Master and slave,which IDE slot?

[johnnr892]

Hi, On my new build I'm going to have a cd rw and 1 hardrive. Do i put both on the same IDE connector and have the hardrive as master and the cd rw as slave or do i have them both on separate IDE connectors and have the hardrive as primary master on IDE 1 and the cd rw as secondary master on IDE 2?Thanks again, John.

[BUFF]

If you can I would have them both on seperate channels as Master

[johnnr892]

Alright, thanks i thought that was best it's just our computer which was pre-built was configured with the hardrive as master and the cd rw as slave and it's had a few problems. Would it be easy to just change the cd rw to master on a secondary IDE connector on our pre build computer and not have any hassle?

[GreenPiggy]

Whoever built that PC is a numpty. It shouldn't cause any issues by switching them round, just remember to set the jumpers properly

[johnnr892]

Does it cause slowdowns or problems by putting the ahrdrive and cd on the same connector then?

[Paul Adams]

Does it cause slowdowns or problems by putting the ahrdrive and cd on the same connector then?

With 2 devices on an IDE cable, the data only travels at the speed of the slowest device, so you essentially slow your hard disk down a LOT.

Not sure if this is only when the device is actually in use, or all the time - I just know it's not good

[Rave]

With 2 devices on an IDE cable, the data only travels at the speed of the slowest device, so you essentially slow your hard disk down a LOT.

Not sure if this is only when the device is actually in use, or all the time - I just know it's not good

I was under the impression that you can run two UDMA devices on one channel at different speeds. The problem is that you can't read and write on an IDE channel at the same time, so if (for example) you're burning a CD from the HD, it has to constantly go read - write - read - write etc. which is inefficient. I find if I'm copying CDs 'on the fly' with the reading and writing drives on the same channel it'll cope at up to maybe 16x burn speed, after that the burn-proof keeps kicking in as it can't keep the buffer full.

Rich :¬)

[Paul Adams]

http://www.winnetmag.com/Windows/Art...74/pg/2/2.html

You can expect significant performance penalties when you mix different kinds of IDE devices on the same IDE channel. IDE slows down when you combine fast and slow IDE/ATA devices on the same channel. For example, combining a fast ATA-2 PIO Mode 4 hard disk on the same channel with a slower PIO Mode 2 IDE CD-ROM drive effectively cripples the performance of the hard disk by forcing it to continually wait for I/O operations when the CD-ROM is active. Under these circumstances, the fleet effect takes place: The fleet goes only as fast as the slowest ship. In these circumstances, a better solution is to place your slower IDE peripherals (such as CD-ROMs and tape drives) on IDE's slower second channel, keeping them off the channel that contains your fast hard disks. However, if you use more than two IDE hard disks on your system, you won't have a choice; you will be forced into the fleet effect situation.

Not sure about the distinction between R & W operations, but the above seems to imply that it's when the slowest device is actually in use that the other devices will only communicate at that speed.

[yamangman]

You want your HDD as Master on the Primary IDE channel, and your optical device as Master on your secondary IDE channel.