Hard Drives & Ribbons ?????

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reflexa

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As I look to buy a computer for recording I check these boards everyday for information. Seems the more posts I read the more questions I have, which is a good thing. This question is in regards to 2 Hard Drives & the ribbon. The computer I'm looking at right now will have two 7200rpm HDs but when I call to see if they are on the same ribbon the Company says some are and some aren't? If they are on the same ribbon wouldn't the advantages of two HDs be lost except for storage capacity. Would I just be better off getting one larger drive and partition it ?????? Thanks, Pete
 
It's best to have them on seperate IDE controllers (where the ribbons plug into on the mobo). The ribbons are cheap so if you need to change it yourself it's not a big deal. Just make sure the Mobo has 2 IDE jacks, most do.
 
Not sure that I fully understand the question but here goes....
With Both drives on the same cable,then only one IDE connector is used on the Motherboard. If separate cables are used,then two Motherboard connectors are occupied.Wich way is best, is a matter of personal preference.The main advantage to two ,physical drives is that one drive failure wont shut you down.hope this helps..:)
 
imecho40 said:
Wich way is best, is a matter of personal preference.The main advantage to two ,physical drives is that one drive failure wont shut you down.hope this helps..:)
Click to expand...

Not true. The IDE interface spec only allows access to one drive at a time if they are on the same channel/ribbon. By placing drives on separate channels/ribbons, both drives can be accessed at the same time which would improve disk performance
 
Brzilian is not entirely correct, but close.

Two hard drives on one controller can be accessed at the same time, but performance suffers. IDE controller do not like to read and write at the same time (SCSI does this much better). Since the Windows OS like to periodically access the system drive itself, it is best to have one drive for the OS, one for your recording projects and data, and have them on different controllers.

Since your CD / CDR / DVD drives are usually IDE also, I recomend the following configuration:

Primary Master - your system hard drive with OS and programs
Primary Slave - A CDR drive (if you have one, everyone should by now!)

Secondary Master - A big fast hard drive for your audio data
Secondary Slave - a CD or DVD drive

By splitting things up this way you minimize any performance hits from multiple drives being accessed by the same controller. Whether recording, backing up data to CDR, or duping CDs, you are getting the best performance you can.
 
Each IDE channel has a single IRQ tho - two devices cannot communicate with the system at the same time if an interrupt must be shared. That is why you never place a CD burner on the same ribbon as the HD containing the data you are burning - depending on the amount of data being transferred, you overfill the buffers and end up with buffer underrun errors.

Are you referring to the fact that most HD's today make use of DMA (Direct Memory Access)?
 
brzilian said:
That is why you never place a CD burner on the same ribbon as the HD containing the data you are burning - depending on the amount of data being transferred, you overfill the buffers and end up with buffer underrun errors.
Click to expand...

I do all the time and have never had a problem with buffer underun.

Are you saying you should have the CD-RW on it's own ribbon? Hard to do unless you add on another PCI controller card.

I have had buffer underun when system resources were low, or the burn was interupted by another application. 'Burn-Proof' technologies have reduced this problem.
 
Emeric said:


I do all the time and have never had a problem with buffer underun.

Are you saying you should have the CD-RW on it's own ribbon? Hard to do unless you add on another PCI controller card.

I have had buffer underun when system resources were low, or the burn was interupted by another application. 'Burn-Proof' technologies have reduced this problem.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying you should keep the burner alone on its own ribbon, just never burn from a harddrive on the same ribbon.

It all depends on what you are burning and whether you run other software in the background as well. Any kind of excessive disk swapping during the burning process could make you end up with a coaster.
 
OK let me try to settle this -

Yes it is preferable to have a source hard drive and a CDR drive on different controller. This works better. However you certainly can have them on the same controller and cable if you had no other choice. In this case the controler is actually swapping reada and writes at a very high rate of speed. Like brzilian said, with older IDE burners this significantly increased your chance of getting a "coaster". However the newer CDR drives that have Burnproof (or equivlent technology) can counter this by slowing down the write so they don't outpace the source drive.
 
trying to follow too...

I would like to have a 60gig HD (internal) set to PRIMARY MASTER
then a 80gig HD (pullout tray/front panel) set to PRIMARY SLAVE
(this would be a split ribbon IDE breakout to internal & external)

then CDR-W connected to one IDE seperately

Is that right ?

(internal HD would be for OS, the pullout HD would be for AUDIO)


I'm trying to follow this too... I have a MSI KT72600 Pro 2 Mobo it has (4) IDE's but came with (1) split ribbon and (1) single ribbon

so does my configuration sound right ? I only want 2 HD & CDR-W
(I dont even watch DVD's from Blockbuster so.... why get one)
 
mstudio1224_aol.com:

60GB - Primary Master

80GB - Secondary Master

CD-RW Primary or Secondary Slave.

Note:

You will more than likely want to go out and purchase another 80 conductor ribbon cable. Motherboards only come with one 80 Conductor, A 40, and a floppy cable.
 
So your saying connect the SPLIT CABLE to:

1st IDE ------------- (internal) 60gig Primary Master
l------(CDR-W) Primary Slave

buy a new 80 conducter cable

2nd IDE--------------(external) 80 gig Secondary Master

Is that right ?


MSI K7T266 Pro 2 ( I typed the wrong mobo sku)
 
brzilian said:


Not true. The IDE interface spec only allows access to one drive at a time if they are on the same channel/ribbon. By placing drives on separate channels/ribbons, both drives can be accessed at the same time which would improve disk performance
Click to expand...

You misread my response.I was referring to the difference btween using 2 physical drives ,each with primary partitions as compared to using only one physical drive with logical partitions.....:)
 
mstudio1224aol.com:

Correct.

Keep in mind that you want the blue connector to the motherboard, black to the 60GB and grey to the CD-RW.

Due to cabling issues and case design, you may find it easier to slave the CD-RW with the 80GB. This will become apparent when you start to do it. If you want to slave the CD-RW to the 60GB, put the CD-RW in the lowest bay and it *might* reach the 60GB with minimal ribbon twisting. Or, buy a 3.5 to 5.25" hard drive adapter and arrange like so:

Top Bay - Removable 80GB
Middle Bay - 60GB in adapter bracket
Botttom Bay - CD-RW
 
EMERIC

Thanks, got it.


also, is it good to add a modem ? I dont hear many people adding one. I'm just thinking about future plug ins & drivers UPGRADES/DOWNLOADS.

With only a floppy (sometimes they dont hold enough) how else could I get a download in ?
 
If you don't have a second computer with internet access and burner, then yes for sure - put a modem in.
 
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