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IDE positioning help

T

typh00n

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 27, 2003
Messages
128
I'm new at using four IDE devices and and wondering what thte best setup is for the following:

2 HDD's (not raid)
one CDRW
one DVD/CDRW

I heard the two optical ones shouldn't be together because they can't both work at the same time but I also heard both hard drives should be set as master.

So, what do you recommed on what channel as slave or master?
Thanks
 
Both hard drives on the primary chain...one slave and one master.

Both optical drives on the secondary chain...one slave and one master.

People who still spout the myth that 2 optical drives on one burner can't do disc to disc copying are idiots. Or morons...either one. It was ALWAYS a myth, and is NEVER a problem.

I used to do it with a 6x CD-ROM drive and a Mitsumi 1x CD-R (that's right folks...no CD-RW...just CD-R).
 
Thanks for the instant reply, and it doesn't matter where on the cable the master or slave is, right?

Also i read one device limits the speed of the other on the same connector, is that true? (Same source I think)
 
Traditionally the master is at the end of the cable, the slave on the middle connector. I have heard that it doesn't matter where you hook them up on the cable, as the jumpers dictate which is which, but I've never tried it. I've always put the master on the end.

As far as which drives where, if you put, say, an ATA100 HDD on the primary channel, you generally dont want to put an ATA33 optical drive on the same channel. Usually out the HDDs on one channel, and the opticals on another. Theory is that they are not fighting each other about what data transfer rate to run at.
 
there is a myth about putting optical drives on the same channel as HDDs, it is just that a myth, but it keeps getting reinforced by the way Windows deals with ATA\ATAPI issues
basically with Independent Device Timing two devices (master\slave) both transfer their data at their own highest speed, but, they both either have to be PIO (which is glacially slow) or UDMA, if one defaults to PIO because of some issue, Windows will default the other as well. There was a time when CDROMs where only PIO, and HDDs where DMA, for that period of history you didnt want to share a channel, but modern opticals are UDMA mode2 so there is rarely any issue

some of the reasons a device might default to PIO
DMA Mode for ATA/ATAPI Devices in Windows XP

IDE is a sequential interface, so if you where attempting to concurrently access both devices on the same channel theoretically the device transfering data at the slower mode could make the faster device wait, but saturating the bus is alot easier said than done
and the transfers just dont typically happen that way
BusTrace IDE\ATAPI Bus Utilization Monitor (Freeware)
and as mentioned reading from and writing to opticals on the same channel, doesnt tax the interface and modern opticals burning software, but if you are going to transfer large files (STR Sustained Transfer Rate) from one HDD to another, then it can make a noticeable difference having them on seperate channels
 
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