Drive Config on new Install

Am clean installing XP Home.(Hate to do it but new board doesn't like 98!) Have CD-ROM, CD-Burner, HDD, Iomega-ZIP100. HDD Primary Master. After that, what? There was a thread years ago that detailed the best arrangement, but I cannot find it. Anyone have the link? I know the Iomega can cause problems. I was thinking burner as second master and cd-rom as second slave. I don't burn a lot so am not worried about speed. TIA

 

Your idea sounds best. A slow CD-ROM on Primary Slave will slow the HD access. Best on its own channel, if possible.

I usually put the writer on Master, but have had it on Slave and noticed no difference.

Is the Iomega internal?

 

<B>Is the Iomega internal?</B>
Yes. Should I put it on a ATA 66 PCI card? Will it slow down HDD as primary slave? (I hate to add cards if not absolutely necessary. Always run into IRQ sharing problems. Is XP any better here? I doubt it!)

 

For fastest access of the HD, you shouldn't put anything on the same channel with it that is slower since the speed for both will default to the slower of the 2.

No experience with PCI ATA cards, but XP handles hardware very well (unless it doesn't like the driver. But then most Windows lockups are due to drivers, so XP's fussiness in that area is "by design).

 

When you say "speed" what does that mean for HDDs? Say I have 2 Maxtor 7200 RPMs. 30GB new and 20GB two years old. Are they the same "speed

 

I'm talking UDMA. If you have a 66 and a 100 on the same channel, they both will default to 66.

The difference is slight and may make no noticeable difference, but it's one more thing to keep in mind when trying to optimize the system. All those little things eventually add up.

 

Ok.So if you have devices with different UDMA, for example my 100 maxtor and 133 maxtor, you need different channels? That could mean lots of cables and ATA/IDE add on cards. No?

 

You don't need different channels, but that would give you the fastest access. This is really only a consideration for the system drive. The small difference between 100 and 133 would make virtually no difference anywhere else.

 

Thanks. I am thinking of setting up a dual boot with two hdds(133 and 100) with XP and 98. I will put them as master/slave on primary and Rom and Burner as master/slave on secondary. I will use ATA card for Iomega Zip.

 

Sounds good. ATA 100 is good enough and much better than no UDMA (but UDMA itself supposedly speeds access by only 15%---It's not 0, but not a huge amount, either).

 

I always put my hdds on the ata card.

That gives me the option of using up to 8 ide devices.
Also, I would put the ZIP drive on the secondary IDE as slave if I were to use one.

Mine is:
CDrom - Master Primary ide
CDRW - Master Secondary ide

ATA133 card or the onboard ATA100
C: - Master on Primary
D: - Master on Secondary

And with the way they work, you do not have the slowdown problem with different ATA configurations of the hdds. They work at their own speeds.