using 2 hds

[Mikeeg]

hi i heard that if you use 2hds then you should take the jumper out of the master hd ? is this true

[Wolf Man]

No, but it is advised you put them on different IDE cables. So you have the primary with jut your primary hdd/hdds on and the secondary with the CD Drive and the HDD.

[Mikeeg]

so i have my normal drive on an ide cable by its own and another drive with the cd ide cable?

[Stoo]

Either use both as masters on separate channels, or on the same channel as Master and Slave (if you can't route the cables for example)..

Graphically (Crude)

Setup 1:
----- Master HDD1
IDE1 -----|
----- Slave CD/DVD ROM/Writer

----- Master HDD2
IDE2 -----|
----- Empty or Second optical on Slave


Setup2:
----- Master HDD1
IDE1 -----|
----- Slave HDD2

----- Master CD/DVD ROM/Writer
IDE2 -----|
----- Empty or Second optical on Slave

[LoopyJuice]

NEVER put a hd and an optical drive on the same IDE channel, the hd will be slowed to the optical drive speed (probably ata33), stick both hds on IDE0 and the optical drive on IDE1

[Mikeeg]

im lost i dnt get all this :S

[Stoo]

Originally posted by LoopyJuice
NEVER put a hd and an optical drive on the same IDE channel, the hd will be slowed to the optical drive speed (probably ata33), stick both hds on IDE0 and the optical drive on IDE1

Depends what you're doing, how often the drive is used, what other hardware there is, and how the case is setup, but yes setup2 is a better idea.

Mike:

Take the drive that you will be booting from, set it as Master, connect it to the the cable, take the second drive, set it as Slave and connect it to the other connector on the cable, then plug the remaining connector (the one at the "long" end of the cable) and plug it into the IDE0 connector on the motherboard.

Any other devices you have, plug them into the other port on the motherboard, but pick one as Master, and the other as Slave (if you have four devices..)

[Austin]

I actually think it's best to put the HDs as Master on their own channel whenever possible, opticals better as slaves to them. My thinking is since HDs are much faster and more demanding than optical (CD/DVD) it makes little sense to stick 2 on a channel and have them fighting for bandwidth.

When putting a slow device (like CD/DVD) as Master and a HD as Slave (not rec'd BTW) it used to give problems, but (I think) much like the 'don't mix HD & CD/DVD on 1 channel' mentioned above it's not been an issue for a long time, certainly on modern chipsets. My KT400 & now nForce2 both reported my HD working in ATA133 with an optical drive (ATA33 most likely) plugged in as a slave.

Just to reiterate how the IDE thing works; you have 2 channels, PRIMARY & SECONDARY (2 seperate slots on the mobo). These can each handle up to 2 devices (connected to the same cable), one device is MASTER and the other is SLAVE (set by jumper position on back of drive). These 2 devices then share the lead to send data to the mobo but perf isn't anywhere near halved when doing this, impact is negligible only really of notice when using the devices simultaneously. For this reason it's best to seperate the devices (ie use diff channels) for the devices most likely to be used simultaneously.

eg. If you burn data from HD2 using a CDRW be sure to put them on seperate channels (HD2 on PRIMARY, CDRW SECONDARY or vice versa). If you tend to use HD1 & HD2 at the same time (eg one has Windows & the other the Swapfile & games) then again put them on seperate channels. HTH!

[Wolf Man]

To be honest though, your secondary hard drive may well be slowed to the speed of the optical drive, so in this case it would most probably be ata33, but normally the secondary hdd is being used for backup so it doesn't need to be as fast as usual. And if the drive is being used for something significant you would probably want to raid 2 hdd's would you not? I would personally lob the master drive on IDE0 and the CD Drive and the HDD2 on IDE1, just put the HDD on the end of the cable, so that you have:

IDE1: (motherboard)
|
|
CD Drive set to slave:
|
|
Secondary HDD set to master:

That is just how I would do it, people may not agree, but really depends how much your going to use the secondardy harddrive doesn't it.

[Mikeeg]

i use it evry day its got all me music and where i store all me dls

[dgr]

setup2 works for me

well it will until this afternoon when i should get my raptor!!!!!!!

37gb of boot and apps + 240gb of storage . anyone beat that?

dgr

[Wolf Man]

Mikeeg, as you wont be accessing the hdd very often, your only using it for storage, go with your CD Drive and secondary HDD on IDE1 and your primary HDD on IDE0.

[Wolf Man]

dgr, I have ordered a 250gb drive, so I will have 13gig more than you