HDD + DVDRW on same IDE line?

Dthltr · 14 Dec 2006 at 20:10

Hi there.

Just a quick question, I was wondering if it is possible to have both an ATA HDD and a DVDRW on ths same IDE cable.

I have recently bought a Western Digital Caviar RE 250GB 2500SB ATA-100 8MB Cache - OEM by accident when I meant to buy a Western Digital Caviar RE 250GB 2500YS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM. I also purchased a Liteon DVD-8900 16x DVD±RW/RAM (Black) - OEM.

Would it be possible to run the both on the same IDE cable? My mobo, DS3 only has one IDE socket.

If that is not possible, would the DVDRW work if I bought a DVD rom cable and connected it to the motherboard.

rpstewart · 14 Dec 2006 at 20:26

Dthltr said:
Would it be possible to run the both on the same IDE cable? My mobo, DS3 only has one IDE socket.

Aye, no problems doing that. Set the jumpers on the HDD to master and those on the DVD to slave and away you go.

shadowze · 14 Dec 2006 at 20:37

Better solution is to use CS ( cable select ) on each device , that way you dont have to worry about which one goes on which cable connector.
FYI , you will limit the HD to the to the same PIO speed as the optical device.

daven1986 · 14 Dec 2006 at 20:59

no it is better to make sure the HDD is master as then its data will take priority over the DVDs data.

DavidQ · 14 Dec 2006 at 21:26

I had a similar problem when upgrading my pc, the motherboard only had one IDE slot but i had a 300gb ide hdd from my old system which i wanted to use. In the end i got a SATA converter for £7 and it's been working great.

squiffy · 14 Dec 2006 at 21:29

Could also buy PCI PATA controller, 2 channel (total of 4) is only £25, that means don't need SATA converter, and can have a total of 6 PATA plus 4 SATA devices! Pretty cheap upgrade to fix the problem of newer boards lacking 2 PATA channels (and will probably phase out PATA soon)

janesssssy · 14 Dec 2006 at 21:33

iirc the drive will slow down the the ATA 33 of the CD drive.

marc2003 · 15 Dec 2006 at 07:10

shadowze said:
FYI , you will limit the HD to the to the same PIO speed as the optical device.

janesssssy said:
iirc the drive will slow down the the ATA 33 of the CD drive.

that might have been the case years and years ago but not anymore.....

i run my hard drive and dvd-rw on the same cable and it's fine.

hp7909 · 15 Dec 2006 at 08:12

Dthltr said:
{snip}I have recently bought a Western Digital Caviar RE 250GB 2500SB ATA-100 8MB Cache - OEM by accident{snip}

Can't return it?

steve258 · 15 Dec 2006 at 11:18

Yeah why not return it and swap for the SATAII?

Almost all recent DVD-ROM / DVD-RW drives nowaday are using ATA-100 Ultra-DMA mode so it will work nicely with a hard drive, although really it is only good for a data drive and not recommended for use as the main OS partition.

Uhtred · 15 Dec 2006 at 12:00

janesssssy said:
iirc the drive will slow down the the ATA 33 of the CD drive.

Not true anymore. I have to use a HDD and a DVD on the same IDE chan at the moment. It's not ideal as every time you put a cd in everything on the machine stalls. Other than that it's fine. i will hopefully get some SATA optical drives soon.