2 hard drive on a 2P machine

[athlon64X2]

HAve been away from the forum a long time, and coming back with an issue that I am having with a new system that I built.

Relevant system summary:
1) 2P each processor 2.2 GHz dual core Opterons
2) 2 hard drives (maxtor and seagate)
3) HD1 -> partition C: and E: has windows server 2000
4) HD2 -> additional hard drive for data

Most of my applications are on E: and I store most of my data on F: which is accessed by many of the softwares on the E: drive. My data files are mostly in 150+ MB size range. It seems like every now and then if I try to access either of the drive, everything freezes for 3-4 seconds. The HD light on the front panel is lit for all those 4 seconds. Then I hear a typical "beep-beep" sound, and then everything is back to normal.

My hunch is it is a hiccup when I try to access the "other" drive. By "other" I mean - say I am working with some application on the E: and then I try to access something on the F: drive, this happens. Or vice versa.

My HD configuration is a typical Master / Slave, with HD1 (with C: and E: ) partitions being the master and the other being the slave.

Can somebody give me a possible reason on why this is happening?

Thanks in advance.

 

[snoturtle]

make the second drive master on its own channel

IDE can only access one drive at a time

 

[F1shF4t]

Could be that the second drive powers itself down as its not being used majority of the time. Then it takes it a few seconds to spin up.

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: snoturtle
make the second drive master on its own channel

IDE can only access one drive at a time

Yep..he's right, you need to put your second drive on a differant channel.