bad idea putting 2 hd's on same ata channel

[kalster]

just wodnering
i got my new hdd and connected it on the same ata channel as the first one, does it slow performance or something

 

[kalster]

bump

damn forgot the question mark in the subject

 

[WarCon]

Unless you do alot of copying files between the two hard drives it shouldn't matter much.

 

[thorin]

Basically this is how it goes. Only one drive can access the channel at a time. So if you're copy from one drive on the channel to another drive on the channel then it has to go read buffer write (because you can only access 1 drive at a time). However if you were copying between two seperate channels the transfer would be more like read write read write read write (with no buffering) since each drive can be accessed at the same time.

Kinda like in "Lord of the Flies" (the book) where you could only talk if you had the conch (sp?).

Thorin

 

[kalster]

but the access time rather the speed of either of the hard drives wont be affected right since they are on the same channel

 

[kherman]

Important question.
Do you have DVD, CD, CD-R or other drives in the system.

The channels only run as fast as the slowest interface on the channel, so you have to be careful. If the original HD is an ATA 33 driuve and hte new one is a ATA 66, for example, the ATA 66 will actually run as if it were an ATA 33. Also, older CD-ROMs arn't even ATA 33, so you have to be careful with them.

So, I guess I/we neeed to know more about your drives/CD-ROMs, etc and what channel(s) they are on. If possible, tell us if they are ATA 33/66/100, or if you don't know.

Hope this helps,
Karl

 

[kherman]

Oh ya,

If you give us the info requested, we can probably fiugure out a good configuration for you. or at least tell you if no changes should be made, or the pros/cons .... etc.

karl

 

[ElFenix]

really only matters if you need to access the drives at the same time, and even then ata 133 can handle a lot more traffic than any drive, or any two drives, can pump out without bursting.

 

[WarCon]

Kherman, you are wrong about the slowest device limiting the channel speed.

They share the channel, but they don't limit each other when either one has access. A channel that is capable of ATA100 is capable of ATA100. You can run a PIO mode drive and an ATA100 drive and the PIO mode drive when its being accessed will run at PIO mode and the when the ATA100 drive is being accessed it will be running at ATA100.

 

[kalster]

ok i have
5 devices actually
1 40 gig ibm 60 gxp ata 100


1 80 gb diamond max 7200 rpm ata 133


16x pioneer dvd drive
12x8x32 lg cd rw

iomega 250 mb ide zip drive

i have actually taken out the zip drive for now

right now i have the 2 hdd's on the same channel, well the reason i feel its kinda slow is well when i click on say my song folder which is 20 gigs, it takes like 2 seconds to open up the directory, never happened on my ibm hdd

so thatz y

also i believe my mobo (epox 8kha) has only 1 ata 100 channel the other is ata 66

so there you go, how shud i connect the drives
other option is to buy a ata 133 controller but i dont feel its worth 25 odd bucks

 

[kalster]

bump

 

[kalster]

bump
new hdd feels pretty darn slow, is it fine to have an ata 100 40 gig ibm hdd and a 80 gig ata 133 maxtor hdd on same ide channel

 

[IamDavid]

You have it hooked up the best way. You shouldn't change anything..