More Hard Drives

[Guest]

I have already have 4 IDE hard drives on my system and want to add more devices. Is there any way to have more than 4 IDE channels? I know I can add more via firewire but each would add $100. (and are they as quick?) Would a promise RAID card allow more?
Any info appreciated.
Adamb

 

[FatBurger]

Would a promise RAID card allow more?

Yes, but even easier would be an ATA controller. <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=11&manufactory=1119&DEPA=1" target="_new">$23 at the top of this page</A>.

<font color=orange>Quarter</font color=orange> <font color=blue>Pounder</font color=blue> <font color=orange>Inside</font color=orange>

 

[Guest]

Fatburger
I though the max IDE you could have on a system is Primary Master/Slave and Secondery Master/Slave. i.e. 4. I did think that I had read that by adding a RAID card maybe two drives would be seen as one channel. Are you saying by adding another ATA card I could add a further 4 IDE devices??

 

[Arrow]

Buy an PCI IDE controller card, and you can add more devices. That's esentially what he's saying.

Rob
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[Crashman]

If you have three PCI slots open, you could theoretically put three more IDE controllers on your system and have 12 more drives, for a total of 16! Theoretically, because I don't think your system could configure all the necessary IRQ's. Anyway, you could just do it right and go SCSI, it's CHEAPER, because you can pick up used SCSI drives from servers for as little as $20 for 9.1GB!

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

 

[Guest]

A motherboard can only have two IDE ports (4 drives.) Mobo's with built-in RAID support 4 more drives, but technically it's the same as have a RAID card and isn't the standard IDE bus.
Unless you need or know how to set up RAID, just get a standard PCI IDE Controller Card. Promise and Adaptec make some of the best, and the Maxtor controller card is nice as well (it's made by Promise.) The only real issue with the cards is that having more than one installed can cause conflicts sometimes. And most BIOS's will let you boot from the card, although sometimes the controller card will show up as a SCSI Controller (this is normal and is just a generic way for BIOS's to work with any PCI hard drive card.)