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Hardware setup

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by sivertskyle

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I just built my computer and am running Windows XP. It runs much slower then it should and I sometimes lose access to the DVD player and was thinking it might have to do with the way I installed the Hard drive and DVD player, which are my only IDE components. I made the hard drive the master and the DVD the slave. Is that the way it is supposed to be set up?

If you need more specifics I have them.

30 replies

by mjd420nova

If I have only two devices on the IDE, I like to put one, the HDD as the master on the primary and the second device as master on the secondary. Sometimes the drivers for additional devices will overwrite the drivers previously loaded, like a printer or sound card. Sometimes adjustments in loading sequence will be needed to get all devices to work together.

by hal 9000

In practice this may not be possible as most of the new M'Boards now only have 1 IDE Socket and anything up to 6 SATA Sockets available.

As Seagate will very soon be dropping the manufacture of IDE Drives it is probably a good idea to buy another HDD that is a SATA Drive then install Windows to that. At the same time mount the IDE Drive in a USB Caddy and use it as a backup drive which you can recover your Data from and copy it back to the new HDD.

This should also make the computer perform faster as you will only have the one device on the IDE Chanel. That will make this unit as fast as it can be on the existing hardware.

Also just another thought if you have set the HDD to Master and the DVD Drive to Slave the Master or HDD needs to be on the end of the IDE Lead and the DVD Drive needs to be on the middle connection or you'll have major problems. Most times because of the way that things are made it's easier to place the HDD on the middle connector and the Optical Drive on the end connector. If you have things set this way and can not change the lead because of length issues change both drives to Cable Select and it will work better.

Col

by photek

I wouldnt recomend using cable select. And it make no difference how you connect your master/slave devices on an ide cable. It will work anyway.

by paulus_uk

If you connect a DVD/CDRW/DVDRW/CD Rom which is normally an ATA33 device onto a cable running an ATA100/133 device you will lower the performance done to the lowest denominator on the cable... ie ATA33.
Best setup is to use SATA HDD's & keep optical devices on the IDE.

by hal 9000

I've had a couple where the IDE Drives have both to be set to Master to work properly. With the older IDE Controllers it was never a problem but with the new ones they can override the actually Drive Settings on the cable.

Col

by paulmah

Generally, installing CD/DVD with HDD on the same IDE channel is a definitely no-no.

The main reason is because the IDE channel can only run at a single speed, despite being able to support up to 2 devices per channel. Hence the entire channel will default to the SLOWEST device on that channel. (Yup, IDE does not just run at one speed like SATA/SATA2)

Anyway, the slowest device here will usually mean your CD/DVD drive. So even if your HDD is the meanest new IDE kit on the block, it might well be operating at a speed way behond its true capabilities.

by sivertskyle

I now understand why i shouldn't have the HDD and the DVD on the same IDE, but i only have one IDE channel on my PC. Is it better to buy a new HDD or DVD for the SATA connection?

by ghickey591

Hi,

You'll be much better getting a SATA hard drive and using it as your boot/system drive - SATA is inherently quicker than IDE and most of the modern SATA drives come with at least 8MB cache on their controllers. You can still use the IDE drive for archiving/backup of your system disk.

One thing you might want to verify is that your motherboard BIOS can use a SATA disk as the boot drive. I would expect that it can unless it's a very old motherboard - even then a BIOS upgrade would probably sort you out.

by glh62

Your computer is correctly set up. It might be your drivers or controllers that have a problem communicating. try reinstalling your hardware drivers and note if you are using the right one for each unit.

by chunkybick

When I build a computer with IDE1 and IDE2 channels I always use IDE1 for the hard drive. Other devices like CD/DVD-ROM and CD/DVD-RW are connected to the IDE2 channel. I set the CD/DVD-RW as master and CD/DVD-ROM as slave. The ribbon is connected so that the final connection at the end of the ribbon is always connected to the master device CD/DVD-RW and the center connector to the CD/DVD-ROM which is the slave.

by jnovotny355

As others probably allready wrote, best way to avoid this kind of trouble is to use one IDE connector for your HDD and other for your DVD device, so Youll need two cables. Leave both device jumpers set on master and use the primary IDE (usually blue connector) on motherboard for HDD. Be sure to plug the correct end of cable into motherboard and the other end of cable into HDD (dont use the connector in the "middle" of cable). Use the other cable for secondary IDE connector (usually black) on motherboard and again, plug it correctly to DVD device. Then, after the hardware set up, ensure when starting the computer, that BIOS is set up to auto-detect devices on both primary and secondary IDE buses. Thats it, from now on it should work well. Hope this solves Your issue. Have a nice day.

by oktet

Totally agree there is no use in having 2 ide connector slots on your mobo (motherboard)and using only one of the two connector slots to squeeze the HD and DVD/CD ROM drive onto one IDE ribbon.

