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More drives in one box
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Author:  RB [ Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:52 am ]
Post subject:  More drives in one box

I want to put more drives (HDD, CD, DVD) to work together in a PC box. How is this usually done? I guess I should find a cable (like that one between HDD and CD/DVD) which has three connectors and just put them all together. Are there any other standard solutions?

Author:  Satis [ Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:56 am ]
Post subject: 

If you're talking about a PATA motherboard (probably) then yes, you need an IDE cable. Usually a mobo will have 2-4 IDE connectors on the motherboard. Each of those can support 2 devices. The only trick is making sure your master-slave settings are right.

For more exotic solutions, you can find external hard drives and CD/DVD roms for USB and probably firewire. Or you could get a SATA or PATA expansion card to stick into a PCI slot, then run devices off of that.

Author:  RB [ Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:35 am ]
Post subject: 

Satis wrote:
Each of those can support 2 devices.

(throws a look in the box)
Ah so! Then I should decide which two will be on the first and which one on the second IDE connector. I prefer to copy the things from HDD to DVD drive but as well want to keep communication between CD and other drives.

So here is my guess:
1. Connector: HDD (master), DVD (second switch)
2. Connector: CD (master)

Is there a better solution?

Author:  Satis [ Fri Aug 10, 2007 7:50 am ]
Post subject: 

you can communicate to multiple devices on the same chain. However the bandwidth is split between them (sorta, depending on device capabilities).

Unless you plan on doing alot of copying from CD <-> DVD I'd say put the optical drives on the secondary controller.

IDE 1 : HDD (master)
IDE 2: DVD (master), CD-ROM (slave)

The order of master/slave for ide2 doesn't matter. The HDD MUST be IDE 1 master in order to boot. Just to make sure, this is PATA right? That's the very wide parallel cable. SATA is the newer standard and is a serial cable and much thinner. Just want to make sure since SATA doesn't support chaining devices.

Anyway, the setup above will give you the greatest bandwidth from HDD <-> optical drives.

Author:  RB [ Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:44 am ]
Post subject: 

After I saw these two:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q ... a=N&tab=wi
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q ... a=N&tab=wi

I'm sure it is PATA. :P I'm such a hardware dummy. Nevermind...

Thanks alot.

Author:  Peltz [ Sat Aug 11, 2007 4:08 pm ]
Post subject: 

Quote:
The only trick is making sure your master-slave settings are right.


Actually, its more tricky to make the darn cables reach anywhere if you have a larger box with preset Hdd drawers.

Author:  Satis [ Sun Aug 12, 2007 1:24 pm ]
Post subject: 

true, if you have a really big case it can sometimes be a bitch getting the cable to reach. Blah, I'm a SATA man now, no more of all that crap. Man I'm so glad parallel cables are pretty much extinct.

Author:  RB [ Fri Aug 24, 2007 12:45 am ]
Post subject: 

Heh... the thing is working now. I made sure that the cables are long enough but there is an other problem - together with FDD cable, two IDE cables can make the box quite messy, if you know what I mean.

Author:  Peltz [ Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:29 am ]
Post subject: 

Congratulations.

Author:  Satis [ Fri Aug 24, 2007 5:01 pm ]
Post subject: 

yea, it becomes a cabling nightmare. One of the reason I have only SATA drives and no FDDI in my new boxes. Back in the day I used to ties the cables together using twisty-ties and then shoved it out of the way... maybe twist-tie it to different parts of the case to keep it secure.

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