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Want to add DVD burner but out of controllers...

D

ddeder

Golden Member
I currently have two hard drives, a cd-rom and a zip drive. There are only two IDE controllers on the motherboard each which supports two devices. If I want to add a DVD burner to this system, is it just a matter of installing a PCI controller card? If so, and the DVD burner is the only device attached to this card, do I set it to Master? Also, how do I know whether to get an Ultra ATA/100, Ultra ATA/66 or Ultra ATA/33 controller card? Does it matter when connecting a DVD burner or only when connecting a hard drive?
 


<< I currently have two hard drives, a cd-rom and a zip drive. There are only two IDE controllers on the motherboard each which supports two devices. If I want to add a DVD burner to this system, is it just a matter of installing a PCI controller card? If so, and the DVD burner is the only device attached to this card, do I set it to Master? Also, how do I know whether to get an Ultra ATA/100, Ultra ATA/66 or Ultra ATA/33 controller card? Does it matter when connecting a DVD burner or only when connecting a hard drive? >>



It's not a good idea to connect ATAPI drives to add-on cards or on board RAID controller. It will not work in DOS period and some drives just have compatibility issues. You should get a Promise U ATA100 TX2, because you'll be connecting your second hard drive to this.
 
So you are saying I should unplug my second harddrive from the primary IDE controller on the motherboard and plug it into the PCI controller card and then plug the DVD burner into the primary controller on the motherboard as the slave drive? The CD-ROM is master and the zip is slave on the secondary controller. If I connect the second hard drive to the PCI card, I assume I should set it to master? Would I get even better response times if I used an Ultra ATA/133 card or does it depend on the hard drive?

I see that most new hard drives today are Ultra ATA/100. I assume that CD-ROMS, DVDs and burners also have an ATA specification. What is most common?

Can someone else back up the claim that it is not a good idea to plug ATAPI devices into a controller card? If so, why is this?
 
I want to be able to copy from the cd-rom drive to the dvd drive. The dvddrive is capable of burning normal cd's.
 
heres what you do:

Put in the PCI controller card, set your 2nd HD as master and connect it to the PCI card.
Set the DVD burner to slave and connect it to where your 2nd HD was
 
Here's a better idea - go external for the DVD burner - either USB 2.0 or Firewire.
 
Here is a quote from my Maxtor Ultra ata/100 PCI adater card installation instructions...

"ATAPI Devices (DVD ROM, TApe Backup)
If ypur ATAPI device is not UDMA 66 of 100 compliant, and is currently working fine,please leave it on that channel. If you are experiencing problems when attaching an ATAPI device and the device is not seen by its installation software, please call the device manufacturer for new software."

I would put drive that you boot from (your fastest drive) as master on the first channel of the adapter card and put your second hard drive as master on the second channel of the adapter cardand hopefully the drives iare ATA66/100 capable. If not that is still ok because the card will default back to whatever speed the hard drive is capable of. .Al;so remember that there is a special cable for ATA66/100 speeds and your drive will default back to ATA33 if you don't use the special cable. Don't forget that you must set the bios to boot from "PCI device" after you install the card. Then install your CDRW on the primary channel of your MOBO as masterso that nothing interferes with it. Leave your CD and zip dives on the secondary channel as master and slave accordingly. This is probaly the best way to set up your system, you may try to move the zip disc off the CD channel and onto the second channel of the adapter as a slave to the second hard drive. try it and see which works betst for you.
Good Luck
 
I have two HD (ata100 and ata66) on the addon Promise controller (Ultra66) and 3 cd-rw/dvd on the mainboard controller. Everything works great.
 


<< I currently have two hard drives, a cd-rom and a zip drive. There are only two IDE controllers on the motherboard each which supports two devices. If I want to add a DVD burner to this system, is it just a matter of installing a PCI controller card? If so, and the DVD burner is the only device attached to this card, do I set it to Master? Also, how do I know whether to get an Ultra ATA/100, Ultra ATA/66 or Ultra ATA/33 controller card? Does it matter when connecting a DVD burner or only when connecting a hard drive? >>



Try this and get back to me:

IDE 0(motherboard primary) master: boot HDD(it's good idea to not move this around to avoid complications)
IDE 0 slave: CD-ROM drive

IDE 1 master: CD-RW drive
IDE 1 slave: zip

IDE 2(add on controller primary) master: secondary HDD
IDE 2 slave: open

IDE 3 master: open
IDE 3 master: open


I do not recommended using any ATAPI(essentially all CD-ROM and non HDD IDE devices) on IDE 2 and 3.

 
Thanks for all of the advice. The controller card should arrive tomorrow. I will post my results once I have everything installed.
 
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