Multiple hard drives....(3)

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thedude72701

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I want to put 3 hard drives in my computer. One for my recording audio drive, one for samples for BFD, and another for my system drive. I only see two IDE connections on my mobo, though. I could slave a hard drive to the system drive but that would still leave one hard drive not connected because my DVDR drive is on the other IDE and the DVDrom is slaved to it.

On my bios, it lists 4 IDE channels along with their slaves. Does that mean I have 4 possible IDE connections available? If so, I don't see where to plug them in to the board...
 
thedude72701 said:
I want to put 3 hard drives in my computer. One for my recording audio drive, one for samples for BFD, and another for my system drive. I only see two IDE connections on my mobo, though. I could slave a hard drive to the system drive but that would still leave one hard drive not connected because my DVDR drive is on the other IDE and the DVDrom is slaved to it.

On my bios, it lists 4 IDE channels along with their slaves. Does that mean I have 4 possible IDE connections available? If so, I don't see where to plug them in to the board...
Click to expand...

Yes, there are a maximum of 4 IDE devices on a MB.
You have two IDE channels, IDE1 and IDE2. The can each handle 2 devices for a total of 4. If you have DVDR and DVD drives, that's 2 out of the 4 connections (they are both IDE). With the current HD, that's 3, so you are left with only one possible connection.

You could add up to 2 SATA drives and even more SCSI drives if you wanted to.
 
I think I might just get a PCI IDE controller card...with all the upgrades I've been doing, I can't really afford an SATA drive...SCSI is out of the question for me...

It's really crappy because SATA is 1.5GB/sec.........

I could get a PCI ATA/133 card....




Suggestions?
 
Bad idea running your disk traffic accross the pci bus. Virtually guaranteed to interfere with your audio card. It would be better to get rid of one of the DVD drives. Otherwise if you can't squeeze 3 drives in there, you're better off just sticking with 2
 
Bulls Hit said:
Bad idea running your disk traffic accross the pci bus. Virtually guaranteed to interfere with your audio card. It would be better to get rid of one of the DVD drives. Otherwise if you can't squeeze 3 drives in there, you're better off just sticking with 2
Click to expand...
The problem with yoking your HDD with an optical drive on a single IDE channel is that, supposedly, the optical will degrade the performance of your HDD.
 
A long time ago I quite putting 2 devices on an IDE channel unless they were not going to be used at the same time. Since most of the time while you are recording to the HD you (or at least I) am not accessing the DVD drive, it works fine. I would make sure that my system drive and audio drive were on separate channels, then put the DVD drive on the channel with the audio drive.
 
The best way without going to extra controllers is to put the system HD and DVD on IDE1, with system HD as master; and audio and sample drives on IDE2, with the audio as master.
 
While these are all good ideas and I appreciate the feedback and replies...I can't get rid of my DVD-Rom drive. I use them both way too much.

I'm thinking the thing on newegg that converts SATA to IDE would be a great idea. Are there any drawbacks?
 
i am running 3 external firewire drives. i have a firewire card on my pci buss, a motu 2408, and a UAD-1. i have had no problems running an excess of 24 tracks. sometimes up to 40. i must also add that the firewire drives are only 5400 rpms, and my machine is only a 1ghz... must have gotten lucky i guess.





ps, you must be concious of IRQ assignments.
 
thedude72701 said:
While these are all good ideas and I appreciate the feedback and replies...I can't get rid of my DVD-Rom drive. I use them both way too much.

I'm thinking the thing on newegg that converts SATA to IDE would be a great idea. Are there any drawbacks?
Click to expand...

Shoot, I miss-read your original post, you have a DVD burner and a separate DVD player. I guess the best solution is to build a firewire drive out of one of the drives and put your samples there. You can get a case like this from newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-145-339&depa=0
 
With the price of the firewire drive kit, I might as well return my new IDE HDD and get an SATA....but I don't have the money for doing that, though...

So which would be better???? Converting the IDE to SATA with the dongle or making the IDE a firewire drive? Couldn't I put the system drive on the converter and put the two audio drives on the Primary IDE channel?
 
if i am not mistaken, the system drive must be device one on the primary ide channel.
 
thedude72701 said:
With the price of the firewire drive kit, I might as well return my new IDE HDD and get an SATA....but I don't have the money for doing that, though...

So which would be better???? Converting the IDE to SATA with the dongle or making the IDE a firewire drive? Couldn't I put the system drive on the converter and put the two audio drives on the Primary IDE channel?
Click to expand...

Sure. You could put the system drive on the SATA converter channel. Just make sure that it is first in the boot sequence. Also, if you reformat, make sure that the SATA is the only drive connected. I've heard that some important files get dumped onto the Primary IDE HDD if it's there. Hope that helps.
 
Yeah, I'll change the boot sequence to the fake SATA drive and make that my system drive.

Is that my best option? Or would you guys put one of the audio drives on the SATA? I'd have to slave one of the drives to the system if I did that, though.
 
with the firewire option, you are infinately expandable...


trust me, you WILL need more space.
 
I don't run a recording studio so I doubt I'll need more space. If I do, then I have too much *CRAP* loaded on to it.

As far as the firewire thing...that's just too expensive for me. I'd rather return my current drive and get a full on SATA than do that. Eliminates desktop clutter as well.
 
thedude72701 said:
Yeah, I'll change the boot sequence to the fake SATA drive and make that my system drive.

Is that my best option? Or would you guys put one of the audio drives on the SATA? I'd have to slave one of the drives to the system if I did that, though.
Click to expand...

Well, the easiest way would be to convert one of your file drives. Keep your operating system where it is now (I assume IDE1 Master), and convert one of your file drives. All you need to do is connect it, and the OS should see it as drive G (assuming C-F are your current IDE drives). Make sure it's DMA enabled, and you're good to go.
 
One more important thing. Make sure the converted drive's jumper is set to Master. Otherwise, it will not work.
 
SATA drive is not that much more than a standard IDE Drive. That is if you have not already bought the IDE drive.

Just my 2 cents
 
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