Reading from Optical drive

[Guest]

I have 2 identical Liteon DVD DL writers. They are connected together using
a single IDE cable (come with the mother board). One is master and the other
one is slave. My question is "Can I use both optical drives at a same time?"
I was watching a DVD movie, then I tried to burn some files to another DVD
writer using Nero 7. Once I start the burning, the movie stop playing. Is
this something related to Windows or hardware? I am using Windows XP
professional sp2. Thank you for help.

Wilson Chu

 

[Steve N.]

I have 2 identical Liteon DVD DL writers. They are connected together using
a single IDE cable (come with the mother board). One is master and the other
one is slave. My question is "Can I use both optical drives at a same time?"
I was watching a DVD movie, then I tried to burn some files to another DVD
writer using Nero 7. Once I start the burning, the movie stop playing. Is
this something related to Windows or hardware? I am using Windows XP
professional sp2. Thank you for help.

Wilson Chu

Try putting them on seperate IDE channels.

Steve N.

 

[Guest]

The other IDE channel is occupied by a hard drive. Do you suggest me to
connect the optical drive to the hard drive? Will that affect the hard drive
performance?

Wilson Chu

 

[R. McCarty]

To use both & improve performance, get a PCI add-in controller.
I would get a SATA controller and a IDE->SATA adapter module
for the optical. With that configuration, you could use both (Opticals)
at the same time and not have channel/tap or bus saturation issues.
Card & Adapter would run you around ~$45 or so. Plus it would
provide you capability to add a SATA hard drive. Be sure to get a
card that comes WITH the SATA cables.

 

[Bob I]

Since they are both on the same channel Nero disabled the movie to
prevent the production of a coaster due to data under-run.

 

[Guest]

Now I install 2 DVD writer into 2 different IDE channel, and they are both
master. HD is in SATA channel (Boot). By the time I am burning a DVD, I
insert a disk into the 2nd DVD writer, but the autoplay cannot start until
the burning job is done, can't read from the disk either until the burning is
finished. Is this normal for Windows? Is this software problem or hardware
problem? Thank you.

Wilson

 

[Bob I]

I don't have a dual DVD setup to test with, so someone else will have to
answer that one.