HDD jumper settings

[rof3]

Manual for my HDD (Samsung SP1614N)

I just looked, and there's only one jumper, set to GH. The drive had previously been IDE 1 (as opposed to IDE 0) master with a slave HDD but I removed the slave HDD from my system and it still works fine. I want to put the drive as IDE 0 slave (with DVD drive as master) and then I won't need a second IDE cable in my system any more. What jumper setting should I use, if a change is required? Keep in mind I only have one jumper.

Thanks.

 

[OdiN]

It's best not to have a hard drive and CD drive on the same cable. Better performance if you use two cables.

 

[CrispyFried]

Jumper CD for Slave

But if you want them on the same cable you should probably put the HD as Master (AB) and the DVD as Slave. Im not sure if it would make a difference but thats the conventional wisdom. Also as Odin said, its generally better to leave them on separate cables, but not essential.

 

[rof3]

Hmm, well is it worth having an extra IDE cable in my case to have them on separate cables? What exactly would be the effect of having them on the same cable? Data loss/corruption? Slower data transfer?

Also, it would be tough to get the HD as master because the drive cage is directly below the DVD drive. That's the only reason I'd put the HD as slave.

 

[CrispyFried]

Sometimes the transfer rate will be slower. Usually you need really mismatched stuff for that to happen, like a very old HD and a new HD or something like that. If you burn DVDs or CDs you will probably burn slower with the HD and DVD/CD burner on the same cable, but it will still work. No worries about data corruption either way, just a (possible) speed hit.

As for the DVD as master and HD as slave it should work fine, modern mobos dont really care, they just keep searching till they find something bootable, or you can specify what boot order in the BIOS. Older mobos wanted the boot HD as Master on IDE0. Old timers like myself just keep setting it up that way if possible. Makes it easier when adding drives and such as you know what order the drives will searched such. As long as you know whats what youre fine. No performance difference.

Make sure you use the 80 wire cable, sometimes youll find 40 and 80s mixed.. opticals usually use 40s as they dont benefit from 80s but the HDs need the 80s. Its easy to tell which is which. If they both look the same then they are both 80s. You probably already know that but Im tossing it in just in case..

 

[Varun]

PATA has a major flaw, that is only one device on a cable can be accessed at one time, therefore if you are copying files to the HDD from the CD, it has to access the CD, cache the data, put it on the HDD, access the CD, cache the data, put it on the HDD etc etc.

For this reason most people try to keep, say a burner, on a different IDE channel than the main HDD. Obviously if you have multiple CD/DVD drives and HDDs sacrifices must be made, however if possible it is best to keep them on seperate channels.

 

[rof3]

Thanks for all the info.

Is PATA the same as good ol' Ultra ATA 133?

 

[CrispyFried]

Yup. Just stands for Parallel ATA as opposed to Serial ATA. Most all PATA controllers and drives are UDMA 6 (ATA 133) speed on newer mobos.