3 hard drives w/ IDE?

[Thyezer]

Can I hook up 3 hard drives on my computer? I have two currently and the info is pretty important. I recently lost my OS and need to reinstall. I would like to add a 3rd HD (internally) and have that dedicated to the OS. Any help would be great!

P.S. Can I use an internal USB port to run an extra drive?


Thanks

 

[dkdude]

An IDE controller has two channels. Each channel can have a master drive and a slave drive. Note that a CDROM counts as a drive.

You can use an external USB drive in addition to these -I have a 120 GB that I use for backup purposes.

I use HD trays to be able to swap between OS'es -I have two different XP setups and one Linux; one system om each drive. Then I can swap drives and start up in whatever system setup I like.

Hope this answers your question.


Jakob

 

[paparazi]

Thyezer
Standard motherboards have two IDE controllers, that's 4 drives, one of which can be a CDrom device.
Master/slave on Primary IDE
Master/Slave on Secondary IDE

It might be advisable in your case, to buy a PCI to IDE controller card (bootable type) which will allow for another 4 drives, this will give you the option of more rom's (DVDwriter etc)and or HDD's
Remember adding all these extra drives requires more power, is your PSU upto the job?
USB2 external hard drives are also another option but in my opinion best used for aditional storage.
Great thing about these external hard drive devices is that once you have backed up you information onto them, you can simply turn them off, this minimise's wear and tear and cuts down on the chances of virusus cross infecting.
Don't forget you need to be using 80core ultra ATA ribbon cables with all newer hard drives (these are the cables with the finer wiring)
Martin



We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[garebo]

If you have 3 hard drives and only one optical drive, that is, only one cdrom or dvdrom drive, then you dont need to install a pci card. Course most people have a cdrom or dvdrom drive and a burner. But if you only have the one optical drive, that is, a cdrom or dvdrom drive, then you have room for 3 hard drives, as you have a total of 4 places in which you can plug in a drive, as mentioned already.

 

[Thyezer]

Great help guys! I do have two burners...one CD only and one DVD/CD...so I could remove the older cd drive and use that spot for the additonal HD. I will try it right away...THANKS AGAIN!

 

[micker377]

Remember, you need two CD's to copy from CD to CD.

 

[garebo]

Yes, you need a cdrom and a burner to copy from cd to cd, but one burner can copy a cd to the hard drive and then make a copy of a cd that way, so you dont need a cdrom and a burner, you only need a burner.
So, you can have the 3 ide hard drives and one burner on your system.
Or, you could pop one of the hard drives into an external usb or firewire case and still have 3 hard drives, a cdrom, and a burner, without a pci ide card.
Or, you can get the pci ide card and go that way.
I have done all of them, personally i would go with the external drive because it frees up an ide slot so you can have the cdrom and burner and still have 3 hard drives.
The external case can be bought for $30 to $40, about the same cost as the pci ide card.

 

[cdogg]

I don't recommend using an external hard drive via firewire or USB 2.0 except for backup purposes, simply because the interfaces are not fast enough.

USB 2.0 maxes out at 60MB/s, and firewire is only 50MB/s. ATA/100/133, and SATA have more than double the bandwidth which is needed during peak transfer times. Don't confuse this with average read/write times, which use less than 40MB/s of bandwidth. But your average will drop to 20-25MB/s since your peaks are limited.

I'll say it again - there's nothing wrong with using external hard drives. Just don't use one as your primary boot drive containing the OS.

The PCI card is an excellent option because you can still get speeds up to 133MB/s! Plus since you're adding 2 more IDE channels, you can give several devices their own channel which increases performance!


~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[TekTippy4U]

to "copy" cds you can easily incorporate an external usb2 cdrw to copy with 'on the fly'

TT4U

Notification:
These are just my thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs

 

[garebo]

Or, he could go out and buy an external usb or firewire case and install a dvd burner in it. Course thats getting into more money.
The only reason i mentioned getting a usb2 or firewire external is that they are so inexpensive, and, if you already have an extra hard drive, then its a lot cheaper, again, only about the same cost as getting a pci ide ultra card. Going with the pci card will give better speeds, but some of us dont worry too much about a bit more speed, others do.
So it becomes a matter of your wallet and what you feel you want. At least there are many good choices here!