If you mobo only has one IDE connector slot, you should have Sata1 or Sata2 connector slots on the mobo, and if that's the case you can buy an adapter for the HDD to use Sata instead of sharing that IDE ribbon.

Just out of curiosity what type of mobo is it (Specifics)?

by fullspectrum

Someone in this thread said it, and I must agree, if you put Cd/DVD on same cable as your HDD, you limit the HDD data rate to the CD/DVD drive data rate.

Some leter DVD drives aren't bad for data rate, but none of them match HDD.

You need (as mentioned also here) to put them on different channels (hence separate cables).

If you can't separate them (one IDe channel or some other difficulty), probably best bet is to get a USB external caddy, and put the DVD/CD in that (NOT the HDD). That retains the fastest speed (and bootable, of course) fo rthe HDD, and conveniently also allows you to move the DVD around. The Speed/file number limitations of USB won't worry the CD/DVD but would impact nastily on the HDD if used as O/S over the USB.

by jerry.zaza

The reason you should not mix a CD/DVD Drive with a HD on the same cable is because the HD controller inside the HD will detect that is has a Slave drive that is much slower than itself and will as a result Slow Down to avoid problems with that Slave, the end result is a HD that has put the Brakes on at the same pace as that Slave. Hence your OS/Computer will perform much slower as well. This is also true of mixing HD's of different Access time or Rotational Speed, the system will respond at the slowest of the 2, Have fun.

by dfryauff

Most motherboards have two connectors for IDE. Use one for the HD and one for the CD/DVD. Also, most new hard drives use an ribbon cable that is slightly different than some CD/DVD drives, it will usually have a blue end on it rather than two gray ones. Be sure to use that cable for the hard drive and a regular one for the CD/DVD drive. Both should be set to master or cable select.

by lars2

Looking for a new motherboard I find it difficult to find one with two IDE connectors. This mean that I'll have to find other ways to use my IDE drives or maybe buy a Ultra ATA-133 PCI Controllerkort. I would'nt dream of connecting hard drive and DVD on the same IDE.
thanks for your time

by unprofitableservant27

Several people have mentioned that it is wise to avoid, unless absolutely necessary, installing more than one device per IDE channel. Another reason for this (unless this has changed) is that the mainboard can only communicate with one device on a given IDE channel at a time, which is yet another factor slowing you down with multiple devices on a single channel.

by nighthawk808

Dual IDE channels are becoming more and more rare on motherboards these days as SATA takes off. SATA-only motherboards are even becoming commonplace.

by ashton

After many hours of slow boot and other foul-ups, I found that using "cable select" with the HD at the end, fixed all troubles. No, this is not my first experience with computers. This was a HP dx2000 Business type machine.

by jvillano

Yah, it does. I have been swapping out my hard drive left and right for my Linux administration class.. and due to the way my Case and my MoBo work. I have to have my HD on the middle (secondary) of the IDE and the Burner on the end (primary). The HD's won't work unless I set them to Slave or Cable select.

by paul.fullilove

I would make the DVD the primary on your second IDE channel. With all of the system overhead (e.g. memory swapping and other stuff) you devices are competing for the same channel and the master will almost always win out over the secondary.

by kjrubberducky

SATA (Serial ATA) is a newer way of connecting disk drives to the motherboard. IDE cables use Parallel ATA connections, and are flat and very wide. The new SATA connectors are much thinner, and also allow for faster data transfer.

A USB caddy is an external enclosure for IDE hard drives that allow them to be connected to the computer through a USB port, just like a normal external hard drive.

by mpg187

So my old drives wont work on newer machines?

I heard of a USB to IDE converter, is that similar?

by mrjoyce

OK, so I have two HDDs and two DVDs on an old 2-IDE-channel machine. How should those best be arranged?

by nighthawk808

Check to make sure you're not in PIO mode. Windows will occasionally drop down to that as a failsafe if it has problems with one or more of the devices. If it has, then welcome to the high-performance world of the 1980's.

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