Should 2nd HDD always use secondary IDE controller if poss? 3

[ElijahBaley]

I would just like to get this cleared up once and for all!

If I have two IDE devices a HDD and a CDROM, would it be better to have them on separate channels rather than sharing the primary IDE 1

or If I have two HDD's and a CD ROM what is best

a)the two HDD's on IDE1

or

b)2nd HDD and CDROM on secondary channel IDE2

or even

c)Master HDD and CDROM on Primary & 2nd HDD on its own secondary channel.

My concern would always be to get the best data throughput from the HDD.

Thanks for your wisdom

Graham
"r tape loading error"

 

[Scotsdude]

Generally speaking, keep hard drives and cd-roms seperate for better performance.

The best bet is both HDD on the primary, and the CD drive on the secondary

Scotsdude

 

[ElijahBaley]

Thanks Scotsdude,
"r tape loading error"

 

[CitrixEngineer]

Dependencies start to creep in here;

If your HDDs are both ATA100, then this is the best solution.

However, if (for example) one HDD is ATA66 and the other is UDMA33, and the CD-rom is UDMA33, then put the 2nd HDD on the same channel as the CD.

It's possible (but unlikely) that the CD-Rom is ATA66.

Hopefully a picture is emerging. CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk

 

[ceh4702]

This all depends on how you use the drives. I would definitely put the the primary hard drive on the the primary master IDE and put the CD on the secondary master. The reason for this is if you are playing a game some games run off of the CD and need to swap virtual memory on the primary hard drive. This enables full use of both. Lots of times, games play sound and video directly off of the CDROM and it is a little intensive on the I/O.

The Virtual memory can be decreased by using the maximum amount of memory or quite a bit of memory; say 512 Meg or so. 384 Meg for Win98 and WinME.

I prefer to use 1 harddrive only. It just makes things simpler. I would like to try a new Western Digital with the 8 Meg Cache. The large cache should be great for games. I would think that would cut down on intensive repetitive I/O. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[ElijahBaley]

Thanks for the advice, I am starting to see a picture!

On a similar line what are your thoughts about installing programs/games to a different partition or hard disk
(not c
"r tape loading error"

 

[yahoo]

if you are using windows 95/98/me installing to another disk is not always a good option, these os's tend not to think for themselves. If using 2k/xp then it is fine, put them anywhere you u like, even over a network and you'll find 2k/xp to handle it fine.

Greg Case

 

[dinosnake]

If I may, the reason is the interface chipset. When accessing the seperate IDE channels the controller can issue Concurrent commands to the drives.

In the current implimentation of the ATA standard Disconnect has been supported (Disconnect is the ability of the controller to issue a command to the drive and then disconnect logically from the drive. Later, when the drive is ready with the data, the drive issues a Ready command, the controller reconnects and retrieves the data. This was original to SCSI as it allows a controller to access other devices - the controller can connect to only one device at a time. If the controller is waiting fot the drive to get the info off the platters and is connected it cannot do anything else but wait.), but there is latency for the request / disconnect process. By having the drives on seperate channels you either eliminate the latency (on new drives and controllers that have Disconnect), or give the controller the equivalent of Disconnect (on older systems) by now having the ability of issuing 2 commands immediately after one another on the separate channels.
Your mileage may vary...

 

[dinosnake]

Oh, installing on separate drives offers some advantages. If the FAT corrupts due to a program bug it only effects the data disk, not the OS disk. A data disk will (usually) have a simplier directory tree, due to no OS being there to take up the space, and therefore the accesses will be quicker (all things equal) because the OS has less to process. If on separate physical drives the OS can send accesses to both drives at the same time - see above - and that will speed up the whole system during its use (like games or other programs that are file intensive).

Personally, I _always_ recommend separate partitions for my clients - a FAT16 C: of 2GB and the rest on FAT32's (D:, E:, whatever). If the FAT corrupts on the C: FAT16 is so much more repairable than a FAT32 table it isn't even funny. So repair of the damage is possible. I then tell my clients only to put OS and OS-related programs (virus scanners, drivers, utilities, etc) on the C: and everything else on D:. Less possibility of corruption that way. Your mileage may vary...

 

[GandhiII]

I prefer to put all my programms on c: as well. It´s the easiest way to install and badly programmed software sometimes has problems with paths other than the default.
If you use a separate partition and your windows is gone you have to reinstall anyway because of the registry...
I´d definitely recommend a different partition for all the data (eg. .docs, .xls, mails pics etc.). It´s safer and makes backup much easier

 

[dinosnake]

>If you use a separate partition and your windows is gone...

Well - what I do in times of serious FAT corruption is hand hex-edit the FAT back to normal. Not fun and rather lengthy, but hey - ya gotta do what you gotta do. Only attempt this in FAT16 - FAT32's structures are very complex and love leaving dangling LFN entries just when you think you've got everything right - and the directory structure is a real drag.

Everyone please remember that Windows above 95 make automatic backups of the registry. Win98, 98SE and ME for instance save the backups as compressed .CABS, named RB followed by a number, saved in the \WINDOWS\SYSBCKUP directory. Use Expand.exe (off the install disks if you have to) to expand the file and move USER.DAT and SYSTEM.DAT into \WINDOWS, changing the ATTRIButes along the way as necessary. Your mileage may vary...