IDE Connections

I have a 40GB 7200RPM hard drive, a 30GB 5400RPM hard drive, a CD-ROM, and a CD-RW. I have my computer set up with my 40 GB primary and 30GB secondary on one IDE, and my CD-ROM primary and CD-RW secondary on the other IDE. Will these pairings slow anything down, or are other pairings recommended?
Thanks for the help,
Barry

 

Hi Barry

Sounds VERY good to me.

From a few tips I have found out, I would put the smaller HDD(30gb, 5400) as master on IDE 1. Format a drive with plenty of elbow space for Windows. The rest the HDD could be devoted to data, backups and other things that don't need speed.

The 40gb HDD set as slave on IDE 1 would be formatted with a smaller drive for things that cause defragmentation like the swap file, CDRW image files, temporary internet files and maybe you can set the Windows/Temp folder there. I use Norton Utilities to set the swap file at the front of the disk so that it can easily be accessed by the drive heads.
Other drives on that HDD is where I would load programs.

Result should be that a defrag-free(ha) Windows should be operating independently of a high speed information/access drive.

Anyway that's my theory.

Matt

 

Thanks for the info. I guess different speed drives on the same IDE don't cause problems or slow anything down.

 

No, sounds like a good arrangement to me. (I take it that you have an 80 lead cable for the HDD's).

Apparently things are slowed down when you mix HDD's and optical drives on the same IDE.

Matt

 

Thanks Matt

 

No problems Barry.
Just don't ask me to look up the technical details .

Matt