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Thread ID: 66785 2006-03-07 06:34:00 PCI SATA card in older system Chemical Ali (118) Press F1
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436263 2006-03-07 06:34:00 Hi All

I have an aging FIC AN17 motherboard which is running a 160GB IDE hard drive on the primary IDE channel and a DVD-Rom drive and a DVD Writer on the secondary IDE channel -- planning to use it as my new Jukebox PC (original Mo/bo in PC has failed).
Running Win XP Pro (SP2).
Only got the 160GB drive to work as the boot drive by selecting Cable Select on the pin settings -- BIOS wouldn't recognise the drive on primary IDE channel if it was set to 'master' (32GB problem on older motherboards I presume).
Went to motherboard manufacturer's site and there was no BIOS update to accept larger drive sizes (i.e. +32GB OR +137GB)
Looking at installing about another 400GB capacity to store all my music, MPEG & Digi photo files and was unsure whether to:
1: Buy a 400GB IDE hard drive and run it as the slave on the primary IDE channel
or ..
2: Buy an SCSI PCI card and intsall 1-2 SATA drives on that.
Am worried that my BIOS/Motherboard will refuse to recognise the 400GB IDE drive if it is installed as the slave drive (presumably can't have 2 IDE hard drives set as 'cable select' on the same channel I presume??).
Will I take a significant performance hit if I go for option 2 as compared to option 1?

Opinions/advice most welcome.

Thanks in advance ...
Chemical Ali (118)
436264 2006-03-07 07:02:00 Bump ...

:rolleyes:
Chemical Ali (118)
436265 2006-03-07 07:13:00 Okay, just to make sure i got this you have
2 optical drives on IDE 1
1 160gb cable select boot drive on IDE 0

I would for a start check the IDE cable you are using, 80 pin not the older DMA33 cable 64? pin. I dont thinks its got anything to do with the BIOS if it read the drive correctly (ie: size) when on cable select.
As for adding more HDD, either of the 2 listed below seems fine to me, the SCSI controller will need SCSI drives thru. You could install a SATA controller for the SATA drives, however I dont see the need UNLESS you cant find a big enough IDE drive.

You have to remember that any extented PCI card is going to be limited by the PCI bus as opposed to an on-board SATA controller (if AMD system, you dont say, i cant be bothered looking up the board).

Option 1 therefore the cheaper option.
SolMiester (139)
436266 2006-03-07 07:23:00 It is an AMD system

So you can run 2 IDE-based hard drives both on 'cable select'?

If so then yes a large-capacity IDE drive would seem to be the best way to go.
Chemical Ali (118)
436267 2006-03-07 08:22:00 Bump (again) ....

:help:
Chemical Ali (118)
436268 2006-03-07 09:59:00 So you can run 2 IDE-based hard drives both on 'cable select'?

I don't see why not, but I doubt that your motherboard will recognise a 400 gig drive.

I've never heard of a drive only working on cable select before.
Greven (91)
436269 2006-03-07 23:08:00 If it recognises 160Gb, then 400Gb will be no problem. The old 137Gb was the shut off point before sp1 XP.

No problems with 2 drives on 1 IDE channel, thats why it has master and slave!
SolMiester (139)
436270 2006-03-08 08:24:00 Yeah I know there's no problems with having 2 drives oon an IDE channel -- but can they both be set to 'cable select' is my concern/question. Chemical Ali (118)
436271 2006-03-08 08:48:00 IDE hdds dont always work if u use cable select.

It's better if u jumper them as master or slave.

Try and enter the heads/cylinders info etc in manually, in the BIOS for the hdd/s.

The info you need is on the sticker, on top of the hdd's.
Speedy Gonzales (78)
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