IDE Controller setup help

[Koing]

Right so I'd like some help on hooking up all my drives.

Thanks.

I have:

DVD -/+ RW Sony
DVD rom Nec
CDRW 48x LiteOn (love it)

80Gb WD SE 8mb
80Gb WD SE 8mb
160Gb WD SE 8mb (busted and awaiting and RMA to come through)

I have 2 IDE Channels (duh) and so I have 4 drives that I can connect HERE.

I also have a PCI IDE Controller so I have 4 drives I can connect here.

How would you go about connecing this all up?

Wouldy ou leave in the DVD-ROM for on the fly copying or would you just take it out?

At the moment I have:

IDE Primary: Master: DVD-ROM Slave: CDRW
IDE Secondary: Master: 80Gb : Slave: 80Gb

The 160Gb is busted and I am awaiting my RMA. It is on the PCI IDE Primary Master. Takes the computer 6hrs to boot with it connected so it isn't connected to the computer.

Thanks guys

Koing

 

[Koing]

ttt on your views.

Koing

 

[Koing]

ttt

 

[Koing]

ttt

 

[3chordcharlie]

on the fly copying is over-rated... actually, on second thought it's usually rated as 'not a good idea' so I guess it's rated just about right. If that's all you have the dvd-rom for, and your burner supports the same level of raw reading and such, just take the thing out to make space on your ide channels.

 

[EeyoreX]

How often do you copy direct DVD-to-DVD? If it is once in a blue moon I don't see the real point of keeping both drives necessarily. You are not clear how many optical drives you want to keep. Your current setup is fine. If you do want to have two or three of the opticals you need to use the PCI IDE controller card for at least some of the hard drives, as it probably doesn't support the optical drives. It doesn't really matter after that consideration where or how you connect the drives. At least not in most cases and in real-world usage terms.

\Dan

 

[VirtualLarry]

My setup isn't too different than yours. My mid-tower case has room for 4 opticals, 4 internal HDs, and room for 2 more external 3.5 drives (floppy in one).

I currently have an Afreey 56X IDE CD-ROM, Creative 2X IDE DVD-ROM, and a 52x24x52 Sony/Lite-On CD-RW. I'm saving the last "slot" for my DVD-RW, when I finally get one.

Those devices are listed "in order" (PM, PS, SM, SS) - I can copy disc-to-disc from the Afreey to the Lite-On, on seperate channels. Unfortunately, that matters little, because my Via KT400 chipset only gives me about 75% of the theoretical max PCI and IDE bandwidth, so I can't do 32X disc-to-disc copies any more on this rig. They worked fine on my prior rig.

For HDs, I have an 80GB WD JB (boot, primary master), 160GB WD JB (data, primary slave), and a newly-added 250GB Maxtor DM+9 (unformatted, secondary master).

I have all of my opticals connected to my mobo IDE controller channels, and all of my HDs connected to a Promise Ultra100 TX2 PCI IDE controller.

This setup has worked for me for the longest time, and one of the benefits of having the boot OS HD on a PCI IDE controller card, is that if I ever move my system to another mobo, I don't have to re-install any of my OSes, because I can just move the PCI IDE controller card along with the HD. Viola! No troubles at all. (I have a multi-boot setup, with Win98se, W2K, XP, and at one time, Server 2003.)

Edit: The other benefit, this time of having the opticals on the mobo IDE channels, is that it is much easier to use bootable CD-ROM discs that way, rather than putting the opticals on a PCI IDE controller.

 

[Koing]

I see.

Thanks 3chordcharlie and EeyoreX.

I'll get rid of the DVD-ROM then. I don't know about the on the fly DVD-ROM copy stuff as I have never had one. I'll keep the CDRW to do backups of CD's on the fly.

Koing

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
My setup isn't too different than yours. My mid-tower case has room for 4 opticals, 4 internal HDs, and room for 2 more external 3.5 drives (floppy in one).

I currently have an Afreey 56X IDE CD-ROM, Creative 2X IDE DVD-ROM, and a 52x24x52 Sony/Lite-On CD-RW. I'm saving the last "slot" for my DVD-RW, when I finally get one.

Those devices are listed "in order" (PM, PS, SM, SS) - I can copy disc-to-disc from the Afreey to the Lite-On, on seperate channels. Unfortunately, that matters little, because my Via KT400 chipset only gives me about 75% of the theoretical max PCI and IDE bandwidth, so I can't do 32X disc-to-disc copies any more on this rig. They worked fine on my prior rig.

For HDs, I have an 80GB WD JB (boot, primary master), 160GB WD JB (data, primary slave), and a newly-added 250GB Maxtor DM+9 (unformatted, secondary master).

