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Adding a secondary IDE controller

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8 replies

by ezeze5000a

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I have a Shuttle A161 motherboard with an onboard primary and secondary IDE controller on board.

I would like to know if I can add another IDE controller,in one of my empty PCI slots, and make it work.
I have two hard drives on the primary controller,and a CD rom,and Cd-RW on the secondary.
I would like to add another hard drive and a ZIP drive to my system if possable.

Before I invest in another controller card, I would like to see if it is even possable.

I have:
2 each 40 GB Hard drives
500MB of SDRAM
850MHZ athlon processor
32Mb AGP video card
Phillips CD-RW
Creative CD drive
SB16 sound card
USR modem

Any help would be appreciated.

PS: And a good name brand of controller card would help too.

8 replies

by dmiles

Yes you can add a Controller card to PCI slots on the motherboard for additional hardware to be supported
Install and configure as PnP or manually

by thechas

As soulrider said, yes you can add another controller.
I use Promise brand controllers. I have found them for under $30 from time to time.
I just saw an ATA133 controller at www.compgeeks.com for under $30.

If I recall correctly, the IDE on the Shuttle AI61 is ATA66.
If so, you could improve system performance by moving your hard drives to the new controller card.
Just verify that there is an option for scsi, or external card in the BIOS boot sequence.
(for some reason, most BIOS's detect a secondary controller as a SCSI device for boot)

Chas

by timthetoolman

Hi,

As soulrider and TheChas mentioned, it is possible, but another alternative you have is to upgrade your motherboard to one with built in raid. This will give you access to two more controllers which support raid.

Then you could have your two 40Gb drives as a raid 0 set which will make them quicker too.

...and add the other drives on the other controls as you do now, but you'll have room for two more.

Another suggestion, anyway... :-)

Cheers,
Tim.

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