Geoff Cox wrote:
> On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 18:37:55 -0500, Joel <Joel@NoSpam.com> wrote:
>
>> Geoff Cox <gcox@freeuk.notcom> wrote:
>>
>> <snip>
>>> 'afraid the drives are identical in make and size!
>>>
>>> plus! as I said I had the previous bad experience with the 50:50
>>> approach in that the PC failed to boot off what wa the D: drive but
>>> after putting the C: drive back I couldn't access the D: drive.
>>>
>>> can I tell which is which from the cables?
>>>
>>> Cheers
>> You may not be able to tell from the cable *unless* you know which PORT
>> the cable connected to. Example Port-0 is usually drive C: and Port-2 is
>> drive D
>>
>> Of course with EIDE which you can connect up to 2 EDIE devices to same
>> PORT, and drive D can be changed depending on how you FDISK your drive
>> (partition). But drive C still on Port-0
>>
>> So, I guess it should work the same with SATA.
>
> Joel,
>
> I have just found a diagram of the motherboard on the Net and it shows
> the two SATA sockets, SATA 0 and SATA 1 so I assume SATA 0 is the C:
> drive and SATA 1 is the D: - could this be wrong?!
>
> Cheers
>
> Geoff

I can give you an approach, but it isn't completely foolproof.

Download a copy of HDTach.

http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public...request=HdTach

When it starts up, there will be a menu with hard drives in it.
The drive letter (C:) is shown to the left of the rest of the
drive identity information.

Start the Quick Bench running, by clicking the "Run Test" button.
When you get to the "Random Access Test", the head on the disk
will fly around, and the drive will shake a bit. The drive with
the shakes, will in that case, be the C: drive (because you selected
C: from the test menu).

Why isn't the test foolproof ? Because the vibration shakes the
whole frame of the computer case. I tried my C: drive and
my E: drive, and I could feel the shaking in the C: drive in
both cases. So it'll be a judgment call, as to which one is
doing the shaking, during the Random Access test.

The C: drive is not related to the SATA port. Your C: could be
connected to SATA 0 or to SATA 1. Perhaps looking at the drive
serial number in the BIOS, or with a utility, and looking for a
sticker on the outside of the drive, with the same information,
would be another way to do it. I have one drive, that does have
the serial number printed on the outside. And a more recent
drive from the same company, where there is no serial number
on the outside. I bet that saved a whole penny of manufacturing
cost, by not printing the serial number on it. And makes it
real easy to determine if the warranty is still valid, if that
drive dies on me (fat lot of good a serial number stored on
the platters is going to do, if the drive fails).

Paul