Scythifuge wrote on 2021-06-28, 22:59:

Greetings, […]
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Greetings,

Setting things up the way I want them in this Gateway case I am using leaves little to be desired, on account that the drive letters are backwards. I have a DVD-ROM which is the secondary master with an LS-120 as the slave, and an SD-to-IDE drive as the primary master, with a CD-RW drive as the slave. I would like the DVD drive to be D:. However, the PC assigns D: to the CD-RW. Is there a way, with MSCDEX and with a driver (using VIDE) to force drives to use certain drive letters, or will I have to rearrange all of the drives?

Thanks!
Scythifuge

This should let you specify the letter of the first optical drive

1/D:driver specifies the driver signature of the first CD-ROM device driver. This parameter must match the /D switch on the CONFIG.SYS command that starts the corresponding CD-ROM device driver. The MSCDEX command must include at least one /D switch. 
2
3/L:letter - Specifies the drive letter to assign to the first CD-ROM drive. If you have more than one CD-ROM drive, MS-DOS assigns additional CD-ROM drives subsequent available driver letters.
4

From https://web.csulb.edu/~murdock/mscdex.html

darry wrote on 2021-06-28, 23:05:

This should let you specify the letter of the first optical drive […]
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Scythifuge wrote on 2021-06-28, 22:59:

Greetings, […]
Show full quote

Greetings,

Setting things up the way I want them in this Gateway case I am using leaves little to be desired, on account that the drive letters are backwards. I have a DVD-ROM which is the secondary master with an LS-120 as the slave, and an SD-to-IDE drive as the primary master, with a CD-RW drive as the slave. I would like the DVD drive to be D:. However, the PC assigns D: to the CD-RW. Is there a way, with MSCDEX and with a driver (using VIDE) to force drives to use certain drive letters, or will I have to rearrange all of the drives?

Thanks!
Scythifuge

This should let you specify the letter of the first optical drive

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1/D:driver specifies the driver signature of the first CD-ROM device driver. This parameter must match the /D switch on the CONFIG.SYS command that starts the corresponding CD-ROM device driver. The MSCDEX command must include at least one /D switch. 
2
3/L:letter - Specifies the drive letter to assign to the first CD-ROM drive. If you have more than one CD-ROM drive, MS-DOS assigns additional CD-ROM drives subsequent available driver letters.
4

From https://web.csulb.edu/~murdock/mscdex.html

Thank you, it is a start! The system is listing drive #0 as a slave drive, and drive #1 as a master drive, and processing drive #0 first. I tried /L:E, but it made the drives E: and F:. I have to figure out if I can tell it to assign D: to drive #1 and E: to drive #0.

Why not swap the cables over? Wouldn't that be much easier? DOS typically assigns drive letters to fixed drives first, in the order they are seen, then does the same for optical and other removable drives. I would think that drivers did the same back in the day.

debs3759 wrote on 2021-06-28, 23:41:

Why not swap the cables over? Wouldn't that be much easier? DOS typically assigns drive letters to fixed drives first, in the order they are seen, then does the same for optical and other removable drives. I would think that drivers did the same back in the day.

I will need to order longer cables in order to do this, or swap the drives into different bays. This particular case has an unorthodox layout. It is the same case I had with my Gateway (last PC I ever had before building my own.) I moved my project over to it for nostalgia, and am trying to maintain the same drive layout, with the main difference being that I am using an SD-to-IDE drive as my Primary Master, giving me four devices, where my old Gateway had a DVD-ROM in the top bay, an LS-120 in the first 3.5 bay, a CD-RW in the 2nd 5.25 bay, and an internal 3.5 HDD. I am hoping to find a way to keep the drives where they are, but if there isn't a way to tell the computer to swap drives #0 and #1 into #1 and #0, I will have to find long IDE cables that will allow for a game of PC Twister, or say screw it and move the drives around into a different configuration. I am attaching a pic of the same case:

EDIT: Looking at the pic and seeing the drive bay layout, from top to bottom, my drives are:

1. DVD-ROM (Secondary Master, trying to make this D:)
2. LS-120 (Secondary Slave, will always be A:)
3. CD-RW (Primary Slave, gets set to D: - trying to make it E:)
4. Live! Drive (stand alone)
5. 3.5" SD-to-IDE drive (Primary Master, must remain as C:)

Oh, I see the problem in that case. I use round cables - not retro, but better for air flow and allow for more distance between drives. They do often leave a lot of cable that needs tucking aside though.

debs3759 wrote on 2021-06-29, 01:18:

Oh, I see the problem in that case. I use round cables - not retro, but better for air flow and allow for more distance between drives. They do often leave a lot of cable that needs tucking aside though.

I am using one set of round cables and trying to find a 2nd set that I know I have around here, somewhere. I also have what looks like an 8" IDE extension cable, though it has all 40 pins whereas newer cables have that one pin blocked off, but I do have some compatible flat cables, so I may be able to make this work. I am also checking ebay for suitable cables (I found a very long molex power cable and a long floppy cable and a floppy extension which I will buy and use to make an external 5.25 floppy drive with a Procom chassis.)

I'm also researching what can be done on the software side. I find it difficult to believe that drive letters can be swapped under Windows 98, but not in DOS upon which Windows is built. I found out about a command that was a regular part of DOS up to DOS 5, but included on the DOS 6.22 Supplemental disk, called ASSIGN. I don't have the Supplemental disk, so I'm trying to find a site where I can download it and see if that works. I wish that there was a switch for VIDE-CDD.SYS or MSCDEX to swap drives #0 and #1, or to set the drive letter by address, since VIDE displays the drive number and what their addresses are. Another option, which I doubt will work, is to set a lower last drive letter to see if the system will force the DVD-ROM as D: rather than F:.

Awareness, we went through a period of a few years where either the cables were crappy enough or the interfaces tweaky enough that this http://www.dansdata.com/rcables.htm was a bit of an issue. Either the spec improved or the cables did, for a couple of years before SATA was the new way. Anyhoo, could run into it with vintage ATA66 to ATA133 stuff.

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-06-29, 03:02:

Awareness, we went through a period of a few years where either the cables were crappy enough or the interfaces tweaky enough that this http://www.dansdata.com/rcables.htm was a bit of an issue. Either the spec improved or the cables did, for a couple of years before SATA was the new way. Anyhoo, could run into it with vintage ATA66 to ATA133 stuff.

I wish that I could use SATA cables for this set up, hehe... Well, Using IDE adds to the nostalgia factor. I never did run into a cable length issue, though I have had a couple of IDE cables go bad.

At any rate, I downloaded the MS-DOS 6.22 supplement disk image as I don't have one with my DOS 6.22 floppies, but I haven't tried ASSIGN, yet. The one round IDE cable I have at hand allowed me to keep the DVD-ROM as Secondary Master, and reach the CD-RW and make it the Secondary Slave. The flat ribbon cable would not allow for me to reach the LS-120 from the SD-to-IDE drive, though that little IDE extension cable solved that. It is funny, as I originally bought it for a CF-to-IDE drive, but the project had changed and I no longer needed it for that purpose, though I have had it for a month or less and found a use for it. Another thing that makes it funny is that I have never owned an IDE extension cable in my life, and I have worked on a myriad of PC projects over the years, including other projects with quirks that required quirky components or solutions. The solution turned out to be a hardware solution after all, though I still want to test ASSIGN and look for other possible ways to solve this conundrum through software.