Where do I plug in my 3rd Hard Drive?

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WoodShedd

Weaksauce
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Oct 19, 2002
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I currently have two hardrives: a Maxtor 60GB (master) and a Maxtor 80GB (Slave)

I recently purchased a WD 160GB Drive for extra storage, but I am not sure where to plug it in.

The one dual drive IDE cable I have is in use by the drives mentioned above.

Two Questions:

Is it possible to attach my new drive to the IDE cable used by my CDRW? If so will there be any adverse consequences? Any special considerations I should make?

Below is a picture of part of my motherboard.

mobo1.jpg


1: IDE cable used by CDRW drive
2: IDE cable used by hard drives
3: What's this? Can I plug a new IDE cable here?

Where would you put this 3rd hard drive?


Thanks for any help
 
That could be for Ide raid or your floppy ..what mobo do you have


MORE INFO NEEDED
 
I would recommend picking up an IDE controller card. I'm not sure where you picked up that hard drive, but most computer stores sell them. Newegg.com sells them as well. The link is to an example.
 
I think you have cables 1 & 2 mislabled
cable 2 is a 40wire cable and probably came with your CDRW
cable 1 is an 80 wire cable and probably came with the mobo or HDD

replace the 40 wire cable with an 80 wire one
and attach both the CDRW and a HDD to it

then
Start > Run > (type) compmgm.msc > Device Manager > Expand IDE ATA/ATAP Controllers > DClick Primary IDE Channel > Advanced Settings Tab > Select DMA if available for both device 0 & 1 > OK > Repeat for Secondary IDE Channel > Shutdown and reboot > Repeat Verify Current Transfer Mode for all the devices


a 40 wire cable will not support DMA mode 5 (ATA100) and running it at DMA mode 2 (the speed the optical drive employs, is a complete waste

Independent device timing allows two devices on the same channel to each run at their own highest mode

see my post here > http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=750342

PS 3 is a Floppy Disk Drive connector
it would require 40 pins to connect an IDE device

(both 40 wire and 80 wire cables use 40 pins, the extra 40 wires are all ground wires, to reduce crosstalk between the data wires and allow higher speeds\modes)
 
It looks like #3 is a floppy drive connector, so that's out of the question.

You can plug it in to the cable you have going to your CD-RW drive most likely without any problems.

I did notice something about your setup. It looks like you have your hard drives connected with a 40 conductor cable and the CD-RW with an 80 conductor cable.

You should plug your hard drives in with the 80 conductor cable. The CD-RW will be fine on the 40 conductor cable. Your current setup may be affecting your system performance if your drives and controllers are both UDMA 100.

My suggestion is replace your 40 conductor cable with an 80 conductor and put the third hard drive on the same cable as the CD-RW drive.
 
yes but you where far more concise :D

also, when you add the new HDD make sure it (and the Optical CDRW) are properly jumpered as master or slave (end of cable should always be the master, the black connector, And the slave should always be in the middle, the grey connector)

In addition, if there are any problems, try setting both the Optical and the HDD to cable select, that sometimes resolves it
 
i would suggest getting a controller card. they are very nice to have, especially if u want to have more drives.

a friend of mine also told me that maxtor drives dont like to be connected with any other brand. i dont know if this is true, but thats what i heard. anyone truly know if this is the case?
 
with the Parallel ATA interface already arguably past its capacity to reliably transfer data, some "issues" have been cropping up, generally they can be resolved with better cables, better routing of the cables, and the use of cable select
I would recommend those steps, before buying a new IDE Controller card

SATA was the great hope (and still is) however its actual implementation currently, has attracted some doubt

SATA and the 7 Deadly Sins of Parallel ATA
ATA Not So Frequently Asked Questions
WARNING: SATA Cautions
 
Thanks for all the help.

I've replaced the 40 pin cable with an 80 pin cable

so now I have my CDRW set as master and the 80GB set as slave on one channel, and the 60GB set as master and the 160GB set as slave on the other channel.

I have gone through the CMOS setup to ensure that the new drive is properly detected and to turn on LBA.

But for some reason upon startup I cannot get much farther than just after the bios screen.

Right before the WinXP pro graphic appears, the system hangs, and all I see is "LI" (without quotes) in the top lefthand corner of my screen.

If I turn the computer off, unplug the new drive and restart, my computer boots up as it regularly would.

What could be wrong?

THanks again for any more helo
 
a few possibilities
try a different boot order which HDD has the system partition?
the system partition contains the ntldr (NT loader) required to boot strap the system, along with other critical files (it doesnt have to be the boot partition but typically is unless you have a dual boot setup) if the BIOS is getting hung up looking for the ntldr in the wrong location....
detach the trouble HDD, boot into the OS
Start > Run > (type) diskmgmt.msc > look under the Partition Lable \ letter assignment and partition size, it should say Healthy (System), then ID which drive that is

the scan order for booting (for Parallel ATA) is typically
-- Primary Master primary partition
-- Primary Slave primary partition
-- Secondary Master primary partition
-- Secondary Slave primary partition
-- Primary Master extended partition with logical drives
-- Primary Slave extended partition with logical drives
-- Secondary Master extended partition with logical drives
-- Secondary Slave extended partition with logical drives
-- Removable media (CD-ROM) or other software driven devices with drive letters

In the BIOS boot order HDD 0 will be the Master (Device 0 ) on IDE 0 (Primary Channel)
so it might be as simple as changing your BIOS boot order from HDD 0 to HDD1 or enabling booting to other devices

if that doesnt work
make sure the "Master" jumper isnt set to Master without slave present\single, it should be Master with slave present
then try cable select for both drives on that channel
then try a different physical config (swap the master and slave on that channel) and failing that try the large HDD and the Optical on the same channel

you might consider attaching just the new drive a master and running the manufacturers diagnostic (which is typically available for free at their website) to verify that the new HDD is OK (it would be a DOS ap that runs from a FDD)

you should also review
Proper Handling Guide
 
Thanks very much for all the help.

I found out that the person who owned this computer before I did had it set up as a dual boot system. He didnt do a very good job of removing the bootloader, that's for sure.

I fixed my mbr and was good to go.

Thanks again. I learned something.
 
Now isn't running a HDD on the second IDE channel with a CD drive going to slow the HD down alot? The same even without the CD drive there on the second channel. I thought Channel 2 was for Optical drives and such and are much slower than the primary channel. Just like anything else, its only going to run as fast as the slowest thing on a channel. COrrect me if I am wrong. I swear thats something that I learned in A+ class.


Sorry for the funky grammar, brayn fried from studying.
 
how long ago? :p


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
 
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