Master/Slave...

[Topha]

I finally exchanged my Zip Drive for a Teac cd-writer (anyone wanna buy the zip??? )
now im not sure where i should put which drive.
i got two hd's, one of them is only used for storage and mp3's (slave), the other one contains system and program files (master). those are on my primary ide controller. the secondary one is used by the cd-writer (master) and my dvd-drive (slave).
would it be better to put the cd-rw drive and the primary hd on the first ide, the 2nd hd and the dvd on the second??

[Paulr]

Keep HD's together.
CD-RW's, DVD-ROM, ZIP Drives are all much slower than a HD and will drag the performance of your disks down to their level.

Primary:
HD1
HD2

Secondary:
CD-ROM
CD-RW

[Topha]

so the cd-rw should be set to slave?

[Paulr]

Well that's the way I've always done things.
I must admit it's been a while, my HD's are my only IDE devices in my own system, I've moved to SCSI on my ZIP, CD-RW & DVD-ROM.
If I was setting up a PC system now I would go for:

Primary IDE Channel

System HD - Master
Secondary HD - Slave

Secondary IDE Channel

CD-ROM/DVD-ROM - Master
CD-RW - Slave

[Guru]

I would put the cd-rw as master and the dvd as slave!

[xortam]

I read about all these IDE problems people have and the device number and placement restrictions and I just that I never went that route. I've always run SCSI at home here and I still use devices I bought 13 years ago. I also really like being able to place my devices in an external box. IDE may have gotten faster and is still cheaper than SCSI but the hassles just aren't worth it in my opinion.

[cjolley]

OR buy a cheap ATA100 controler then

AT100:
PM - HD1
SM - HD2

IDE:
PM - DVD
SM - CD/RW

Chuck

[Liquid Snake]

What if you're out of PCI slots?

I've been thinking of going SCSI too, because of these damned limitations!!

I would put the CD-RW as Secondary Master as well. Some CD-RWs are picky and prefer to be placed there. I know my Plextor 8/4/32 is one of those.

[Topha]

dont have enough money for scsi...

now its:
PM: hd1
PS: hd2

SM: cd-rw
SL: dvd

on the fly copys work fine, and i got burn-proof anyway. got the teac 12/10/32 for about 150$, now i just gotta sell that zip-dirve.

[The PIT]

I've certainly gone for scsi for my cd's and cd writers. Of course it helps when someone at work doesn't want there scsi card back. Hello one ultra wide 2940 card. It would be nice to go to scsi harddisks but these are too exspensive at the moment.

[Wombat]

Keep the HD's together.

I would try the RW as master first. Both DVD's and CD-R's are picky about being master, but CD-R's will cost you CD's if it's unhappy.