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Thread ID: 85673 2007-12-18 06:01:00 hard drive and disk drive on 1 IDE cable? josh2200 (6681) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
622388 2007-12-18 06:01:00 hi
i was just wondering if i had a hard drive and a dvd reader/cd writer can i have these on 1 IDE cable. because in my other computer i had 2 IDE cables as i was using 2 disk drives and new motherboard only has 1 port . so can i put the hard drive and dvd reader on 1 IDE cable???

Thanks

josh
josh2200 (6681)
622389 2007-12-18 06:06:00 Cant do anything else. So I guess you'll have to.

Some people say its fine to do that, others say it may cause probs.

You'll soon find out.
Speedy Gonzales (78)
622390 2007-12-18 06:09:00 ok i spoose ill just have to try it and see what happens or i could buy a SATA hard drive which I've been planing to do josh2200 (6681)
622391 2007-12-18 06:15:00 Yer if the mobo supports SATA thats fine. It wont take up an IDE port.

That could be why there's only 1 IDE port. There's a few SATA connections.
Speedy Gonzales (78)
622392 2007-12-18 06:19:00 yes so ill just do that josh2200 (6681)
622393 2007-12-18 10:19:00 It should work fine, I've done it quite a few times.
Just set the DVD/CD drive to slave and the Hard Drive to Master (should be jumpers next to the power connectors on each) and make sure you have the Hard Drive plugged into the end of the IDE cable.
CYaBro (73)
622394 2007-12-18 21:40:00 There's a reason there are 2 plugs on the cable... so you can have 2 drives.. it's designed to work (but that doesn't mean it will)

I think most problems stem from the fact that the IDE can only read/write from 1 drive at a time, thus if you a reading or burning a cd/dvd you don't have a constant stream of data coming or going to the burner, because it also has to go to/come from the hard drive as well. so the data has to go from 1 drive, to the memory, and then back to the other drive.

on 2 separate IDE channels this does not happen as each channel can read/write at the same time

So if your system is slow you may notice problems, however if your system is new, and both drives are running in DMA mode you really should not get any problems.
Agent_24 (57)
622395 2007-12-18 22:20:00 You might also find that the transfer speed on the HDD drops to 33 from 100. PENTIUM (426)
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