon cable, and the other one to the middle connector.
Once that's done, remove the motherboard battery and press/hold power button for ~30 sec to force BIOS to check hardware after you reinstall the battery. Then reboot normally from the HDD.
If you get any errors booting from the HDD, reboot again and press F2 to go into BIOS again. Make sure all BIOS settings match what you wrote down, or change to match. Save the changes and exit setup.
Assuming everything is working now, try to boot from whichever is your preferred optical drive.
You may have to check drive letter assignments again in Windows Management Console once it's working the way you want.
Or just learn to live with it the way it is...
RoHe
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September 14th, 2015 18:00
You may be able to re-assign drive letters in the Windows Management Console.
You'll have to assign an unused drive letter to the current drive E:, eg make it drive G:. Then change drive F: to E, and finally, change drive G: to F:.
Reboot when done and confirm drive letter assignments.
JRosenfeld
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September 16th, 2015 16:00
Unfortunately reassigning the drive letters simply changes the order of the drives in Windows Explorer. Booting from DVD drive from still uses the same drive as before (the slim line 8x, which had the drive letter E, now F). What I would like is for the 16x drive (was F, now E in Explorer) to be the one from which I can boot from menu. In the BIOS, they are shown as DVD drives 0 and 1, respectively from which I presume it is the one marked 0 which is the one from which one can boot. But I cannot find a way to swap them round in the BIOS . Should I try swapping the cables round and if so will that be automatically recognised in the BIOS?
Or maybe just leave well alone??
JRosenfeld
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September 17th, 2015 05:00
Thanks for your clear instructions. However I think I'll take the cautious approach and stick with the way it is. Not worth the risk of my messing up altogether.
I'll mark your answer to indicate case closed.
RoHe
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September 17th, 2015 13:00
Good approach. If it ain't broke, don't break it! :emotion-2: