Damsel in distress with hard drives etc

[Rinky]

Ok, here's the deal (bare with me as I have only a vague idea what some this stuff is in English): I love tinkering with my computer and this week I bought a new processor, motherboard, memory and hard drive (I wanted a new case, too, but alas, it wasn't to be :)). I've been installing everything today and it all worked out perfect, except for the old hard drive and cd-rom.

I hadn't realised that my brand-new mobo had only one ide-thingy (connector?) on it, whereas my previous one had two. My old hard drive is now disconnected (the new one is SATA so it wasn't a problem) because I had to connect my dvd-drive so that I could install drivers etc. My cd-rom drive is also disconnected but I haven't used it that much lately anyway. So, is there a way to connect both the dvd and the old hard drive? To top it all, the cable (the wide, flat gray thing) is quite short so there's not much room to move things around.

[Terry]

You need a new cable. You should be able to connect both a master and a slave device to the one IDE connector.

[Rinky]

Ok. But which one would be the slave? The old hard drive or the dvd? Or does it even matter?
The cable has 3 connectors (it used to connect dvd, cd-rom and mobo) but I'll have to check if it's long enough.

[Terry]

Usually you would make the hard drive the master and the DVD the slave.

[Rinky]

Thank you so much!

If I make the old hard drive the master and the dvd the slave, will it cause any trouble with the sata-hard drive? I guess that one is supposed to be the supreme ruler :D.

[Nick Bogaerts]

Ok. But which one would be the slave? The old hard drive or the dvd? Or does it even matter?
The cable has 3 connectors (it used to connect dvd, cd-rom and mobo) but I'll have to check if it's long enough.

If your motherboard has two or more ATA connectors, it would be better to connect both with a different cable. The traditional way of doing it is having the hard drives on one cable, and the CD/DVD drives on the other, since you usually transfer data from a CD to a hard drive (and vice-versa) more often than you do from one hard drive to another.

[Terry]

I hadn't realised that my brand-new mobo had only one ide-thingy (connector?) on it, whereas my previous one had two.

If your motherboard has two or more ATA connectors, it would be better to connect both with a different cable.

See the problem here?

;)

[Nick Bogaerts]

Yes, dammit; my schoolteachers were right: I should read the questions before attempting to answer them.

[BenK]

Thank you so much!

If I make the old hard drive the master and the dvd the slave, will it cause any trouble with the sata-hard drive? I guess that one is supposed to be the supreme ruler :D.

Nope it will be fine. The IDE drive will only be master of its own controller, SATA drives don't recognize its authority :)

[Soapy Sam]

I'm saddened. A Damsel in distress asks you to "bare with her" and you tell her about hard drives?

Whatever happened to sexual innuendo?

Rinky- You may need a two-connector IDE ribbon cable, as it sounds like your old set up used two separate cables. Most people have at least one twin connector IDE ribbon cable lying around in the spare parts drawer. Ask around.

[Zep]

I was going to point that out too, Soapy. But looks like you got first dibs.

[Rinky]

I'm saddened. A Damsel in distress asks you to "bare with her" and you tell her about hard drives?

Whatever happened to sexual innuendo?

Rinky- You may need a two-connector IDE ribbon cable, as it sounds like your old set up used two separate cables. Most people have at least one twin connector IDE ribbon cable lying around in the spare parts drawer. Ask around.

Well, if it's of any help I did blush when I realized what I had written. Of all the mistakes I could have made... :D

But to get back on track, I have a two-connector IDE cable, in fact I have three of them. But they're just not long enough (thanks a lot, now everything I write sounds horrible...). In the old setup I had one cable for two cd/dvd-drives and one cable for the hard drive. And it seems all the cables are exactly the same length and that's too short. Argh.

[DreadNiK]

Well, if it's of any help I did blush when I realized what I had written. Of all the mistakes I could have made... :D

But to get back on track, I have a two-connector IDE cable, in fact I have three of them. But they're just not long enough (thanks a lot, now everything I write sounds horrible...). In the old setup I had one cable for two cd/dvd-drives and one cable for the hard drive. And it seems all the cables are exactly the same length and that's too short. Argh.

While waiting to get hold of a longer...IDE cable ;), you could always try two things, firstly, it seems most people install their DVD drives in the top 5.25" bay, maybe you could move it down a few so the cable can reach? Depends how your case and mobo is configured really. At a guess, the IDE port on the mobo is no more than halfway up the motherboard, it is near the hard drive bays, the DVD drive is at the top of the case and the distance between the two device connectors on the cable is short. You can also get adaptors to fit hard drives into 5.25" bays. Failing that, the second thing is just take the side off, and rest the DVD drive on the bottom of the case.

[egslim]

Or buy a longer IDE cable - they're fairly cheap.

[Mongrel]

Erm - Connecting a Hard drive and an optical drive on the same IDE channel will throttle the connection to it's slowest component (optical), bad thing. If you're only going to be using it for archiving it shouldn't be an issue but even an exteranl USB2 caddy is going to be faster (Something like this (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=337804) is good - it accepts IDE and SATA drives)

[Rinky]

Erm - Connecting a Hard drive and an optical drive on the same IDE channel will throttle the connection to it's slowest component (optical), bad thing. If you're only going to be using it for archiving it shouldn't be an issue but even an exteranl USB2 caddy is going to be faster (Something like this (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=337804) is good - it accepts IDE and SATA drives)

This is probably what I'll do, the thing is slow as it is (well, compared to the new sata drive). And yes, the IDE port on the motherboard is on the lowest possible corner, not even in the middle.

Thanks to everyone for your help, now everything should be running fine (until the whole system crashes or something...)! :)

[Ezekiel]

Erm - Connecting a Hard drive and an optical drive on the same IDE channel will throttle the connection to it's slowest component (optical), bad thing.

This isn't exactly true; the slower device will only limit access speed, bandwith should be relatively unaffected, and then only if both devices are in use at the same time. If the optical drive isn't being accessed, the hard drive should perform exactly the same as if it was on a separate controller.

Wikipedia has a better explanation of this under the title "ATA Attachment", sadly I don't have enough posts yet to provide a link :p

[Mongrel]

This isn't exactly true; the slower device will only limit access speed, bandwith should be relatively unaffected, and then only if both devices are in use at the same time. If the optical drive isn't being accessed, the hard drive should perform exactly the same as if it was on a separate controller.

Wikipedia has a better explanation of this under the title "ATA Attachment", sadly I don't have enough posts yet to provide a link :p

Wiki Article
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT_Attachment)

Thanks for that, I stand corrected :) I was taught that about 15 years ago that it was a BAD THING.

[Rinky]

This isn't exactly true; the slower device will only limit access speed, bandwith should be relatively unaffected, and then only if both devices are in use at the same time. If the optical drive isn't being accessed, the hard drive should perform exactly the same as if it was on a separate controller.

Wikipedia has a better explanation of this under the title "ATA Attachment", sadly I don't have enough posts yet to provide a link :p

So Mongrels can't be trusted ;). I guess I'll look for a longer IDE cable then! Unless someone tells me something different again - when it comes to computers I'm not very critical, it seems... Heh.

[Corpse Cruncher]

With external hardrives, do you need to put an operating system on them? Even internal ones if you are going to use it mainly as a back-up device.

[Soapy Sam]

No.

[Corpse Cruncher]

Thanks. I was wondering if it was needed so that the back-ups could be used if needed.

[Ezekiel]

Thanks for that, I stand corrected :) I was taught that about 15 years ago that it was a BAD THING.

Thanks for adding the link :)

I'm actually glad you made that all too common error : I was about to agree with you, when I realized it didn't seem to make sense, given that you can set DMA/PIO modes separately in both the BIOS and the OS for devices that share a controller.
This prompted me to look it up and realize I didn't know the full story about this :D

[Mongrel]

Thanks for adding the link :)

I'm actually glad you made that all too common error : I was about to agree with you, when I realized it didn't seem to make sense, given that you can set DMA/PIO modes separately in both the BIOS and the OS for devices that share a controller.
This prompted me to look it up and realize I didn't know the full story about this :D

I think I've never really thought about it because it's never come up for me since I was taught that. Before SATA my last three mobos all had the standard dual IDE + dual IDE RAID sockets as well :)

[Beerina]

I'm saddened. A Damsel in distress asks you to "bare with her" and you tell her about hard drives?

Whatever happened to sexual innuendo?

Just let me spin it up first before allowing access. We don't want the head crashing now, do we? :mad: