Simple PC drive question

[tivonerd]

I'm getting started on my tivo upgrade project. I downloaded both the mfstools linux and the weaknees linux, and burned 2 iso CDs. Then I played around with my win98 machine and determined the following drive layout:

hda = 40GB Maxtor (my original hard drive "C")
hdb = 120GB Maxtor (a second hard drive I added "D")
hdc = DVD ROM Drive (came with PC now "E")
hdd = CDRW Drive (came with PC now "F")

If I put a bootable cd in hdc (the DVD ROM drive), and restart, the PC will boot from the CD. If I put the bootable CD in the hdd drive (CDRW) the PC will boot from the hda ("C") drive.

So I guess I'm going to put the tivo drives in hdb and hdd? Is that OK? Any problem with them both being in "slave" slots? How can I be sure that the PC's not going to change it's mind and boot from hdb or hdd when I swap the tivo drives in?

Is there any way to be sure that my PC (an old dell dimension XPS B 600r P3 machine) has the required fat 32 thing that I need for the backup?

[spike2k5]

If you set the jumpers on the cdroms and drives and connect to Primary ide channel or secondary ide channel, then you can't go wrong.

Primary master will be hda
Primary slave will be hdb
2nd master will be hdc
2nd slave will be hdd

You have win98 so you should be good but don't boot to win98 with TiVo drives connected.
You can connect TiVo drives on any slot as long as you use the correct commands to backup and restore.

[HomeUser]

So I guess I'm going to put the tivo drives in hdb and hdd? Is that OK? Any problem with them both being in "slave" slots? How can I be sure that the PC's not going to change it's mind and boot from hdb or hdd when I swap the tivo drives in?

Is there any way to be sure that my PC (an old dell dimension XPS B 600r P3 machine) has the required fat 32 thing that I need for the backup?

Personal preference I like to put the TiVo drives as the master drive on different IDE channels that way I do not have to change the jumper position when I transfer the drives between the TiVo and PC also keeps the PC from booting the windows drive.

MFStools won't have any problem with the TiVo drive in any of the 4 positions if you are transferring and keeping recordings between drives the upgrade will go faster when the source and destination drives are on different IDE channels (cables).

Win95 and 98 do not support NTFS so your partitions are FAT16 or FAT32 both will work for making the small backup file.

Check your BIOS boot configuration remove booting from the other IDE drives if that option is available.