Using 7200RPM-UDMA with an old HD

[Guest_imported]

i've got an western digital 30GB 7200RPM UDMA 100 hard drive installed as primary master.
i've got this old WD 3GB non-UDMA (just DMA) HD i want to install as primary slave.
i was wondering if doing so will in some way hurt the performance of the faster drive? (since their both connected to the same IDE controller).

 

[butchrecon]

Most definatly yes. The Ultra ATA 100 Drive will have to slow down to accomodate the Old hard drive and its speed. I suggest putting the old hard drive on as Secondary Slave. James Collins
Field Service Engineer
A+, MCP

email: butchrecon@skyenet.net

Please let us (Tek-tips members) know if the solutions we provide are helpful to you. Not only do they help you but they may help others.

 

[Guest_imported]

inorder to connect the old HD to the secondary i will have to move either a DVD or CDRW to the primary with the fast HD, will this damage its performance?
(meaning - "throw that old HD away!&quot

 

[butchrecon]

Ither way you will damage the performance. Anyway then keep the hard drives togeather. Your performance issues will be due to the old slow HDD. Other than that you should do ok. I suggest not even using the 3GB HD. Just stick with the 30 gig. James Collins
Field Service Engineer
A+, MCP

email: butchrecon@skyenet.net

Please let us (Tek-tips members) know if the solutions we provide are helpful to you. Not only do they help you but they may help others.

 

[Guest_imported]

will the performance issue will arise because of bandwidth of the cable itself (and therefore arise only when the two HD are transmitting data at the same time)?
or it is due to some timing scheme (something like they have to have their clock synchronized or something like that - like a slow SDRAM module cause all modules to run on a slower clock)

the reason this is important to me is because i intended to install Linux on the old HD and therefore the HD will work only one at a time, by which OS i'm using at that moment.

Thank you for taking the time to answer!

 

[CitrixEngineer]

You've just about got it, tuvalo, the ATA conventions are a kind of protocol which includes timing/synchronisation.

e.g.
If you put an ATA 66 on the same cable as an ATA 100 drive, the ATA 100 will drop to ATA 66, regardless of whether the other drive is actually used or not. In your case, the 3Gb drive is at best UDMA33, so your ATA 100 performance will drop to a third of its potential.

Most Optical drives are UDMA33 still, although I have seen UDMA66 devices, such as Pioneer's.

Any disks on the same cable (IDE1 OR IDE2) will run at the speed of the slower drive.

I agree with butchrecon. Partition the 30Gb drive, and put that old 3Gb drive into another machine. Linux will thank you for giving it a fast disk!