Cabling question

[anonymous]

Hi,

This is probably off topic, but I respect the knowledge base I read here.

I went to a friends house today and installed a second hard drive in his
Gateway box. I found that his primary master is cabled to a card that's
plugged into a PC I slot instead of into one of the two sockets on his
motherboard, those sockets are feeding his CD/DVD and a CD writer he's
installed over the years. I added the second drive on the same CPI cable
that's running the master drive. It's working OK, but.........

I'm wondering if things could speed up for him if we switched a few
things around in there, like plugging the hard drives into the
motherboard instead of into a CPI slot? I just can't imagine a CPI slot
having the connectivity of the boards sockets.

Also, he was told by the local shop there's a limit to the amount of RAM
98 can handle, is there? He's clunking along with 128mb. He wrote that
he bought some more, but I don't know how much just yet.

Thanks a bunch guys! I appreciate what you folks are doing around here.

---==X={}=X==---


Jim Self
AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm

 

[I'm Dan \(dg1261\)]

I went to a friends house today and installed a second hard drive in his
Gateway box. I found that his primary master is cabled to a card that's
plugged into a PC I slot instead of into one of the two sockets on his
motherboard, those sockets are feeding his CD/DVD and a CD writer he's
installed over the years. I added the second drive on the same CPI cable
that's running the master drive. It's working OK, but.........

I'm wondering if things could speed up for him if we switched a few
things around in there, like plugging the hard drives into the
motherboard instead of into a CPI slot? I just can't imagine a CPI slot
having the connectivity of the boards sockets.

Also, he was told by the local shop there's a limit to the amount of RAM
98 can handle, is there? He's clunking along with 128mb. He wrote that
he bought some more, but I don't know how much just yet.

If you don't know what the card is and you plugged a common HDD into it, I
guess we can assume it isn't SCSI. How old is the machine? How big are the
HDDs? It's possible the system bios can't handle large HDDs (over 8GB, for
example) and the add-in card is to get around that.

 

[PA20Pilot]

Hi Dan,

The box is probably around 4 or so years old and came with a 20 gig
drive running into the PC I card. That part of the thing is straight
from the factory as far as I know. I added a 60 GB drive and it took
right off and worked just fine.

..........It's possible the system bios can't handle large HDDs

The drives are both working running through the PCI card, so I'm
assuming all is well there. It's just that I can't see how running
through a PCI slot can work as well as running into the motherboard.

Maybe I'll just leave well enough alone and move onto other fires instead.

Thanks for the response Dan!

On a side note. When I saw that I originally posted this message with
several instances of CPI instead of PCI, I canceled the message and
reposted. I see that your message that quoted mine has the misspellings,
but the main thread message doesn't anymore. I'm wondering if you now
see my original question posted twice, the first was around 9:38 or so,
the repost was at 9:55.

---==X={}=X==---


Jim Self
AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm

 

[I'm Dan \(dg1261\)]

The box is probably around 4 or so years old and came with a 20 gig
drive running into the PC I card. That part of the thing is straight
from the factory as far as I know. I added a 60 GB drive and it took
right off and worked just fine.

.........It's possible the system bios can't handle large HDDs

The drives are both working running through the PCI card, so I'm
assuming all is well there. It's just that I can't see how running
through a PCI slot can work as well as running into the motherboard.

If the system bios couldn't handle >8GB disks through the mobo IDE, one way
around that is to use an add-in card that can. But I'd think a 4-yr old
mobo probably could handle >8GB, so that's probably not the reason the card
is in there. If you knew the name/model of the card, it might trigger
somebody's memory as to what advantages the card might be adding to the
system.

Maybe I'll just leave well enough alone and move onto other fires instead.

Good choice. (Especially when it's not even your machine.)

On a side note. When I saw that I originally posted this message with
several instances of CPI instead of PCI, I canceled the message and
reposted. I see that your message that quoted mine has the misspellings,
but the main thread message doesn't anymore. I'm wondering if you now
see my original question posted twice, the first was around 9:38 or so,
the repost was at 9:55.

Not at the time of my original reply, but now I do see both.

 

[PA20Pilot]

Hi again,

..........Not at the time of my original reply, but now I do see both.

I was wondering about that. Might be that canceling a message works
instantly for me, and doesn't go away for those that have seen the
canceled message already, cached or something, but doesn't show for
those that are here for the first time.

Thanks again!

---==X={}=X==---


Jim Self
AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm

 

[BeamGuy]

Most likely the PCI card is faster IDE controller than the motherboard
has - and was likely installed when a larger hard drive with a faster IDE
interface was installed. I would suspect that is the best IDE port to use.

 

[PA20Pilot]

Thanks Beamguy!

Never crossed my mind that it might actually be faster. I think the PCI
card running the hard drive is original equipment with this model
Gateway, but I'm wrong a lot too.

---==X={}=X==---


Jim Self
AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm