Best HD's and CD's IDE Configs ???

Swami · 15th July 2001, 10:29 PM

HEEEEEELP! I've been going off my brain trying to get all these 4 IDE devices to work happily together. I've got:

* HDD ------ Brand New 20gb 5400rpm Western Digital
* HDD ------- Old (slow) 1Gb Fujitsu (used for crucial back ups and image)
* CD-RW ----- Brand New HP 9100 32/8/4
* CD ROM ----- Brand New Creative 52x
* Old Socket 7 Gigabyte Motherboard only runs at ATA 33 at present. (Yeah - I know it needs chucking. Soon, soon)

The 20gb will run LBA and UDMA 2
The 1gb will only run at LBA Mode 4
The CR and CDRW will run at Mode 4.

I don't know whether or not to have DMA on or off in the bios or device manager. No matter what I try, any combination has a clash in one way or another. Sometimes Win98 even loads the CD as a hard drive - huh?

What would be the best config for these, seeing that I do some HD -> CDRW burning, some CD-ROM -> CDRW burning, and some big HD -> HD transfers?

Is is better to have the CD-RW as a primary slave to the fastest HDD (primary master) for burning,
or as a secondary master sharing with the CD-ROM,
or as secondary master to with the old HDD leaving the CD-ROM as primary slave ?!?!?!

Nero says NOT to have source and destination CD'S sharing the same IDE channels for burning. The HP manual says the opposite. Some people say to use DMA for burning, others say not. Newsgroups seem to be split on these issues. Grrrrrr. Who can help clear this up?

sluDge · 16th July 2001, 12:24 AM

You have to work out the priority based on which devices you transfer data b/n most.
I would have the CD-RW on a separate channel to the WD HDD and the CD-ROM, this works best for burning (IMO). This leaves the 1 gig drive as the slave to the CD-RW, which is also good for hdd-hdd transfer.
The shortfalls are between those on the same channel - CD-ROM to 20Gb and 1Gb to CD-RW. But you can use the CD-RW for big data transfers to the HDD if necessary.
If you can burn OK using Nero with DMA enabled then this gives better performance, Nero used to reboot my pc during a burn, not sure what fixed it though. Practise on a CD-RW disc to test it.

But if DMA is flaky, try just getting it to run with the 20Gb as this is where you need it the most.
Hope this helps, good luck with the cables and drive placement.

15th July 2001, 10:29 PM	#1
Swami Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Windsor, NSW. Posts: 109	Best HD's and CD's IDE Configs ??? HEEEEEELP! I've been going off my brain trying to get all these 4 IDE devices to work happily together. I've got: * HDD ------ Brand New 20gb 5400rpm Western Digital * HDD ------- Old (slow) 1Gb Fujitsu (used for crucial back ups and image) * CD-RW ----- Brand New HP 9100 32/8/4 * CD ROM ----- Brand New Creative 52x * Old Socket 7 Gigabyte Motherboard only runs at ATA 33 at present. (Yeah - I know it needs chucking. Soon, soon) The 20gb will run LBA and UDMA 2 The 1gb will only run at LBA Mode 4 The CR and CDRW will run at Mode 4. I don't know whether or not to have DMA on or off in the bios or device manager. No matter what I try, any combination has a clash in one way or another. Sometimes Win98 even loads the CD as a hard drive - huh? What would be the best config for these, seeing that I do some HD -> CDRW burning, some CD-ROM -> CDRW burning, and some big HD -> HD transfers? Is is better to have the CD-RW as a primary slave to the fastest HDD (primary master) for burning, or as a secondary master sharing with the CD-ROM, or as secondary master to with the old HDD leaving the CD-ROM as primary slave ?!?!?! Nero says NOT to have source and destination CD'S sharing the same IDE channels for burning. The HP manual says the opposite. Some people say to use DMA for burning, others say not. Newsgroups seem to be split on these issues. Grrrrrr. Who can help clear this up?

16th July 2001, 12:24 AM	#2
sluDge Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Canberra Posts: 73	You have to work out the priority based on which devices you transfer data b/n most. I would have the CD-RW on a separate channel to the WD HDD and the CD-ROM, this works best for burning (IMO). This leaves the 1 gig drive as the slave to the CD-RW, which is also good for hdd-hdd transfer. The shortfalls are between those on the same channel - CD-ROM to 20Gb and 1Gb to CD-RW. But you can use the CD-RW for big data transfers to the HDD if necessary. If you can burn OK using Nero with DMA enabled then this gives better performance, Nero used to reboot my pc during a burn, not sure what fixed it though. Practise on a CD-RW disc to test it. But if DMA is flaky, try just getting it to run with the 20Gb as this is where you need it the most. Hope this helps, good luck with the cables and drive placement.