What's the best way to configure two hard drives?

[Caiwyn]

I've got a 20 GB hard drive that I'll be installing my OS and all my programs. I've also got a 60 GB hard drive that I want to use for storage. Both drives are 7200RPM ATA/100 drives. I've got a mobo with built-in IDE RAID, but I'm not running an actual RAID setup - I just wanted the extra IDE channels, because I also have a DVD-ROM, a CD-RW, an LS120 and a ZIP drive. That's 6 IDE devices.

The machine I'm putting together is meant to be used primarily as an audio recording machine. This means that the 60 GB storage drive needs to get a decent connection because the audio will be recorded in real-time to that drive. Also keep in mind that the program being used to record that audio is on the 20 GB drive.

So my question is this... knowing the devices I have and what my needs are, what drives would you put on what IDE channels? I've thought of putting both hard drives on the first IDE channel, but I've heard that's not as fast as having them on separate channels. Is that true? What if I put one drive and the LS-120 on the first IDE channel, and the second drive and the ZIP on the second channel, then leave the CD-RW and DVD drive on the third or fourth IDE port (the ones added for the RAID chip)? I figure since the ZIP and LS-120 aren't being used while recording, they won't interfere or slow down data transfer. Good idea? Bad idea?

I basically want to know whether certain configurations of the drive are going to slow me down, and how I can avoid that. Help me, AnandTech Forum Posters. You're my only hope.

 

[Lunatico]

You should put what you use more on separated channels. Do you have four ide channels ? So you may use up to 8 ide devices

Since you can access multiples channels simultaneously, with no loss of performance (sharing the same IDE channel), I think this would be a good config:

IDE1 HD 60Mb

IDE2 HD 20MB

IDE3 CDRW
ZIP DRIVE

IDE4 DVDROM
LS120

As you can see (if I'm not wrong) you may copy from HD1 to HD2 with no channel bandwidth sharing. You could also burn anything from both HD and from the DVDROM without sharing too. ZipDrives and LS-120 drivers are slow as hell, you'll probably won't need to burn anything from them directly to CD.

Hope it's right, and hope it helps you.

 

[Caiwyn]

That's what I was thinking of doing, Lunatico. Thanks for the advice. I still would like a second opinion from any other forumites out there...

I should have mentioned before that I'm noticing that if I put my LS-120, Zip drive, and CD drives on the 3rd and 4th IDE channels, I can't boot from those devices. Apparently I can only boot from the first two IDE channels.

So my first question is, is it possible to boot from the third and fourth channels, the ones controlled by the RAID chip?

If not, would the following setup be a bad idea?

IDE1:
20 GB HD
LS-120

IDE2:
60GB HD
DVD-ROM

IDE3:
CD-RW
ZIP250

 

[NelsonMuntz]

I like the way Lunatico has got it set up. That would probably be my first choice too. It keeps the peripherals all on separate channels from the hard drives to maximize transfer to/from these devices and keeps the hard drives separate from one another and keeps the burner separate from the CD-ROM.

 

[Caiwyn]

Well, I do need some bootable devices as well... would it slow things down at all if I jacked both the first HD (master) and the LS-120 (slave) into the first IDE port? The LS-120 almost never gets used - am I right in thinking that it would only slow things down when it's in use, or would it slow things down all the time?

 

[NelsonMuntz]

No, you're right it will only slow things down while they are in use. and then only when you are going between the two devices on the same channel. If you are actually going to be burning directly from the removeable storage to the CD-RW, then it would be a good idea to move them off of that channel anyway. Putting the LS-120 on the primary IDE is a good idea if you want to use it to boot.