Master/Slave hook up... best method.

[Homerboy]

Ok Im going to have 2 HDs (one C: one scratch drive) and 1 x CDRW and 1x DVDROM
whats the best combo to hook these up on their IDE channels?

 

[Jeff7]

What do you plan to do with the system? If you're doing a lot of HDD->HDD transfers, I'd put the hard drives on separate chains; same for the optical drives - if you're doing a lot of disc-disc burning, then keep them separated.
I'd just assume to do:
Primary:
HDD #1
DVD

Secondary:
HDD #2
CD-RW

 

[Homerboy]

Primary:
HDD #1
DVD

Secondary:
HDD #2
CD-RW[/q[

this was my initial thought. Not too many HD to HD transfers. Ideally the C drive will just be OS and critical applications. the 2nd scratch drive will be mainly for storage, editing, and isntall of games and the like. Lots of HD to HD transfer across LAN to home server in basement.

 

[Jeff7]

Ok; one more thing I just thought of, looking at my own system - drive placement. I have both hard drives on the same channel, and two optical drives together, and was wondering why. Then I remembered, the one hard drive is in a 5.25" bay (for the Ultimate Hard Drive cooler's heatsink), while the other sits in the bottom 3.5" bays. Above the HD in the 5.25" bay are the optical drives. Sure I could connect the CD-RW and main HDD easily, but stretching a cable from the top of the case (DVD-ROM) to nearer the bottom (secondary HDD) would...well, be a stretch.
I get decent enough HDD->HDD transfers, and I can't remember the last time I've done a disc-disc burn, if ever. Even so, everything's in DMA mode; the only time I've had problems with concurrent usage was with a DVD-RW and ZIP drive on the same channel. The ZIP drive couldn't use DMA mode at all, so if I'd use it at all while doing a burn, I'd watch Nero's buffer slowly dissappear. Of course, I was formatting disks on the ZIP drive, so that wanted its full attention.

 

[Homerboy]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Ok; one more thing I just thought of, looking at my own system - drive placement. I have both hard drives on the same channel, and two optical drives together, and was wondering why. Then I remembered, the one hard drive is in a 5.25" bay (for the Ultimate Hard Drive cooler's heatsink), while the other sits in the bottom 3.5" bays. Above the HD in the 5.25" bay are the optical drives. Sure I could connect the CD-RW and main HDD easily, but stretching a cable from the top of the case (DVD-ROM) to nearer the bottom (secondary HDD) would...well, be a stretch.
I get decent enough HDD->HDD transfers, and I can't remember the last time I've done a disc-disc burn, if ever. Even so, everything's in DMA mode; the only time I've had problems with concurrent usage was with a DVD-RW and ZIP drive on the same channel. The ZIP drive couldn't use DMA mode at all, so if I'd use it at all while doing a burn, I'd watch Nero's buffer slowly dissappear. Of course, I was formatting disks on the ZIP drive, so that wanted its full attention.

I did some more reading/searching and read taht CDROMs and HDDs should never be on the same bus as eachother . A "slower" device can slow down all devices on it's bus, even when it isn't running. If a IDE device doesn't understand a setting or a faster mode, it can stop the other device on the bus from using it either.

So in lieu of that, and your comment on physical placement, Ill prb do 2xHDs on 1 bus and 2x Opitcal on the other. I have a full tower case, and the ribbons dont reach from 5" bays to the 3" bays.

 

[busmaster11]

Originally posted by: HomerboyI did some more reading/searching and read taht CDROMs and HDDs should never be on the same bus as eachother . A "slower" device can slow down all devices on it's bus, even when it isn't running. If a IDE device doesn't understand a setting or a faster mode, it can stop the other device on the bus from using it either.

So in lieu of that, and your comment on physical placement, Ill prb do 2xHDs on 1 bus and 2x Opitcal on the other. I have a full tower case, and the ribbons dont reach from 5" bays to the 3" bays.

I agree with your setup, but I don't think what you said is true. On most never chipsets Independent Drive Timing (IDT) should allow all IDE devices to run at their full spec regardless of whats also attached.

 

[r0guenj]

yeah, i have never run into a problem on newer (say within the last 2 years) hardware running that way. these days, separate your opticalshd's on different channels.

Originally posted by: busmaster11

Originally posted by: HomerboyI did some more reading/searching and read taht CDROMs and HDDs should never be on the same bus as eachother . A "slower" device can slow down all devices on it's bus, even when it isn't running. If a IDE device doesn't understand a setting or a faster mode, it can stop the other device on the bus from using it either. So in lieu of that, and your comment on physical placement, Ill prb do 2xHDs on 1 bus and 2x Opitcal on the other. I have a full tower case, and the ribbons dont reach from 5" bays to the 3" bays.

I agree with your setup, but I don't think what you said is true. On most never chipsets Independent Drive Timing (IDT) should allow all IDE devices to run at their full spec regardless of whats also attached.