This might seem like a silly question, but before I tear into my box I wanted to make sure it'll work.
I have 2 HD's on one IDE, and a cd burner and dvd burner on another IDE. I'm wanting to install my DVD-ROM so I can use that for playing and ripping, and save my burner for burning.
My question is....can I yank one of my HD's and plug the DVD-ROM in there, using the same cable? Would ripping to the HD using the same IDE be a problem?
it will work but I suggest to put the two HDs together into the primary IDE bus and the DVD burner as sencondary master and of course the DVD ROM as secondary slave.
I'd like to hear more opinions about what is the best setup!
Well i have 2x 80 gig ATA150 maxtors on Serial-ATA connectors (which infact is 1 drive!) as i have them on raid mirror (if one goes bang i have all files and data safe!) which one did! and i was a very happy man! lol
Having the HD and DVD-ROM on the same channel will reduce usability when ripping is in progress.
If you continue to do stuff in the background which causes access to the HD, you'll find things going quite slow.
The problem (well, ONE problem) with IDE is that for devices on the same channel, only one can be in use at any one time.
When ripping, the data coming off your DVD first has to be read to a buffer, then the DVD-ROM has to stop sending data whilst the buffer is written to the HD.
With modern stuff, this happens fairly seamlessly, being able to keep up with the slowest component (the DVD-ROM).
SCSI is much better, all devices on a channel (and there can be quite a few!) can act independantly and coincidentally.
I went to buy a PCI IDE add-on card, but the local puter supply store didn't have any. So I went to walmart and bought a combo 52x CDRW/DVD-ROM for a hunnerd bux. Problem solved.
