Question about sharing IDE cable (Master/Slave)

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Mikey

Is it ok to have a hard drive and DVD burner sharing the secondary IDE
cable? Should I put the burner as the master and the hard drive as the
slave? I only plan to use the hard drive as storage.
 
Is it ok to have a hard drive and DVD burner sharing the secondary IDE
cable?
yes

Should I put the burner as the master and the hard drive as the
slave? I only plan to use the hard drive as storage.
Click to expand...

If that's the way you want them, yes. You can do it either
way though, either drive can be master providing there is no
odd incompatibility or bug... in other words, this is
generally true but YMMV.
 
If that's the way you want them, yes. You can do it either
way though, either drive can be master providing there is no
odd incompatibility or bug... in other words, this is
generally true but YMMV.
Click to expand...

I recommend you put the DVD burner as secondary master. Although you
would think there should be no problems, I recently found that my NEC
3540 was not properly recognized by the BIOS when it was a slave. Now
that it is master, I have had absolutely no problems with it.

Maybe someday someone can explain why this happens, because I ran into
it back in 1999 with a Mitsumi CD-RW that would not work as slave. The
factory told me I had to make it master which I did and then it
worked. I thought it was just a quirk of the Mitsumi driver but now
that the same kind of thing happened with my NEC 3540, I believe there
is something going on that we are not aware of.

One possibility is that when the BIOS queries the device, it waits for
a short time and moves on. If the DVD burner is slow in responding,
then when it is a slave, the BIOS has finished its query and never
finds out what the unit has to say. Perhaps the wait time is longer
for the master query and that's why the BIOS finds out about the unit.

My Phoenix Award BIOS is in a very big hurry to move on once it has
queried the secondary slave. In fact I have to hit the Pause key to
halt the computer so I can study the screen printout. So it is
possible that the secondary slave query is too impatient for the
slow-responding NEV 3540, especially since I am using patched f/w.

I noticed this problem got a whole lot worse after I patched the f/w.
Assuming this new f/w is "slower" to respond, then that would be
consistent with having to put the 3540 on the secondary master. No big
deal, there is nothing inferior with the secondary slave, only the
BIOS is too fast when making a query.

Unless you absolutely must put the DVD birner somewhere else, I
recommend you make it the secondary master and play it safe.
 
I've long heard, but cannot affirm, that hd's and opticals should be on
different ide channels because the opticals slow down the hd's.

I'd make the hd a master on ide0 and the dvd burner a master on ide1.
 
message
I've long heard, but cannot affirm, that hd's and opticals
should be on different ide channels because the opticals
slow down the hd's.

I'd make the hd a master on ide0 and the dvd burner a
master on ide1.
Click to expand...
That is no longer true, put whatever you want on an IDE
cable.
.. I would put the burner as the master as I keep seeing
stories
of some burners not being reliable when hooked up as slaves.
 
I recommend you put the DVD burner as secondary master. Although you
would think there should be no problems, I recently found that my NEC
3540 was not properly recognized by the BIOS when it was a slave. Now
that it is master, I have had absolutely no problems with it.
Click to expand...

That might be one of those "YMMV", rare situations. You are
using a WD HDD, yes? Are you sure you had it jumpered to
Master rather than Single drive?

I have a spare 3540 around here somewhere, if I get a chance
(and remember to), I'll hook it up to some box as a master
with a slave HDD and see if it works.

Maybe someday someone can explain why this happens, because I ran into
it back in 1999 with a Mitsumi CD-RW that would not work as slave. The
factory told me I had to make it master which I did and then it
worked. I thought it was just a quirk of the Mitsumi driver but now
that the same kind of thing happened with my NEC 3540, I believe there
is something going on that we are not aware of.
Click to expand...

Manufacturers often jumper drives as master from the
factory, and whenever a user asks "how should I hook it up",
the manufacturer wants one clearly defined scenario because
they can't really know if the person they're talking to has
good experience and methodology in setting up a system or if
they've never been inside a system before and this is the
first time they've ever even seen an optical drive that
wasn't already installed.

I do vaguely recall that there was possibility that any
random drive might not work in all master/slave combinations
but that was more common about a decade ago, has been less
and less common in more recent years.
 
That might be one of those "YMMV", rare situations.
Click to expand...

It's happened 2 out of 2.
You are using a WD HDD, yes?
Yes.

Are you sure you had it jumpered to
Master rather than Single drive?
Click to expand...

Neither. I use CS for all my IDE devices.
I have a spare 3540 around here somewhere, if I get a chance
(and remember to), I'll hook it up to some box as a master
with a slave HDD and see if it works.
Click to expand...

There is no HD on the secondary IDE. Nevertheless I had to make the
NEC 3540 the master.
I do vaguely recall that there was possibility that any
random drive might not work in all master/slave combinations
but that was more common about a decade ago, has been less
and less common in more recent years.
Click to expand...

I thought the same thing but found out otherwise when I got my 3540.

FWIW, that crappy Sony/LiteOn I got rid of didn't cause any problems
when it was slave.
 
I have a spare 3540 around here somewhere, if I get a chance
(and remember to), I'll hook it up to some box as a master
with a slave HDD and see if it works.
Click to expand...

The problem does not occur all the time. Try opening the drawer and
shutting it just before the BIOS reads the drives.

With the 3540 as master I can insert a disc anytime before the BIOS
reads the drives. With it as slave I couldn't - the BIOS would ignore
its presence and not load the CD.
 
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