Mixing UltraATA/100 and UltraATA/33 HDDs

[xdarque]

Hi. I've got 2 HDDs. One is an older 15GB IBM drive supporting only UltraATA/33, and the other is a newer 60GB IBM Deskstar supporting UltraATA/100. I'm upgrading to an Abit KT7A mobo, which supports UltraATA/100/66/33.

My question is, what's the best IDE configuration for the 2 HDDs, given that I have a CD-ROM and a CD-RW to hook-up as well? If I put both HDDs on the same IDE channel, will the newer drive still operate at 100, or will it be bumped down to 33 to support the older drive?

Thanks,
xdarque

 

[Spdy_Gonzales]

Most likely the drives will operate at their designated speed. Just try it and see what happens.

It is better to have the hard drives on the same cable. And sometimes a CD-RW will not work properly if there is a hard drive on the same cable. So I think the best setup is to have the CD-RW and CD-ROM on the secondary cable.

It is also the best set up for duplicating CD's. Copy the CD image to the hard drive and then burn the new CD from the image on the hard drive.

I wonder...what is the speed of gravity?

 

[camieabz]

You might consider a mobo with 2 channels ATA100 & 2 channels ATA33.

<b>
"Now drop your weapons or I'll kill him with this deadly jelly baby."
</b>

 

[FatBurger]

No, if they are on the same cable, then they will both operate at the same speed (the slower speed).
So your ATA/100 will operate at ATA/33.

However, that won't hurt you as much as you might think. A 75GXP can get around 40Mb/s max sustained transfer, so you're only losing 7Mb/s. You'll lose quite a bit on your bursts, but looks like you'll have to live with that.

Apple? Macintosh? What are these strange words you speak?

 

[xdarque]

"...they will both operate at the same speed (the slower speed)."

Actually, I don't think this is right. I did a bit of searching on the older posts on these boards and found the answer. Sort of. Apparently, there's no hard evidence for either case (i.e., one case being that each device runs at its max UltraATA setting, and the other case being that they both run at the UltraATA setting of the slowest one).

I tend to believe in the former case, but that's just me. If anyone has found any hard evidence for either one in the meantime, feel free to speak up.

In any case, the previous thread I'm referring to is here:

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=7291#7291

Sorry for the redundancy.

Thanks,
xdarque

 

[lhgpoobaa]

very similar setup here
a7v133
(primary master) ata100 60gxp
(primary slave) ata33 16gp
both on 80 pin cable
(secondary master) 52x sony
(secondary slave) 12x10x32 ricoh
both secondaries on a 40 pin ata33 cable

both my hard drives run at their designated speeds. (ata100 & 33)
of course, if transfering from one to the other as i do often, the slower drive determines the transfer speed.

just make sure the ata100 is conneced using a 80 pin cable.

So sayeth the wise Hamster!



My Hamster has 512MB of SDRAM @ 150Mhz CAS 2!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by LHGPooBaa on 06/19/01 09:43 PM.</EM></FONT></P>