I have all of my opticals connected to my mobo IDE controller channels, and all of my HDs connected to a Promise Ultra100 TX2 PCI IDE controller.

This setup has worked for me for the longest time, and one of the benefits of having the boot OS HD on a PCI IDE controller card, is that if I ever move my system to another mobo, I don't have to re-install any of my OSes, because I can just move the PCI IDE controller card along with the HD. Viola! No troubles at all. (I have a multi-boot setup, with Win98se, W2K, XP, and at one time, Server 2003.)

Edit: The other benefit, this time of having the opticals on the mobo IDE channels, is that it is much easier to use bootable CD-ROM discs that way, rather than putting the opticals on a PCI IDE controller.

I see THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Just exactly the info I needed.

Doyou su ffer any *lag* with your Promise Ultra 100 TX2 PCI IDE controller? LIke when clicking the HD's that are connected to it or just moving files or playing videos? At the moment the HD that is connected to my PCI IDE controller feels slower then my HD's connected to the mobo IDE COntroller.

Good point about the HD's being able to be moved. Too bad I didn't install my HD's like that though but that is a nice option when moving to a new system. I was thinking about moving my opticals to the PCI IDE controller though. It maybe be my faulty HD that is making it feel slow or something so when I get my RMA back I'll see how it works out.

If it works fine I'll leave the system as it is but move the DVD-ROM to the PCI IDE Controller.

Koing

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Koing
Doyou su ffer any *lag* with your Promise Ultra 100 TX2 PCI IDE controller? LIke when clicking the HD's that are connected to it or just moving files or playing videos? At the moment the HD that is connected to my PCI IDE controller feels slower then my HD's connected to the mobo IDE COntroller.

Ah, yes, I saw that other thread of yours. I can almost guarantee you that the "lag" that you are experiencing is due to a failing/failed HD, not the controller. (99.99% sure)

I had some wierd "lag" before once, after I installed a new 60GB Maxtor HD. Couldn't figure out what it was, thought it might have been the Promise drivers or something, but the lag wasn't always consistent. Turned out, the drive had higher-than-normal "seek error rate" SMART data measurements (it was having trouble positioning the head correctly), and failed completely less than six months later.

If you already know that the drive is going bad, then that pretty much eliminates the last 0.01% probability that it might be something other than the drive. You can test it yourself, if you disconnect the drive and the lag goes away.

With my current system, there is no noticable "lag" at all from the HDs, although I have an IRQ conflict with the USB 2.0 controller and the PCI slot that I put the Promise Ultra100 TX2 in. Promise cards have a tendency to want their own IRQ. Sometimes the mouse skips a bit, when I have an actual USB 2.0 device plugged in. Since that was only a USB 2.0 hub, and seemed to have its own problems (would drop connected devices, even while operating them), I've removed it, and the problem has gone away.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: Koing
Doyou su ffer any *lag* with your Promise Ultra 100 TX2 PCI IDE controller? LIke when clicking the HD's that are connected to it or just moving files or playing videos? At the moment the HD that is connected to my PCI IDE controller feels slower then my HD's connected to the mobo IDE COntroller.

Ah, yes, I saw that other thread of yours. I can almost guarantee you that the "lag" that you are experiencing is due to a failing/failed HD, not the controller. (99.99% sure)

I had some wierd "lag" before once, after I installed a new 60GB Maxtor HD. Couldn't figure out what it was, thought it might have been the Promise drivers or something, but the lag wasn't always consistent. Turned out, the drive had higher-than-normal "seek error rate" SMART data measurements (it was having trouble positioning the head correctly), and failed completely less than six months later.

If you already know that the drive is going bad, then that pretty much eliminates the last 0.01% probability that it might be something other than the drive. You can test it yourself, if you disconnect the drive and the lag goes away.

With my current system, there is no noticable "lag" at all from the HDs, although I have an IRQ conflict with the USB 2.0 controller and the PCI slot that I put the Promise Ultra100 TX2 in. Promise cards have a tendency to want their own IRQ. Sometimes the mouse skips a bit, when I have an actual USB 2.0 device plugged in. Since that was only a USB 2.0 hub, and seemed to have its own problems (would drop connected devices, even while operating them), I've removed it, and the problem has gone away.

Cool thanks for the heads up

I thought it was maybe the cheap PCI IDE controller! It was only £15 after all.

Well that is nice once getting the RMA back it should work 'fine' on the PCI IDE controller.

Well another question (sorry!).

Do you notice lag wh en transfering from the PCI IDE Controller HD to a HD on your motherboards IDE controller?

Koing

THANKS A LOT DUDE! Really appreciate this advice.