learning about DMA channel's, primary/secondary, master/slave

[frankyk]

i've been screwing around with my PC and the primary/secondary IDE slots and the jumpers and such, i don't get it, but i have learned that jumpers not set to a specific setting will cause the bios not to run.

dunno why, are there any guides about this?

cuz this has taken WAY too long for me to get my system setup =/

 

[drizzt81]

yes, here's the "ultimate edition" guide to IDE drives'n cables:

If there is more than one drive on a cable, one has to be set to master, the other to slave. The jumper settings are either printed on the HDD or available at the manufacturer's website or both. An alternate option is to have both drives set to cable select, which I have heard to work well on recent drives.

When more than one IDE device is connected to a single channel, the access time of the faster device will be influenced negatively.