Question for all the computer tech gurus here

[Red]

I have a laptop and I want to upgrade the firmware on my external DVD-ROM Drive (It's housed in a USB 2.0 Enclosure), but the directions ask me for the IDE postion of the drive- see below.  Does anyone know how I can find the IDE position of my external USB 2.0 DVD-ROM Drive? 

I've looked everywhere in Windows XP and can't find the IDE position of this external USB DVD drive.  I don't want to mess up and flash another drive with this firmware.  Is it not possible to upgrade the firmware via the external USB 2.0 enclosure?  Is my only other option to find a desktop and hook it up that way?  Thanks.

1. At DOS prompt type:

c:\flashup 1102U00B.dld /*

(Where '*' is the IDE position of the drive)
Primary Master   : 0
Primary Slave    : 1
Secondary Master : 2
Secondary Slave  : 3

2. Follow onscreen instructions

[JimmyU]

You're probably going to need to take the drive out of its case and look at the jumper settings.

[DaOld Man]

I think I would take it out of the case, as JimmyU suggested, set it for slave, then hook it into a computers IDE.
Just to be sure.

[ChadTower]

master/slave shouldn't matter for USB, so I'd definitely take it out and hook it straight in via IDE.  Those positions are going to work on something on your IDE bus rather than the USB.

[DaOld Man]

master/slave shouldn't matter for USB, so I'd definitely take it out and hook it straight in via IDE. 

True, but it will matter if he hooks it into his IDE.
He will also need to change it back to what the jumper was when he puts it back in the usb case.
The USB driver probably needs to see master.

[Red]

OK, thanks guys.

Now being somewhat a non-techie when it comes to opening a desktop PC case, I do know how to set the DVD Drive to slave if it's the same as a hard drive because I did do that to a hard drive before, but then how do I hook it into the computer's hard disk IDE drive?  The computer I will be using only has 1 hard drive, 1 DVD-RW, and 1 CD-ROM drive.  Do I need to buy another IDE cable to do this? 

And once I do have it hooked up as a slave to my computer's hard disk IDE drive, would it then be the Primary Slave?  And how would I tell that it positively is?  I'd hate to screw up.  Thanks again.

1. At DOS prompt type:

c:\flashup 1102U00B.dld /*

(Where '*' is the IDE position of the drive)
Primary Master   : 0
Primary Slave    : 1
Secondary Master : 2
Secondary Slave  : 3

[ChadTower]

True, but it will matter if he hooks it into his IDE.

That was implied.

Can't say I know all do but the USB enclosures I've used are good with cable select.  I wouldn't be surprised if they just don't care given that it is a one device IDE bus.

[DaOld Man]

look for another plug in the ribbon cable going to the hard drive. If there is another plug, connect the dvd drive to it, set dvd drive for slave.
If there is not another plug in the cable, you will need to get one, or you can swap the dvd with one of the other cd drives. then set the dvd jumper to match the jumper of the cd you removed.
There are two IDE channels. (Two ribbon cables). The hard drive (C:\) is primary master. The cd drive connected to this same cable will be primary slave.
The other channel can connect to one or two other drives.
These will be secondary master and slave, depending on each drives jumper. If cable select then it will depend on which plug in the cable the drive is connected to.

Hope this helps.

[MonMotha]

The flash utility probably won't work if the device is on USB, given those options.  Are you actually in DOS (Win9X/DOS) or are you at a command prompt in NT (NT/2k/XP/Vista)?  If you're actually in DOS, the only way it would see the device at all is through BIOS emulation, which tends to be very limited and sometimes unpredictable.