IDE controller setup without PATA drive(s)

[STEPHEN3B]

Hi everyone:
I'm building a new rig, one sata drive, and two optical drives. Question, must I put both optical drives on IDE secondary(master/slave), or can I put one of the opticals on IDE primary. Is IDE primary only for hard drives?
Can someone please shed some light on the use of IDE 1(primary). The info. i've got so far, points to disabling, in the BIOS, this IDE controller if there is no PATA drive installed.

Thanks for your response.

Stephen

 

[corkyg]

You can put one optical on primary and the other on secodnary. That should not be a problem. In that case, both would be Masters.

 

[RaiderJ]

IDE controllers don't care what kind of IDE device you plug into them.

 

[STEPHEN3B]

Thanks for the info.