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Connecting drives

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by Trident, 2004/09/25.

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  1. 2004/09/25
    Trident

    Trident Inactive Thread Starter

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    I've seen the answer to this post several times in the past, but I can't get a hit on it now.

    A friend in the area has asked for help to install a DVD±RW and CD-R/W drives in his machine. (Are both of these necessary?). At present he has a CD drive, zip and floppy drives. Guess my question is, which drive would be connected as the primary slave, also the secondary cable is forty wire - would it be wise to purchase an eighty-wire cable?

    His OS is XP Pro, about 1.6gig CPU and 512MB RAM - recently had the P/S replaced with a 450W unit - so he should be set there.

    I've tried reading up on the various drives, but to be honest they are beyond me now. Appreciate any suggestion.
     
    Trident,
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  2. 2004/09/25
    Paul

    Paul Inactive

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    Connect the DVDRW as the primary and the CDRW as the slave. I guess IDE0 has the HDD connected to it? So you would connect the optical drives to IDE1 socket on the motherboard. Having both drives on the system is not nescessary, but if you're copying a CD it means you don't need to temporarily store an image on the HD as long as the burner(s) have buffer underrun protection. When DVD burners first came on the scene a few years ago, a second CD drive was usefull to reduce the usage of non DVD disks in the DVD burner in the interests of wear and tear. That's not an issue now with DVD burners being fairly cheap. Remember that the DVDRW is also a CDRW, but not vice versa. Use the cable that came with the DVD or CDRW for both. Should have two connectors on it. Makesure the DVD burner has the jumper at the back of the drive set for master and the CD burner is set for slave. 40 wire cable should connect to both? Check the number of pins on the back of the drives to make sure they are 40pin.
     
    Last edited: 2004/09/25
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  4. 2004/09/25
    Trident

    Trident Inactive Thread Starter

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    Okay, Paul, thanks for the reply. We'll give it a go, when he gets his gear.

    Cheers!
     
    Trident,
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  5. 2004/09/26
    mattman

    mattman Inactive Alumni

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    Hi Trident,

    I would not know of any advantage of having a a CD-RW combined with a DVD-RW, over a CDrom / DVD-RW combination (as long as the CDrom is functioning well and has reasonable speed).

    It should not need an 80 lead cable unless you are running an ATA 100 or ATA 133 harddrive on that IDE connection (and should the motherboard have a different colour for the Primary IDE "connection" it will not be able to support the 80 lead on the secondary anyway, when introduced, some motherboards only supported 80 lead cables on the primary IDE controller). 80 lead cables can be used to replace 40 lead, but will only offer an advantage if both motherboard and drives support it.

    Matt
     
    Last edited: 2004/09/26
    mattman,
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  6. 2004/09/26
    Trident

    Trident Inactive Thread Starter

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    Thanks for the added info Matt, I'll keep that for future use.
     
    Trident,
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  7. 2004/09/26
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    I use 80 lead cables with my oldish CD-R/RW (Multi-Word DMA Mode 2) and my oldish DVD-ROM (Ultra DMA Mode 2). What it brings is the option to use Cable Select jumpering which I do and find to be convenient. CS doesn't work with 40 lead cables.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  8. 2004/09/26
    Paul

    Paul Inactive

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    Interesting Christer, I wasn't aware that CS only works with 80 wire cable. Having not used CS, why, and when, do you use it in preference to using the jumper method?

    Cheers,

    Paul
     
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  9. 2004/09/26
    Trident

    Trident Inactive Thread Starter

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    My machine came with the 80 wire cable on the primary controller. Set the HDD to CS and the zip is already set to slave and it works out fine. The CD is connected to the 40 pin cable to the secondary controller.

    Don't believe I'll be using either a DVD or CD-R/W drive. I do mostly graphics and some newsletters and what I have serves the purpose.
     
    Trident,
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  10. 2004/09/26
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Paul,

    If I use the CS jumering, I don't have to check the setting if I move a harddisk from one position to another. The harddrive will be automatically "jumpered" according to the position on the cable.

    I don't remember the particulars but one lead is grounded in the Master Connector and open in the Slave Connector (or the other way around) and the connector sets the device to either Master or Slave. In a 80 lead cable, every second lead is a ground lead, primarily for shielding but it also makes it possible to ground that pin for CS, a possibility which isn't there with a 40 lead cable.

    I have a front mounted mobile rack into which I can put any PATA harddisk and jumpered as CS they will work there too but if I used Master or Slave jumpering, I would have to check and possibly/probably have to change to Slave.

    I have built a few systems during recent months and I always jumper as CS and have not come across a setup where it doesn't work. I use CS for all devices, not only harddisks but optical devices too.

    Next to me on my desk, I have an older harddrive, a Western Digital 205AA. On the label, there are the positions for Single, Master and Slave but not for CS. In the manual, however, there is a position for CS which obviously was a "secret" ...... :confused: ...... and I wonder why when it, in most cases, work well.

    Currently, some harddisk manufacturers actually ship their harddisks jumpered as CS. I bought a couple of Maxtor Plus 8 for a new system and they were jumpered that way and in my opinion, that's the way to do it.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  11. 2004/09/27
    Maverick

    Maverick Inactive

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    Not in all cases. On some HDDs, setting the jumper to CS will cause problems if that HDD happens to be the only hdd present on the IDE cable.
     
    Maverick,
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  12. 2004/09/27
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    I take Your word for it but I have yet to make the experience myself.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  13. 2004/09/27
    RayH

    RayH Inactive

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    The CD burner part of a DVD burner typically is about 32x vs 52x. But it reality, it's not that much slower.
     
    RayH,
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