USB vs Internal

[Guest]

I have a 266P2 with a DVD drive, but no CD burner, which I want to install for backups and music, etc. I have one open bay for an internal, but was thinking of keeping it available for a second hard drive. The cable attached to the hard drive has an open connector for the second bay, which is where I'd put the internal CD-RW. I've heard there could be conflicts between 2 devices attached to the same cable, which might cause problems when I do backups. The CD-RW also couldn't be attached to the sound card, so I won't be able to listen without switching drives. This stuff points me to an external CD-RW (requiring a $90 upgrade from Windows 95 to 98), or maybe removing my DVD and replacing it with an internal CD-RW. Do I have bad info or am I on the right track? Thanks for your help.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by HandyNovice on 06/02/01 02:29 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[upec]

Are you going to use the CDRW a lot? If so you should get an internal one. Internal CDRW are faster and cheaper. You should be able to connect both internal CDRW and DVD to the same IDE controller. Maybe you need to change to an ide cable that allow you connecting two devices to it. I never have any problem connect two device to an ide controller.

 

[FatBurger]

You should try to avoid putting a CD/DVD ROM and a CDR/RW on the same IDE channel, as one channel can only read or write at once, not both at the same time. This means that you'll have problems copying CDs. The better solution is to put your hard drive on a channel with one of the two CD drives, like you said.
As far as USB versus internal, I'd say internal, no question. USB (and external in general) are more expensive and slower, like was pointed out before, and are more likely to cause you problems both in working right and with care/transportation/etc.

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

 

[upec]

If you put a CDRW or DVD on on the same IDE channel as hard drive. It will affect the performance of the hard drive. Not a good idea since most people use hard drive a lot more than CDRW or DVD.

 

[Guest]

if you are worried about the performance/speed, why not put cd and cd-writer on same ide, then just copy the cd to the harddrive and then the harddrive to the cd-writer? I am not a hardcore burner, so this is what I do. Not sure if it would become a pain if I was burning all the time.

 

[FatBurger]

True, it'll degrade the performance of the hard drive, but only when you're using both at the same time. (If HDD is master).
Using an image file (copying to hard drive and then burning), is always better than burning on the fly. Slower, true. But better overall.

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