How to arrange drives?

[micron]

My new MSI K7T PRO2-A is on it's way, how should I set up my drives?

6.8GB ATA66 HD Pri. Master?
10.2GB ATA33 HD Pri. Slave?
8X4X32 CDRW Sec. Master?
40X CDROM Sec. Slave?

Thanks, Micron

 

[farmercal]

I always make my CD burner slave, seems to be the recommended configuration.

 

[micron]

Thanks farmercal.

 

[Mule]

If you're gonna do CD to CD copy then I suggest you put the CD ROMS on different channels, perhaps make them both slave, with the CD-RW being on a different channel then your primary hard drive.

 

[jimmygates]

That ATA-33 drive is going to slow down the ATA-66 drive. IDE = runs only as fast as the slowest device on the chain...



-Jimbo

 

[Sukhoi]

I wouldn't put the CD-ROM on the same channel as the hard drive you'll be installing most of your software to, since it won't be able to read/write to the CD-ROM and hard drive at the same time.

Is either the CD-ROM or CD-RW ATA66 compatible? If they aren't, there's no way to avoid running your hard drive in ATA33 mode unless you get a PCI IDE card.

But now that I think of it, a 6.8GB hard drive isn't going to have a very high transfer rate anyway, so it probably won't hurt it to run it at ATA33.

I have a few more questions. Which hard drive is fastest (RPMs and real transfer speed)? Which hard drive do you want to install Windows on? Which hard drive will you be installing your games and such on?

 

[Dan]

Your CDROM and CDRW are both ATA-33. Since you also have one HDD that's ATA-33, your ATA-66 will be compromised no matter which way you configure things. Therefore, I'd suggest you arrange them as follows:

Primary Master: ATA-66 HDD
Primary Slave: ATA-33 HDD
Secondary Master: CDROM
Secondary Slave: CDRW

I found that if I slaved my CDROM or CDRW to my ATA-66 (now ATA-100) HDD the hard drive defaulted to ATA-33. So I have my HDD as a Primary Master while the CDROM and CDRW are set up as a Secondary Master and Slave respectively. I have no trouble copying CD-to-CD using Adaptec's Easy CD Creator in Win98SE and Win2K.

 

[micron]

Thanks guys. I think I'm going to leave the ATA66 drive out of my PC and set my drives up like this:

10.2GB ATA33 HD Pri. Master
ZIP100 ATAPI Pri. Slave
40X CDROM Sec. Master
8X4X32 CDRW Sec. Slave

 

[LXi]

I would put the CD-ROM and CD-RW on different channels.

 

[micron]

LXi, why? I never do CD to CD copies.