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I've always had my setup as follows:
Maxtor 40gb - primary master
Maxtor 60gb - primary slave
AOpen 52X12X52 CRW - secondary master
Acer 16X DV-rom - secondary slaveLast week my 60gb drive failed. This was a storage drive only. I was able to get most of my stuff off it before it totally died.
I bought a Western Digital 80GB drive from a local computer shop. The guy there told me I should have the setup as follows:
Maxtor 40gb - primary master
Acer 16X DVD-rom - primary slave
WD 80gb - secondary master
AOpen 52X12X52 CRW - secondary slavePersonally I don't like this setup. The wires in my case are a mess because of it and now the 40gb is showing up as C: which is fine but the 80gb is showing as E:. Also I was always told to have the CRW set as a master. My first CRW was a Yamaha and it would only work when set as a master.
I did a search here to see what preferences were and everyone seems to have a different idea. I am thoroughly confused.
Would it be all right to go back to my original configuration or should I stick with the new one?
Thanks for any help on this at all
MindsEye
The shop guy is correct, IMO. With WinXP you can reassign all drive letters except for the system disk. So you can make the drive letters like you are used to. As far as problems with cables go, I recommend you buy some shielded round cables. With these cables you will have an easier time making reversed cable connections if that is necessary due to case layout. I have a FULL tower with 4 drives. I have one fully shielded round 30" cable that is rated at ATA133. I have had absolutely no problems using the extra length. If you use 30" flat cables you may have signal loss. All round cables are not shielded. It must be stated. The reason why you want the drives like the shop guy suggested is because accessing two drives simultaniously on the same IDE channel slows down the transfer rate of both drives. Think about how you use your drives and the best setup will become apparent.
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It is generally believed among drive manufacturers that mixing optical devices with IDE hard drives will reduce the performance of all involved. It is also generally accepted that all hard drives should be located on IDE0.
Jimi_l
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Hi
I have always kept dvd and cd devices on separate ide channel for the fact most use of a cd and dvd device, access is required of both hard drive and optical devices -- at high transfer rates. Of course if you don't need the high rates, do whatever, otherwise keep the hard drives separate from the optical devices. Optical devices operate much slower than modern drives today that need an 80 wire ide cable.
Oh and stick with the ata standard. Signal loss can be insidious, and can lead complete data loss.
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If you inted to use both optical drives frequently (to rip CD) you'd better have them on different channels. I have the following setup and pretty satisfied:
OS HD: Primary master
CD/DVD: Primary slave
CDRW: Secondary master
Data HD: Secondary slave
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'mixing optical devices with IDE hard drives will reduce the performance of all involved."
That was true back in the early days of IDE controllers, but is no longer a fact.
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You got that right OtheHill.
To give you guys some idea what I do or don't do ...
I don't copy from the dvd-rom to the crw. If I need to copy a cd I use the crw only. When I burn anything it's always from my storage drive which is the WD 80gb. I don't use the crw for anything other than burning or copying cd's. I use the dvd-rom for everything else - watching movies, playing music or loading software. The C drive which is the Maxtor 40gb is my working drive. It holds programs only, I don't save anything to it at all.
Anyone change their mind or have any further suggestions?
Any and all welcome
Thanks
MindsEye
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Mindeye
I believe that ham30's response #6 is correct. Referring back to my first response, whenever both devices on a IDE channel are accessed together performance will decrease. On some systems installing 2 optical drives on one channel causes issues with the drives being seen dependably. If this hasn't been an issue for you then don't be concerned. I would think that if you are using windows on your primary drive and writing files to the slave on that channel that there should be some performance hit. As far as what your normal practice is regarding disk copying, if the optical drive is on the same channel as the temp directory for your burner software you are indeed degrading the transfer rate. When you copy using only one drive you are copying to the HD and then back to the burner. Why not just use both optical drive. That should be faster.
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Hi
MindsEye you original setup is best for what you want to do. If you need evidence try a google on ata standards eg ata 66 etc and how signals are shared between master and slave. If you need high tranfer rates between your optical devices then the computer guys suggestion would be acceptable. Any mention of the optical drive being a master with faster transfer mode hard drive, is not advised.
A good starting point. ata-atapi.com
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You can configure your drives anyway you want & they will work. But for optimal data transfers, your devices should be configured so that data transfers across channels, not between two devices sharing the same channel/cable. This is because only one device can use the channel at a time.
GeorgeT's recommendation (response 5) is the best...& ham30's comment (response 6) is correct. Independent device timing has been in use since the days of the socket 7.
Asus A7N8X-X
1800+ @8x210mhz
512mb PC3200
Ti4200/8X 128mb
WDC 60GB
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I would normally also agree with response 5 but since you burn mostly from your data drive I'd separate it from you cdrw
OS HD: Primary master
CDRW: primary slave
DVD: Secondary slave
Data HD: Secondary masterTo be honest I doubt you'll notice any difference with any of the suggested setups.
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Thanks everyone for your responses. Totty ... I will make the changes in the optical drives and put the CDRW as the primary slave instead of secondary slave.
I was confused for a bit but pretty sure I have it clear now.
Thank you
MindsEye
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FWIW i have my 2gb c drive and my cd writer and zip drive on the scsi interface, my 20gb and a 16gb as primary master and slave on IDE0 and my other 20gb as master and the dvdrom as slave on the secondary channel (IDE1).
The 2gb SCSI drive is on its own channel and the zip and cdrw share the other
WoofCuriosity may have killed the cat but at least the cat wasn`t bored
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