2 Hard drives - How do I set both as Masters?

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Microsoft MVP Mitch Tillig wrote in an article: "...If you have IDE drives,
you can also boost file system performance by setting both physical disks as
masters on separate channels. That way data can flow freely and
simultaneously between both disks and the system bus. This setup allows
Windows to access and load system files while simultaneously paging to disk.
The end result—increased performance...."

My question is how do I set both physical disks as masters on separate
channels?

I built my own computer but I must have missed doing this! Would appreciate
any step-by-step directions you can offer.
 
I have never found any difference in speed whether set as Master or Slave,
but if you really want to try, you'll need two 80wire ribbon cables, the
first will connect the C: drive to IDE0 on the motherboard and the second
will connect the second hard drive to IDE1 on the motherboard. Then check
the jumpers on the rear of the drives to ensure both are set as Master.
 
StarvinMarvin said:
Microsoft MVP Mitch Tillig wrote in an article: "...If you have IDE
drives, you can also boost file system performance by setting both
physical disks as masters on separate channels. That way data can
flow freely and simultaneously between both disks and the system bus.
This setup allows Windows to access and load system files while
simultaneously paging to disk. The end result-increased
performance...."

My question is how do I set both physical disks as masters on separate
channels?

I built my own computer but I must have missed doing this! Would
appreciate any step-by-step directions you can offer.
Click to expand...


Assuming that you have ordinary EIDE drives, you probably have two EIDE
connectors on the motherboard Each connector is one channel. From each
connector there runs a flat cable with a drive connector at the end and
another in the middle, so you can connect two drives to each, for a total of
four EIDE devices. When you have two drives on one cable (channel) one is
set to be master by placing teh jumper in the appropriate position (see the
drive manual for the jumper positions) and the other is set to be a slave by
placing the jumper in the slave position.

If you want both drives to be masters on searate channels, ensure that the
two drives are each on a separate cable, and that the jumper for each is set
for master. Also ensure that the other drive on the cable (if there is one)
is jumpered for slave.

One other point: if one of the hard drives is the *only* drive on that
cable, some drives need to jumpered as "only" rather than "Master." Check
your drive documentation.
 
Thanks, guys! I'll try this out soon when I install a new motherboard plus
Athlon 64 processor.
 
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