instal dual hdd's

hi,
I am wondering what is the better config when
installling a second hdd.
Should I put it on the same Ribbon as my original or
should I put it on the second one?
I have heard that it may slow the computer down if I have
both on one ribbon.
Also, if I place the second hdd on the other ribbon, will it
need to be set to Master or Slave.
Input appreciated.

dutchy

On Sat, 4 Jun 2005 14:24:38 +0930, "dutchy" wrote:

hi,
I am wondering what is the better config when
installling a second hdd.
Should I put it on the same Ribbon as my original or
should I put it on the second one?

That depends on the other drives installed -- say, CD-ROMs, DVD etc. Not
a great difference in the most cases though -- but in some applications
you can notice the difference.

I have heard that it may slow the computer down if I have
both on one ribbon.

No: that could be right more than 10 years ago -- but after EIDE
specification came, the drives work with its maximum speed each -- when
it is the active drive. Though the drives on one cable work only in
turn: when one is active -- the other is disabled this time, and vice
versa. The same -- if there are, say, HDD and CD-ROM on the same cable.

Also, if I place the second hdd on the other ribbon, will it
need to be set to Master or Slave.

If it is the only drive on the cable -- it has to be set as Master, and
connected to the last connector of the ribbon cable. If this single
drive is Western Digital HDD -- its Master/Slave jumper has to be set in
the third, "Single" position, or removed at all.

--
Mikhail Zhilin
http://www.aha.ru/~mwz
Sorry, no technical support by e-mail.
Please reply to the newsgroups only.
======

Unless your normal usage involves wrting large amounts of data from the
original HDD to the second HDD, it makes no difference. Windows cannot read
data from one HDD, cache that data to physical memory, and write that data
to another HDD, on the same ribbon cable at the same time. Its a sequential
operation.

Slowdowns may be due to low-level communication language of the HDDs on the
same or different ribbon cables. This was quite common a few years ago when
mixing some Maxtors and WDs. In some cases, they simply would not work at
all together, and the PC would not proceed beyond the bios routine.
Sometimes they would work well if on separate rebbon cables. Its not a
windows or driver issue in this case, jumper selection isn't either.
Similar could be said about LS-120 and Zip ide drives in some cases. Some
older DVD drives had to be master, no ifs, ands, or buts. If DMA/UDMA is
implemented properly for all your ide devices so capable, you should have no
problems in whatever method you connect them.

So, I would hesitate making a broad statement about anyone's PC ide device
connectivity. Too many unknowns in the equation.

Alternate busses weren't mentioned (SCSI, RAID, ide=pseudo-scsi), for
connecting HDDs, so I won't go into that.
"dutchy" wrote in message
...
hi,
I am wondering what is the better config when
installling a second hdd.
Should I put it on the same Ribbon as my original or
should I put it on the second one?
I have heard that it may slow the computer down if I have
both on one ribbon.
Also, if I place the second hdd on the other ribbon, will it
need to be set to Master or Slave.
Input appreciated.

dutchy