Using different brand and size Hard Drives in one computer?

[stan412]

Hi,
This is rather a noob question, so bear with me:

All I need to do after building my computer, is to get some hard drives.
Now, I know hard drives are rather cheap, but I'd still like to save money by using hard drives from an old computer. I have a 80GB Hitachi, 40GB Seagate, and a 30GB Western Digital, and I was wondering if I could install these hard drives in one computer without any BIOS conflicts. If using 3 different hard drives (Hitachi: Ultra133, Seagate and WD: Ultra66, one possibly a different RPM) is allowed, I am thinking about putting 3 operating systems. I won't play any games or do any intensive graphics work (Need Win ME as one of my OSes due to some programs not working on Win XP).

Thanks a lot, guys.

 

[pscowboy]

No problem at all in the BIOS to mix them all in.

Those are all IDE; couple that with a DVD and you have four IDE peripherals.

Get a mobo with at least TWO IDE channels. Most today come with only one.

 

[PCcashCow]

Depending on your hardware you should be able to boot fine into multiple OS's across three drives. All drives seem to be IDE, so you would need two channels, but perferrible four to do so. In fact it simplifies things when using a Grub loader to select which drive to boot from after POST. However, if your building a new PC, I would still get at least one SATA drive in there for your primary OS, IMO.

Another note on the Channels: IDE drive (2 per ribbion) will only transfer data at the slowest speed. So if your ATA 133 drive is shared with your CDROM drive, odds are youll only see DMA 66 at best. So maybe a 20 dollar PIC IDE controller might help you out some more.

 

[aBg_rOnGak]

Also,don't forget to set the jumper accordingly...on each cable (2 ide drive),1 has to be Master while the other set to slave.Please refer to the setting table,usu. on your hard drives' sticker

 

[grant8844]

The Asus P5W DH delux mobo has two IDE cables for a total of 4 IDE devices.