Is it possible to combine a IDE harddisk with a DVD burner on the same data cable? I installed a new harddisk, which stand alone was recognised. If I combine the harddisk with the DVD burner on the same data cable both are not recognised.
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Is it possible to combine a IDE harddisk with a DVD burner on the same data cable? I installed a new harddisk, which stand alone was recognised. If I combine the harddisk with the DVD burner on the same data cable both are not recognised.
In theory it should be OK, but not always.
How are the drives jumpered? If it's an auxiliary drive on a channel that previously only had the DVD burner on it, the burner is probably master (and burners typically want to be the master device), then of course the HD should be slave, or are they CS?
Sometimes a hard drive and an optical drive just don't get along...
Originally I had a DVD burner + DVD rom on the same cable. The harddisk is slave. How can I check if the DVD burner is master?
If the upper device must be the master then probably the DVD burner was the slave, meaning there are two slaves on the same cable. Could that be the problem?
If the drives are individually jumpered as Master and Slave, then they can be arranged either way on the cable. There will be a labelled set of pins on the DVD to choose Master - Slave - CS.
Having both drives set as either Master or Slave will probably result in neither being recognized.
CS (Cable Select) is usually only used with an 80-wire cable. Then the drive at the end of the cable is Master. Both drives must be set to CS. CS normally won't work with the 40-wire cable common on optical drives. A CS-enabled 40-wire cable is rare.
The position on the cable is important if both devices are set to Cable Select. In this case the master position is the top of the cable and the slave position is the plug further down the cable.
If you have the jumpers mismatched, you will confuse the bios and it's ability to detect what is going on.
There are jumpers (usually just to the left) of where the IDE cable plugs in on an optical drive. The master position is usually the right most two pins of the 6pin set, cable select is the left most and slave is the middle. I say USUALLY... you must check - the positions are normally marked on the label or punched into the metal near the pins.
The hard drive jumper settings depends on the make AND model. If you post both the dvd drive make and model and the hard drive make and model, I can look up what both settings should be.
The IDE cable itself is also a consideration. Depending on the age of the DVD and the Hard drive, you may need to use a 40 wire or 80 wire cable. If you use an 80 wire on an older DVD drive it will not work properly - the reverse is true for the hard drive. So please post the type of cable you have and the makes and models so you can have a definitive answer... the motherboard make and model would also be helpful since a bios update might be needed as well.
Thank you for all the answers and suggestions. The DVD burner was below the DVD rom, so I suspect it was slave. I will try to find out and come back.
Just because one was below the other, doesn't mean that the cable was fitted that way round!!
You are right, but in this case it was :)
I changed the jumoer settings on the DVD burner and everything now works. Thanks again.
Just for reference, it is my understanding that 2 devices on an IDE cable will operate at the speed of the 'slowest' device.
That was true CCT, but with 80 wire signalling and the appropriate bios, it is not always so.