IDE Controllers 3 and 4 ... are they usable?

[ag]

Hello everyone,

I have a pretty new motherboard that has IDE3 and IDE4 in addition to the
Primary and Secondary IDE controllers.

I have 2 HDDs on my primary and 1 CD-RW and 1 DVD Rom on my secondary IDE. I
have one internal Iomega ZIP (IDE) and another Hard Drive that I would like
to attach on what is IDE3 and IDE4. However, I cannot get XP to recognize
the same.

I know that when I bought the motherboard I was told this was for RAID or
Serial ATA (SATA) hard disks only. But me thinks that it possible to use
these as straight forward IDE controllers to add upto 4 more devices on my
system.

I know I can go the DVD burner route and other ways to not have to use these
but I would still like to get them to work.

Anyone that can help me on this, please?

Thanks,

AG

 

[D.Currie]

Hello everyone,

I have a pretty new motherboard that has IDE3 and IDE4 in addition to the
Primary and Secondary IDE controllers.

I have 2 HDDs on my primary and 1 CD-RW and 1 DVD Rom on my secondary IDE. I
have one internal Iomega ZIP (IDE) and another Hard Drive that I would like
to attach on what is IDE3 and IDE4. However, I cannot get XP to recognize
the same.

I know that when I bought the motherboard I was told this was for RAID or
Serial ATA (SATA) hard disks only. But me thinks that it possible to use
these as straight forward IDE controllers to add upto 4 more devices on my
system.

I know I can go the DVD burner route and other ways to not have to use these
but I would still like to get them to work.

Anyone that can help me on this, please?

Thanks,

AG

It really isn't an XP question, it depends on how the motherboard is
configured, and whether it will allow all 4 to work at the same time.

SATA would be a completely different connector, so you'd either need SATA
drives, or you'd have to find adapters for the drives.

As far as the RAID connector, I've seen some that would accept hard drives
as standalones, but wouldn't work with CDs. Some are set to be RAID only,
and won't work with other configurations.

You'll have to read the motherboard documentation to see what you can do and
how to set it up.