Rules for connecting hard drives / cdrom / burners

[Nebooaw]

Hi, does anyone have any rules for connecting hard disks, cdroms, dvd roms, burners, etc... basically i dont want to connect multiple devices without slowing down my hard disks etc...

Hope this makes scence?

 

[bazzert]

Believe that unless you have an old mobo is shouldn't maake any difference how you connect them.

Must admit I still tend to connect HD's on one channel and CD-ROM/RW on another

 

[mikker]

I always hoo my hard drives up as a primary master, leaving the secondary master open for a back up hard drive or secondary hard drive. And use the secondary master and slave for cd roms, dvd roms, ect. But like bazzert said unless you have an old motherboard it really shouldn't make any difference how you connect them.

 

[pintail]

How do you define "old MB" ? A 486, PI, P II ? I am running a P II at home and dont consider that "old" wheras most would.

 

[ceh4702]

A PII is a dinasaur. Newer hard drives are probably too big for it, but the same priciples applly. Newer hard drives may not run at full speed on that and may have to be used with a drive overlay program.

If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[cdogg]

Any motherboard manufactured around 1998 or later uses IDT (Independent Drive Timing). This feature allows IDE to mix multiple ATA and/or PIO modes on one channel. Therefore, you could have an ATA/100 hard drive share the same cable as an ATA/33 CDROM without fear of the hard drive being slowed down. Pintail, I would say in your case you're probably border line as to whether you have this feature or not.

As for the "best" configuration....

Well the "ideal" configuration is to have one device on each channel. I know what you're thinking - "But what if I have more than 2 IDE devices"? Well, in that case you can upgrade your system with a PCI IDE add-in card which can give you one or two additional IDE channels. Just remember that PCI is limited to 133MB/s (or ATA/133), so you wouldn't want to use it for more than one hard drive. Plus it's sharing the bus with other PCI devices.

But of course, all that is not necessary to still get good performance. When combining devices on the same cable, you need to consider how you plan on using your system. If you think you will be copy from HD to CD Burner more often, then make sure both are on separate channels. The same goes for other scenarios like HD to HD or CD-ROM to CD Burner. To get the fastest transfer rates between devices, they should be on opposite channels.

Hope that answers your question...


~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

 

[paparazi]

On that machine HDD's together on primary IDE, DVDrom and CDRW together.
As long as the burner is not "PRE BURNPROOF" putting the two roms on one IDE won't be a problem.
Martin

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

 

[pintail]

As always, great info here! Thanks to ceh4702,& cdogg.