Multiple IDE controllers in one system

[AluminumStudios]

My system has 3 IDE hard drives, an IDE DVD-ROM, and a SCSI card which drives a SCSI CD-RW (which just died) and a SCSI CD-ROM.

I'm looking for a replacment CD-RW and it seems that the best selection is for IDE ones. I"m considering ditching SCSI and adding an IDE controller card so I can keep my 3 IDE hardrives and IDE DVD-ROM in addition to a new IDE CD-RW.

My question is are there any issues with systems that have two sets of IDE controllers? How will the system know which one to look to at boot time?

I have an ABIT BX6-R2 (440BX) mobo.

~William Milberry

 

[tornadobox]

sounds like you're talking about getting a PCI card with 2 IDE ports on it. in that case, in most circumstances you need to boot your hard drive off the primary master of that card (at least you did with my old Promise Ultra66 card). in the BIOS then, you'd need to switch your boot order to represent this, and i'm pretty sure it'll show up as SCSI device to boot from (that's what it was on my old ASUS P3V4X board). anyhow, as long as you tell it where to boot from it won't have any problems with the added IDE ports.

hope this helpd!

 

[AluminumStudios]

I went out and bought a Maxtor Ultra ATA 100 IDE controller. I popped it in and it works like a charm!

My system ran fine with my 3 ide hard drives and DVD-ROM running off the motherboard, so I am jusing using the new controller to drive my new IDE CD-RW. I know my hard drives would get a little boost from the new controller, but my system is overclocked (via the FSB) and everything is stable as is, so I will sacrifice a small potential performance gain for stability (and data integrity).