A Master and 2 Slave drives?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kolin Tregaskes
  • Start date Start date
K

Kolin Tregaskes

Hello,

I have two standard computers (both running Windows XP Pro) with pretty
standard hardware. My two motherboards have IDE1 and IDE2 slots so I guess
I cannot set up a third hardware in one of these (though my second machine
has IDE3 and IDE4 for RAID). Is there ANY way of having one master drive
and 2 slave drives running on one machine?

Kol
e. (e-mail address removed)
w. http://www.e-lusion.co.uk/
 
| Hello,
|
| I have two standard computers (both running Windows XP Pro) with pretty
| standard hardware. My two motherboards have IDE1 and IDE2 slots so I
guess
| I cannot set up a third hardware in one of these (though my second machine
| has IDE3 and IDE4 for RAID). Is there ANY way of having one master drive
| and 2 slave drives running on one machine?
|
| Kol
| e. (e-mail address removed)
| w. http://www.e-lusion.co.uk/
| -----------
|
| All the simple programs have been written, and all the good names taken.
|
|

Hi Kol -

Yes, it's actually quite simple:

.. IDE1 can have a drive designated as Master and a second designated as
Slave.
.. IDE2 can have a drive designated as Master and a second designated as
Slave.

With two IDE ports you can have four drives attached.

Remember that you'll need to have your CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD (or whatever optical
drive(s) you have plugged in somewhere, too, and these generally use your
IDE2 port).

If you've got more than four IDE devices, you can install an add-on IDE card
in a PCI slot to gain additional IDE ports.

Jef
 
NO! You can set up on standard IDe slots one master and one slave.

Therefore: IDE 1: Master (IDE1) and Slave (IDE1)
IDE 2: Master (IDE2) and Slave (IDE2)

Total: 4 standard drives

Also, some motherbaord based RAID can act like a special ATA/133 standard
IDE slot. However, you need to install and set up the special driver, if
the RAID slots can do this. Check with the motherbaord manual and web site.
 
You can have one slave drive for each master. You can't slave to a slave.

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)
 
Hi Jef,

So you mean swap the CD-ROM IDE cable to plug into the 3rd hard drive? Not
tried it or at least can't remember trying it...

Kol
 
Hi all,

Can I attached the 3rd HD to the IDE2 slot (instead of the CD-ROM drive)?

Kol
 
Sure you can! Just designate one device as master and one as slave. Each IDE
channel can have one of each.

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)
 
| Hi Jef,
|
| So you mean swap the CD-ROM IDE cable to plug into the 3rd hard drive?
Not
| tried it or at least can't remember trying it...
|
| Kol
|
|

Hi Kol -

If your IDE2 cable only has two connectors (one to the motherboard and one
to the CD-ROM drive), then, yes, you can unplug the cable from the CD-ROM
drive and plug it into the third hard drive. You may, however, get a
warning when you first start your system up that you don't have an 80-wire
cable connected to a hard drive --- which will cause your 3rd hard drive to
run significantly slower than it's rated speed (assuming it's faster than
ATA33, which is the limit for 40-wire cables... keep reading and I will
explain).

A more permanent solution would be to spend a small amount of money and get
another 80-wire, 40-pin IDE cable with three connectors. To ensure that
you're getting a high-speed cable, look for one with a blue connector at one
end (which plugs into the motherboard), a black connector at the other end
(which plugs into the hard drive) and a grey connector in the middle (which
would then plug into your CD-ROM drive).

You'll also have to examine the jumpers on your CD-ROM drive and 3rd hard
drive and will probably have to change them. The 3rd hard drive would have
to have it's jumper set to the Master (or MA) position. The CD-ROM drive
would have to have it's jumper set to the Slave (or SL) position. Using the
MA/SL jumper positions, you can connect either the black or grey connector
to whichever drive (it doesn't matter as the drive itself is set to
determine which is Master and which is Slave).

Alternatively, all recent hard drives and most CD-ROM drives also support
Cable Select (or CS). You can select CS on both drives... but then the
Black connector MUST go to the hard drive and the grey connector MUST go to
the CD-ROM drive.

Hopefully I've been clear.

Jef
 
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