Adding an IDE CD-RW

I have given up trying to get a scsi cd-rw to work, so I'm going to try an IDE. I have 2 hard drives on the same cable, so I'll have to hook up the CD-rw on the same cable as the CD-R. Will this be OK? Or should I put one hard drive and one CD on each cable?

1. RE: Adding an IDE CD-RW
lbyard Apr-02-01 01:43 PM
In response to message 0

It would probably be better not to put it on the same cable as a hard disk. CD-ROM devices are slower than, and can slow-down hard disk drives. SCSI drives can be difficult to install, but it can certainly be done. I don’t like them because they are slow to boot, add complexity to a computer, and cost more. They no longer have an overwhelming speed advantage. Larry

2. RE: Adding an IDE CD-RW
geoff.coote Apr-06-01 07:12 AM
In response to message 0

The best way to set this up is:
Primary Master: Hard Drive 1
Primary slave: CDROM
Secondary Master: Hard Drive 2
Secondary slave: CDRW
The reason for this is that with this config you can do CDROM --> CDRW copies on the fly & HD1 to CDRW at full speed.
As the IDE bus is only 1/2 duplex you can only either read or write to a each port at the same time, but not to the same port. So reading from primary CD or HD --> writing to secondary CDR will work at full speed, whereas if you have the CDROM & CDRW on the same port it will not be very reliable at high speeds because it has to read a bit of data then write a bit & so on.

3. RE: Adding an IDE CD-RW
abNORMal Apr-06-01 11:29 AM
In response to message 2

Thanx Geoff, exactly what I was looking for.

4. RE: Adding an IDE CD-RW
lbyard Apr-06-01 02:41 PM
In response to message 3

True, but that CD-ROM could noticeably slow down the hard disk drive. I guess it depends on the particular drives you have and how much you use each drive. Larry

5. RE: Adding an IDE CD-RW
geoff.coote Apr-07-01 06:24 AM
In response to message 4

Not anymore it wont. Modern hard disk controllers run devices independantly from each other on the same bus, so you could have a UDMA 100 hard drive & a PIO mode 4 CDROM on the same controller & it will run them both at their maximum speed. The only time it would slow the HD down is if you tried accesing them both at the same time. For this reason i would reccommend using the CDR (which is on the secondary) to be used when installing an app to the 1st hard drive & the CDROM (which is on the primary) to be used when installing to the 2nd hard drive.

6. RE: Adding an IDE CD-RW
lbyard Apr-08-01 03:30 PM
In response to message 5

It wasn't that long ago that I ran benchmarks... I believe both the CD-ROM and hard disk were UDMA 33. When I find time I'll run them again. Larry