Plugging the IDE devices?

**inferno_gn** · July 2nd, 2004, 04:23 PM

Hi there,

How do you plug your IDE devices (CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, HDD, etc)?

My set up is like this...
Primary IDE: HDD (Master), DVD-ROM (Slave)
Secondary IDE: HDD (Master), CD-R (Slave)

If I do this?
Primary IDE: HDD (Master), HDD (Slave)
Secondary IDE: DVD-ROM (Master), CD-R (Slave)

I was thinkng, does it make any difference how you plug them? Both of them have ATA100 PATA cables.

Ju Leon...

**GrandDad** · July 2nd, 2004, 04:46 PM

If thier all matching ATAs I go ;
P=HDDs
S=CD or DVD in no certain order

**Escape_Driver** · July 2nd, 2004, 05:19 PM

Try and keep CD-R's and CD on separate chanels And try and keep your hard drives on separate chanels.. Hard drive's Primary.... Opticals on Secondary.. If you can put your Main Hard Drive alone on it's own channel even better..

This stops the same data being sent up and down the same channel...

Example

Copying a CD

You put the CD in CD-ROM drive the data goes down the ide cable to the board.. Now if you have the CD-RW on the same channel it then sends the data back down the same ide cable not leaving as much bandwidth for new data...

**Escape_Driver** · July 2nd, 2004, 05:20 PM

P.S not sure if this is the right place for this thread... But good topic !!

**Cave_Dweller** · July 2nd, 2004, 07:54 PM

I used to put both Hard Drives on the Primary and CD Roms on the Secondary because I always seemed to be using older / slower CD roms and didn't want to degrade the transfer rate of the HD. Honestly though, it's been a long time since I've had multiple Hard Drives, I'm currently using around 15Gig of a 40 Gig drive.

**inferno_gn** · July 3rd, 2004, 12:16 AM

Hi there,

I'm so confused here. *lol* Could you like explain it a little better?

If I do this setup (HDD on Primary IDE, DVD/CD-R drive on Secondary IDE) rather that my current set up, it would be better or not? Faster? What's the difference?

Ju Leon...

**GrandDad** · July 3rd, 2004, 12:25 AM

Originally Posted by inferno_gn

Hi there,

How do you plug your IDE devices (CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, HDD, etc)?

My set up is like this...
Primary IDE: HDD (Master), DVD-ROM (Slave)
Secondary IDE: HDD (Master), CD-R (Slave)

If I do this?
Primary IDE: HDD (Master), HDD (Slave)
Secondary IDE: DVD-ROM (Master), CD-R (Slave)

I was thinkng, does it make any difference how you plug them? Both of them have ATA100 PATA cables.

Ju Leon...

Like the one in red .
When you read anything from CD or DVD it goes thru the motherBoard anyway
so your not slowed down any by have the one IDEcable and circuits trying to handle eveything at once .
If that makes any sense to you .

**Platypus** · July 3rd, 2004, 02:34 AM

How it will work best for you will depend on how you use the drives most commonly and where you want the best performance.

The deciding factor for performance (ie transfer rate) is the fact that each IDE channel can only access one of the devices on it at a time. So you should try to have the two devices you copy between most, on different channels.

Usually the best is pretty much as you have it, DVD-ROM as Primary Slave, CD burner on secondary, preferably as Master, although it may not matter in practice. That way the source CD can be read while the data is being transferred to the target. When you copy CDs on-the-fly, you should get the fastest result, and it will also give the fastest copying from CD to the hard drive on the other channel, and between hard drives.

Also this configuration avoids the occasional conflict that can occur between two optical drives on the same IDE channel. This seems to happen more often than conflict between hard drives, or between a hard drive and an optical.