IDE/DVD Connections

Prase · 5 Aug 2008 at 11:37

Hi,

Probably been asked before, my apologies.

I have a 780i Motherboard, and am having problems connecting my DVD drives. Do I connect the cable that the Hard Drive is connected to the Mobo, to the DVD? When I do, the computer fails to boot. The Motherboard has only got one IDE connector.

Thanks

Prase

MagicBoy · 5 Aug 2008 at 11:42

Make sure the drives are jumpered correctly - master on the hdd, slave on the dvd.

You really shouldn't be using an IDE hard drive in this day and age - get yourself a comedy cheap 500Gb SATA drive instead.

Prase · 5 Aug 2008 at 11:46

I thought that is what you would say, Is it possible to run the IDE and DVD drive from the same parallel cable?

I promise I will buy a SATA soon.

MagicBoy · 5 Aug 2008 at 11:50

Yes, if you setup as advised above. The DVD may slow down the HDD, hence why I'm advising SATA.

Prase · 5 Aug 2008 at 11:51

Magic Boy,

I am an amateur, I had left the DVD on Master. Thanks. I will slap myself later.

Swordfish · 5 Aug 2008 at 11:52

No doubt about it, If you put an optical and hard drive on the same IDE connector your hd will slow down to match the max speed of the optical.

MagicBoy · 5 Aug 2008 at 11:53

LOL. I'm old skool - I remember when IDE was the future. Still got an 80MB ESDI drive somewhere!

MagicBoy · 5 Aug 2008 at 11:56

Swordfish said:
No doubt about it, If you put an optical and hard drive on the same IDE connector your hd will slow down to match the max speed of the optical.

I'm not entirely sure having not tried it recently. In the ATA33 days most optical drives ran in PIO mode and dropped the speed on the channel - hence why we stuck the optical drives on the secondary channel.