Mixing ATA 33, 66, 100 HD's

[GremlinHater]

If I add an older ATA with a newer ATA, will I recieve any negative consequences? Will probably be on the same IDE controller...

 

[Shmorq]

Not at all.

 

[helloedchen]

speed will decrease down to the slower drive's rate.

 

[>>>Newbie<<<]

I have a CDRW with a ATA100 HD because it works better when doing cd to cd copying (each cd drive on different bus).

 

[GremlinHater]

Gideon, RPM or ATA will be to the slowest? The controller I have is ATA100, 1 ATA100 drive and 1 ATA66 Drive

Thanks for the tip Newbie MUCH appreciated!

 

[Shmorq]

Here's a very similar thread and most people say it'll be fine meaning no slow down of the faster drive.

 

[GremlinHater]

Thanks shmorq!

 

[Noriaki]

<< speed will decrease down to the slower drive's rate. >>

No it will not. IDE can handle master and slave being different speeds just fine. You can hang a PIOMode4 CDROM off an ATA100 hard drive, it won't slow the hard drive down one bit.

IDE is ineffecient at multitasking so if you try to use both Master and Slave at once both will take a performance hit (this is true if they are both the same ATAxxx or if they are different, or even if one is PIOMode4), because IDE can't effeciently use both at once.

But having an ATA33 device paired with an ATA100 device will NOT slow the ATA100 device to ATA33.

It used to be the case, but it's not anymore. It's been a long time since it was.

 

[GremlinHater]

Thanks noriaki for making it clear! That's what I was mainly looking for.

 

[Sundog]

<< But having an ATA33 device paired with an ATA100 device will NOT slow the ATA100 device to ATA33 >>


I agree totally.

SCSI on the other hand will slow the entire chain down to the slowest component on the chain.

 

[Duvie]

Noriaki, I must see you have to disspell hat rumor once a week or so...copy and paste my friend...

<< IDE is ineffecient at multitasking so if you try to use both Master and Slave at once both will take a performance hit (this is true if they are both the same ATAxxx or if they are different, or even if one is PIOMode4), because IDE can't effeciently use both at once. >>

I totally agree with this as well, and why I totally recommend getting an extra ata controller card if pcis are avaiable so each item can have its own channel to avoid this. means more cables but get some rounded ones if that is too much of a concern.

 

[Andy22]

Before I returned it, I had an Abit KT7A and it said specifically to not put an ATA33 drive on the ATA100 controller. It said the drive should be at least ATA66 I believe. It recommended to put the ATA33 drive on the standard IDE controller.

 

[GremlinHater]

Andy, are you talking about not putting it on the RAID ide?

 

[Noriaki]

<< SCSI on the other hand will slow the entire chain down to the slowest component on the chain. >>

True enough, but then SCSI can effeciently perform I/O on multiple drives at once with the large penalty IDE takes for trying to use both drives on the chain.

 

[Duvie]

considering most cd-roms, dvd-roms, and cd-rws are ata33 with a few being ata66...where do they expect you to put these??? I think it was meant for the raid controller and its separate hookups.

 

[Noriaki]

Andy22: It's recommended you do not put CD/DVD/Zip/Etc drives on the RAID controller. Especially if the RAID controller is running an array. It's something to do with the BIOS in a RAID controller I believe.

An ATA33 hard drive is fine. Also if it's a regular ATA100 (non-RAID) controller CD type devices are fine. But yes if you have a RAID controller it's recommended you keep your CD type devices on the regular IDE channels and put only hard drives on the RAID controller.

 

[Andy22]

Yeah, sorry I wasn't clear on that. I was thinking the other IDE controllers were not ATA100 but I guess they are so it must have been referring to the Blue RAID connectors.

Thanks for clearing that up.