Quick question

Tonytank · 17 Jun 2007 at 11:00

I have one hd in my machine, a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache, partioned etc, and an external 320gb usb hd too...

Someone the other day gave me a ide hd 40gb for free, brand new, never used, so i was wondering, given my sata drive being there, is it possible to just add this ide as normal as an extra drive, assuming it set it too slave and what not...

Would just be handy to have somewhere to put all my uni work...

Anyone...cheers in advance

rpstewart · 17 Jun 2007 at 11:08

If you've got a free IDE port, either as the only device on a separate cable to your DVD drive or on the same cable, there shouldn't be a problem with adding the drive in. Whether it is set to master or slave is not determined by the presence of a SATA drive. The master/slave concept only applies to IDE devices so if the 40Gb drive is on it's own cable then it needs to be set as master however if it's sharing a cable with another device it'll need to be set as a slave.

Tonytank · 17 Jun 2007 at 11:10

Cheers man, but other then that it should be fine yeah?

rpstewart · 17 Jun 2007 at 11:21

Pretty much, yeah. There are a couple of things to watch out for, the drive might jump to the top of the boot priority list in the BIOS so that needs checked and if it's brand new the drive will need partitioned and formatted before you can use it.

Participant · 17 Jun 2007 at 13:21

I'm in the same situation and would like to know if it will affect the noise levels in my system...i.e. do hard drives make any noise at idle? My WD IDE 120Gb drives might be noticeaby noisy compared to a new C2D system. Sorry if it's a hijack but I thought it a consideration that might affect your issue.

rpstewart · 17 Jun 2007 at 13:47

HDDs make noise, they're mechanical devices that are spinning whenever power is applied to them. In real terms though that noise is usually very low when compared to the rest of the system components.

Tonytank · 20 Jun 2007 at 12:46

Hey guys

i got the drive installed, everythings fine, formatted fine, jumper correct ect..

But ive noticed now windows is a little slow on startup, but about 20, maybe 25 more seconds, i mean, its not a big issue, just noticable...

Is it cus my main windows hd is sata, and this new drive is hd?

Or would it be because on start up theres the sata then the usb external then the new ide one?

Like i say, its not major, just a query more then anything

cheers guys...

helmutcheese · 20 Jun 2007 at 12:57

Ideally you dont share a EIDE channel with a HDD and a Optical drive, that may be your slow down.

Tonytank · 20 Jun 2007 at 13:12

ok, will it cause any damage, or just the slowdown at the start?

Tonytank · 20 Jun 2007 at 14:58

Anyone?

fobose · 20 Jun 2007 at 16:51

It wont cause damage but if your using your DVDRW which is on the same channel as the PATA hard drive and you want to transfer files at the same time then it will slow down the transfer.

JackRegan · 20 Jun 2007 at 17:45

I would imagine the increased boot time you're experiencing is due to the additional time windows needs to detect your IDE devices during start up.

Windows will search and detect any hardware connected to your pc during start up, have you added anything else? USB included.

Just to check, do you have this on its own IDE channel? If so make sure its set to master, or if it's sharing with an optical drive or the like make sure you have master/slave set correctly.

Also a good point by RP about checking theboot sequence, I have been caught out by this on numerous occasions :confused:

No harm will be done to your pc is the answer to your ?

Jack