hi i have just brought a new hard drive and dvd writer for my system but have now run out of ide slots i understand i can get an ide controller card but one hard drive master is 120gb ata 133 and slave is 60gb ata 100 can i run both these drives off a 133 ide controller card???????? ie http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=59907 also what is the recommended set up? i was going to connect dvd and dvd writer to one ide channel the cd writer to the other ide channel and 2 hard drives off the ide controller card otherwise dvd and writer on 1 ide channel, 2 hard drives on second ide channel, and cd writer on ide controller card please advise thank you darren

added to previous question also the 120 gb master hd is 7200rpm 8mb cache seagate barrucuda ata 133 and the slave is a 60gb maxtor 5400rpm maxtor ata 100 thanks

If you look close it says the controller is ATA133 and supports up to 133Mbyte/Second which means it probably supports any ATA33/66/100/133 hard drive. You have to be caeful about putting an ATAPI (CD/DVD) on it though. They may work as a reader but not a writer. That is what I found out out on the IDE card I have. I have four hard drives, a CD/RW, and a DVD/RW. Here is what I have: ------------------- Motherboard IDE: IDE1 Master: Hard drive 1 (ATA133) Slave: Hard drive 2 (ATA100) IDE2 Master: CD/RW Slave:DVD/RW IDE Controller: Master: Hard drive 3 (ATA133) Slave: Hard drive 4 (ATA133) Here is how I would set up your system: --------- Motherboard IDE: IDE1: Master: Hard drive 1 Slave: DVD IDE2: Master: CD/RW Slave: DVD/RW IDE Controller: IDE3: Master: Hard drive 2 Slave: none IDE4: Master: none Slave: none The biggest problem sometimes is having the IDE cables reach all drives. If the IDE1 cable will not reach both the HD1 and the DVD you could put the DVD drive on IDE3 (as slave) or IDE4 (as master).

It'll work. You half the data speed if both running at the same time anyway! It'll be fine. Never heard of the above's remarks, cd writer only working as a reader? Sounds like a dodgy writer to me!

The optimum configuration is to put devices that you will be moving data between on different channels. For instance, put a CD burner on a different channel that the hard drive that you will be burning from. That will increase the transfer speed. Plugging them Master or Slave is not important.

"Plugging them Master or Slave is not important." But, of course, do not have two Masters or two Slaves on the same channel.

sorry if i sound thick but when you say put them on different channels do you mean seperate ide cables and not the master/slave configuration????