a HDD question for all you techies out there.

[Torniquet]

okies. i currenatly got 2 IDE HDDs, n i wanna get another ( a SATA one this time tho lol)

my question is... can i still use both my IDEs aswell as a new SATA one??

retard question to ask i know (y) but would rather be sure lol

[hallsofvallhalla]

simple answer.....yes

complicated answer...yes

I currently have 2 sata 500 gig hard drives and 2 500 gig ide hard drives in one machine.

but i would double check your motherboard first

[OldRod]

It all depends on what connections you have available on your motherboard and what space you have in your case

[Ravinos]

The recommended setup for mixing HDD types is in this order, SATA Solid, SATA State First Second, and IDE Third.

[Torniquet]

i got room in my case, i got 2 sata ports (that i can see.. i might have 4 but i not looked properly)

i plan on havin the sata as my main and the IDEs as my slaves. i not gotta do no complicated settin up or nothin do i?? :s i intend to put win7 on there (at last... well if my mate can find his testers disk lol)

[Ravinos]

Nah its not complicated just make sure you got your HDD jumpers set right. The SATA doesn't need anything done to it but the IDE's will require you to put them both into slave mode. If they aren't slaved they can cause issues with trying to get Windows to recognize the SATA as C:

I ran into the same issue when I switched over to a SATA HDD as my primary.

[Falken]

Nah its not complicated just make sure you got your HDD jumpers set right. The SATA doesn't need anything done to it but the IDE's will require you to put them both into slave mode. If they aren't slaved they can cause issues with trying to get Windows to recognize the SATA as C:

I ran into the same issue when I switched over to a SATA HDD as my primary.

(I am gonna use the word P-ATA instead of IDE, which is more correct as S-ATA is also IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) )

- First off, if you have to P-ATA drives on the same cable, one must be master and one slave, you can't have 2 slaves or 2 masters on the same P-ATA cable.

- On new P-ATA drives and motherboards you can often set both drives jumpers to something called Cable Select, which takes care of master/slave by itself.

- Windows will in 99% set the system disk as C: by itself, all other driver letters can also be changed and has nothing to do with master/slave on the drives. You can actually change the system drive letter too, but it is a bit more complicated and requires you to play around in regedit

So why is master/slave not used on S-ATA drives? Because all S-ATA drives are master, because there is only one drive on each cable.

If windows won't start after inserting a new S-ATA drive you should instead try change the Harddrive boot priority in BIOS, as S-ATA often has higher priority by default than P-ATA drives in most BIOS software.

Hope that answered most questions

[Torniquet]

frankly thts confused me even more lol...

are you saying that i cant have 2 P-ATA drives on one cable and have the S-ATA as my 'master' or boot drive?

[Falken]

frankly thts confused me even more lol...

are you saying that i cant have 2 P-ATA drives on one cable and have the S-ATA as my 'master' or boot drive?

No. I say that Master and Slave got NOTHING to do with that. I will try explain why Master/Slave exists:

Master and Slave is used when 2 drives are connected to the same P-ATA cable. This is because when the motherboard sends data/commands to the P-ATA cable both drives will receive the command/data. To avoid that, we use Master/Slave jumper setting. When the motherboard sends the command it will say that the data/command is for master or slave and then only the correct drive will respond to that command.

Why don't we use Master/Slave on S-ATA then?
Simpy bacause there is only ONE drive on each S-ATA cable, and therefor the commands can't reach the wrong disc.

Will give an example on how to setup a system with 4 P-ATA discs (on 2 P-ATA Cables) and 2 S-ATA discs:
Disc 1 & Disc 2 are connected to P-ATA cabel 1, Disc 1 set as master and Disc 2 set as Slave
Disc 3 & Disc 4 are connected to P-ATA cabel 2, Disc 3 is also set as master and Disc 4 are also slave.
Disc 5 is connected on S-ATA cabel 1, and no need for master/slave here
Disc 6 is connected on S-ATA cabel 2 and no need for master/slave here

So here you have 2 master and 2 slaves, but that is ok, as they are on seperate cabels, remember that master/slave is just labels used to seperate which drive that gets which commands on the same cable. Almost like an adress.

Now all drives will be working correctly. And you can choose which drive to boot from in the BIOS setting on the computer under "Harddrive Boot Priority". The C: drive will be the one you choose to install Windows on.

Tried to explain it as good as possible.

[Torniquet]

oh i understand now lol.

so providing i set the sata to the boot drive all should go well.

cheers ears xx