Does running multiple HDDs slow down a computer?

[Bmr4life]

Running windows XP on my Abit IT7 mobo.

IDE Ch 1 has 80gig maxtor (split into 2 40gig partions, main one has XP OS on it). Also on this channel is a 160gig Western Digital split into a 60gig and a 100gig partitions.

IDE Ch 2 has a CDRW and DVD+RW

Raid Ch 1 has 2 120gig Maxtors.
Raid Ch 2 has a 120gig western digital,
Raid Ch 3 has another 120gig western digital.
Raid Ch 4 has another 80gig Maxtor.

So I have 7 HDDs total split into 9 total partitions. Is this slowing my computer down? All are NTFS.

[Zepher]

I have 8 drives on one machine, 4 on another, 2 on another and the machines seem to run normally.

[Bmr4life]

Originally posted by WS6
I have 8 drives on one machine, 4 on another, 2 on another and the machines seem to run normally.

thx for the reply.

[Zepher]

no problem.
btw, what prompted you to ask the question?

[Bmr4life]

Originally posted by WS6
no problem.
btw, what prompted you to ask the question?

when transfering movie files from one HDD to another I get really bad lag. The files are usually 700mb each and I transfer 2 at a time, takes around 8 mins and my computer runs like molasis during the transfer.

[Snugglebear]

Are those drives in RAID arrays or are they all just sitting there with individual partitions?

[Zepher]

If I am not mistaken, IDE drives don't read and write at the same time when copying from drive to drive, something to do with the host controller ahving to wait for one drive before talking to the other.
SCSI doesn't have this drawback.

I just did a quick test on my machines and copied 2 800meg files from one of the Cheetahs on my P3 450 across the network to my P3 944's 18gig Barracuda and it took 2 minutes and 20 seconds.
Both drives are SCSI, Cheetah is on an Ultra2Wide controller and the Barracuda is on a UltraWide.
CPU usage was up to 90% on the 944 machine during the copy.

I just did another test using the P3 450 copying 2 700meg files from one 60gig IDE drive to another 60gig IDE drive on the same cable and it took 4 minutes and 57 seconds.

I don't have enough free space on 2 SCSI drives on the same machine to do a test copy at the moment, but I'll move some files around and see what how it does on 2 local SCSI drives.

[m1abram]

Originally posted by Bmr4life
when transfering movie files from one HDD to another I get really bad lag. The files are usually 700mb each and I transfer 2 at a time, takes around 8 mins and my computer runs like molasis during the transfer.

Yes this will happen, however the issue is that they are IDE drives which require much more CPU attention than SCSI, also if you are trying to do something with the computer which ALSO needs data from the drives busy copying file at the moment, well basically you get in line.

edit: IDE drives can read from one drive while writing to another drive at the same time as LONG as the two drives are not on the same controller.

[Bmr4life]

Originally posted by Snugglebear
Are those drives in RAID arrays or are they all just sitting there with individual partitions?

they are all just sitting there.

thanks for the answers guys, i guess I'll just have to deal with the slow copying stuff. I just wanted to make sure my computer wasn't set up wrong or something.