question about abit kt7a and installing cdrw, dvd and 2nd hd

[laFiera]

hi...
built my first pc with an abit kt7a about a year ago and it was my first time ever doing it.
Right now I'm about to get a dvd a cdrw and a 2nd hard drive. What i have now in the system is a floppy,
cd rom and one hard drive. Question was, how would i go about installing the additional devices? aren't i limited to so many devices??
sorry, not much of a coimputer whiz here..
any suggestions appreciated,
txs

 

[PicPop]

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[Buz2b]

Remove the old CDROM and replace it with the DVD. That drive will now act as your CDROM as well as your DVD. Then add the CDRW and the second HDD. That gives you a total of 4 IDE devices, which is what you are allowed unless you use RAID or a seperate HDD controller card. As to the exact procedure, in general if I was going to do this the first thing I would do is add the second HDD first; chained to the original HDD (as slave). Boot the system and make any adjustments you might need. Then change out the DVD/CDROM. Again, boot the system. Finally, slave the CDRW to the DVD and boot again. Please note that when doing this, all your drive letters will change. You will end up with C & D as HDD 1 and 2; then E and F will be your DVD then CDRW.

 

[laFiera]

i really appreciate your clear instructions!!!
txs!

 

[Boonesmi]

i agree for the most part,

but personally i would rather have the cdrw as master, with the dvd rom as its slave

 

[adlep]

hmm,
some of the burning software (NERO)will bitch about having CDRW and DVD on one IDE channel.
SO my suggestion is do it like that:
1 IDE - HDD master, DVD slave
2 IDE -2nd HDD master, CDRW slave...
Good luck,

 

[adlep]

Should you have any problems with your KT7A go here:
usefulinfo
excellent source of knowlege about this particular board...
Good luck

 

[Buz2b]

While I think Nero might prefer the two optical drives be on separate channels, it works just fine having them on the same one. The only problem is putting a slower device on the same channel as the high speed drive. While in theory that can be overcome by the buss system, I still prefer the tried and true method of keeping the faster IDE devices (HDD's) on the same channel. I'm not sure what benefit, if any, there would be for having the CDRW as the Master unless it is the faster of the two optical drives. But, either way makes no diff to me.

 

[adlep]

Buz2b....
There wont be any slowdown... typical IDE drive transfer rate is equall to about 50~55 MB/sec while you still
have a modern IDE channels, which are capable of transfering 66 or 100 MB/sec, so you still have some margin for some other, slower devices like CDRW's and DVD's.......
and two fast IDE drives on this same IDE channel, talking at this same time may cause bottelneck...

 

[gtd2000]

Well on my KT7A I have the following:

IDE0 Master 40GB 7200rpm, Slave 60GB 5400rpm
IDE1 Master Delta DVD ROM, Slave Lite On 24x10x40 CDRW.

Some DVD's will blue screen if you do not have them set to Master when sharing the IDE cable.

That set up worked flawlessly with both Nero and EZCD Platinum.

However my KT7A seems to be dying right now 🙁 ps/2 keyboard connector not working, IDE1 seems to be dying too - will not detect my Lite On any more 🙁

 

[Buz2b]

adlep: I think the bottom line is preferences. I prefer to keep the high speed IDE devices on the same channel and the slower optical drives on their own channel. It has been the method of choice for most system builders for many years and continues to be mine. I agree that most modern IDE channels can probably handle the differing transfer rates if used on the same channel; I just prefer the "tried and true" methods, as mentioned in my earlier post. There have been situations where I have set things up differently by request and I have no problem doing so. But those are my reasons and my methodology. Choice is a good thing! 😀