How many hard drives can i have per ide cable? I have several 80gb hd which i would like to reuse. This combined with my dvd writer means that i can only allow 4, 3 hd and a dvd writer. Can i have more? Is it possible to get an ide cable with more than 2 ide ports so i can chain more than 2?

You can only have 2 drives per IDE channel. But you can buy a PCI IDE controller and add another 4 IDE devices.. Mattwizz3 : ) Sempron 2600+ @ 2.2GHz 1Gb DDR400 Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe 200GB SATA / 80Gb IDE

I would think you could add more than one IDE controller PCI card to add even more - so depends how many PCI slots you have.

Keep in mind that every IDE controller card you add to your system will increase the time required for your system to bootup; each controller card BIOS will need to be polled by the motherboard BIOS to activate the IDE drives controlled by the card... you might want to consider selling some of your 80GB drives and using the money to buy larger HDDs (or to pay for all the new IDE controller cards, along with a BIG case to hold all of the extra IDE drives). As has been mentioned, each IDE controller card can control four IDE devices: a Primary Master, Primary Slave, Secondary Master, and Secondary Slave. Controller cards are made by Promise, and sold with the Promise name; the Maxtor brand cards are made by Promise for Maxtor. SIIG also sells IDE controller cards; some people have problems getting the cards to work with certain motherboards, so do some research on your motherboard to check for compatibility with the various IDE controller cards. Some cards are reported to only work in PCI bus-master slots; be sure you know which cards will work with your existing motherboard, because you might have problems if you try to install too many IDE controller cards in one system, or you'll be throwing money away trying to make everything work together. You'll also need a good PSU to spin all of those extra harddrives... Out of curiosity, how many 80GB harddrives do you want to install in one system? You might be better off building a second system with four IDE drives in it, and networking them together than trying to put too many IDE drives in one box. If nothing else, that would give you a backup system in case one broke down... just some pitfalls for you to consider. A few years ago, I installed six IDE drives with two optical drives in one system, but the extended bootup time convinced me to build a new rig and add it to my network, which was much mre convenient; I eventually sold the Maxtor / Promise IDE controller card to a friend...

Another option to consider would to explore USB 2.0/firewire external HDD enclosures.

Hi, Look at using a removable drive caddy or two in 5¼" drive bays. Huse as many caddies and drives as you need. Cold wap the drives as you need them Alternatively using a USB 2 to IDE adapter. If you fit a PCI ATA control card you will need to ensure your power supply is up to the extra load of the extra hard drives. hth Ceri