Will XP support this many Hard Drives?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Stephen
  • Start date Start date
S

Stephen

Hi

This might be off topic.

I have got XP Home.

My motherboard has 2 IDE outputs.

I want add 2 more drives, making a total of 5 drives.

Will XP support this.

This is my set up now;

1st IDE ATA = Main Drive (C) - no slave drive.
2nd IDE ATA = DVD RW then a CD RW as a slave.

What I want to add is another 2 hard drives.

I realise I can add one drive to the master but
where could I place the fifth drive?

Is it possible to add another slave to an existing slave?

Thanks in advance - Stephen
 
Stephen

One easy way would be to remove the CD-RW as you already have a DVD-RW..
 
It's not XP but the hardware that would prevent this. By default only 4 IDE
devices are supported--two masters and 2 slaves. Unless you add an IDE
add-on card, use a different type of device (such as SATA or SCSI) or use an
external USB or serial drive (and the motherboard supports it), you are
scuppered. This is a limitation of the technology.
 
Stephen said:
Hi

This might be off topic.

I have got XP Home.

My motherboard has 2 IDE outputs.

I want add 2 more drives, making a total of 5 drives.

Will XP support this.

This is my set up now;

1st IDE ATA = Main Drive (C) - no slave drive.
2nd IDE ATA = DVD RW then a CD RW as a slave.

What I want to add is another 2 hard drives.

I realise I can add one drive to the master but
where could I place the fifth drive?

Is it possible to add another slave to an existing slave?
Click to expand...

Will XP support more drives? Sure.

Will your hardware? Not as described above; IDE controllers support 2
devices per channel. Time to look at a SATA add-in card perhaps?
 
Hi,

If you have an available PCI slot you can add a controller card. You can
then add multiple additional drives to it. There isn't a limitation per se
within Windows XP, but there are limitations on how you can expand your
hardware.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
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