Drive Configuration Question

[Carbo]

I now have my hard drive running off a Promise ATA 100 controller card. I have my DVD/ROM on the Primary as master, and my CD burner on the secondary as master. I want to run the hard drive direct off the mobo in the primary. Then run the burner as slave to the DVD/ROM on the secondary line. Is this correct? Or, is there a better way? Thanks, guys.

 

[boran]

okay if I understand correctly you're going to remove your promise ATA100 card, so that one will be master on yer primary IDE channel ...

okay if u do that u got to move one drive to slave ...

well I would put your DVD/CD drive as slave on the primary channel and your burner as master on the secondary

that way your burner and either HD or DVD can be accessed directly, BUT installs will be slower, as also loads that go from both HD and DVD drive

and IDE channel is single, meaning it can only access one component on its channel at once, so if u dont burn a lot (or dont burn at all) from your DVD drive then put that one as master on the secondary channel and the writer as slave...

but then it is nearly impossible to burn from the DVD to the writer

my setup is :
IDE1 - M HD1 - S HD2
IDE2 - M DVD - S CDRW

because I dont burn at all from my DVD to CDRW

 

[dunkster]

If I understand your post, you have 2 IDE ports provided by the Promise controller + 2 IDE ports provided by the motherboard, for a total of 4 discrete IDE ports.

If I understand your post, you have 3 devices (HD, DVDROM and CD burner).

If so, best configuration is with each device as master on it's own IDE port. There should be no master/slave configuration at all.

Most buy Promises controllers to ELIMINATE the requirement for master/slave configurations.

Read the manual for the Promise controller regarding any restrictions for devices supported by that controller - I don't think there are any restrictions. It should make no difference whether HD is connected to Promise IDE port or motherboard IDE port - but read the manual.

Hope this helps!

 

[Carbo]

Boran, if I understand correctly, one can access only one device at the same time on a shared IDE? So, if I have both the DVD/ROM and the CD burner as master/slave on the secondary IDE, I will NOT be able to use both drives simultaneously? If so, the only downside I see is what you already stated. That I wouldn't be able to burn direct from DVD/ROM to CD burner. No biggie, really, because I burn very few CD's and when I do I have always copied data temporarily to the hard drive first and then burn the CD from there.
So, I'm thinking the best setup for me is the hard drive as master on the primary IDE.
Then, the DVD/ROM as master on the secondary with the CD burner as slave on the secondary.
Does that sound correct and problem free.

Dunkster, the reason I am taking the hard drive off the controller card is because of a rather nasty and growing issue with W2K and Promise controller cards, known as systemced. I have some info on that here if you're interested.