Max HD quantity?

  • Thread starter Thread starter CC
  • Start date Start date
C

CC

Hi All.

How many HD'can be fitted into an average system, please?
I am thinking of adding, but don't know how many can fit?
At present I have an IDE Primary, and also a small SCSI
one with a SCSI board. (but for some reason the HD cannot
be detected at present. A problem for another day....)

Any help gratefully received!

CC.
 
CC said:
Hi All.

How many HD'can be fitted into an average system, please?
I am thinking of adding, but don't know how many can fit?
At present I have an IDE Primary, and also a small SCSI
one with a SCSI board. (but for some reason the HD cannot
be detected at present. A problem for another day....)

Any help gratefully received!

CC.
Click to expand...

- Standard PC: Up to 4 IDE devices (any mix of hard disk & CD/DVD)
- With an expansion IDE controller: Depends on the number of ports
on the controller.
- With a SCSI adapter: Up to 7 SCSI drives per adapter

Instead of adding more disks, you might consider buying a larger
disk. They are very cheap these days!
 
Usually a scsi drive isnt detected is because its not set-up proper.
You need to install the software when booting to xp cd,then
let xp format it or use the mfg software.A scsi drive has its
advantages over a IDE drive,1.it usually runs in a faster transfer rate,
2.a scsi disk can be striped or mirrored. The price diffrence is minimal
between the two.
 
Don't remember where I saw the comments but I do recall that the limit was 8
(eight) IDE devices, any combination of hard drives, CD or DVD ROMs, etc.

Of course, if you have a motherboard with SATA that may be different. I have
an ABIT IC7-MAX3 and it will support 4 EIDE devices and 6 SATA along with
two floppies.
 
Jerry said:
Don't remember where I saw the comments but I do recall that the limit was 8
(eight) IDE devices, any combination of hard drives, CD or DVD ROMs, etc.
Click to expand...

Four IDE is standard, two primary, two secondary on most motherboards. An
add-on card usually gives you 4 more, but might be only 2 on a cheap card.
You can keep adding cards as long as you have slots and keep adding drives
as long as you have space, power, and cooling to support them.
 
Thanks for that Andrew! An answer to something which has
been bugging me for a while and one I would like to get
sorted out. Please could you explain further about what
you mean about installing software when booting to the XP
CD? I woulo like to try this once I have my XP back on
line.... or is this something you have to do pre
installtion of XP?

CC.
 
He's referring to installing XP on a drive that requires special drivers --
usually SCSI or SATA. During the install, you'd need to press the F6 key
when prompted, then when asked you insert a floppy with the drivers for your
SCSI or SATA controller, and then the install is able to see the drive to
install to it.

If it's after installation, or if it's not on the drive you want to install
Windows, you don't need to install the drivers while you're installing
Windows. Sometimes Windows will have the drivers already in the OS so it
will be recognized automatically after installation, sometimes you'd need to
install them. The drivers are not for the hard drive itself, they're for the
controller card.

After the controller card drivers are installed, either Windows will see and
install devices plugged into the card, or you will need to install the
drivers. For hard drives, you don't need drivers. But if you had, for
example, a scanner plugged into your SCSI card, you'd need to install
drivers for it after you installed the controller card drivers.
 
Two IDE channels usually means 4 IDE devices. Using an add-in card with 2
IDE channels means 4 more IDE devices - for a total of eight.
As I said in my earlier post - I had read somewhere that there was a limit
of 8 IDE devices - period. Your comments did not refute what I said. You
cannot keep adding devices. The limit is 8.
 
Add another card.

I had a customer that had 6 live IDE ports, for a possible 12 IDE devices.
Granted, you'd need a lot of case space, but it's still possible
 
Here's another example. My test machine has 4 IDE ports for a maximum of 8
drives. But it's a test machine and I have tested IDE controller cards in
it, and have had no problems. There's also a resident SCSI card, but that's
besides the point.

You may have read 8 drives maximum somewhere, but it might have been the
maximum for a particular motherboard or controller.

Most normal folks wouldn't need that many IDE devices, especially with the
larger drives available now, not to mention power consumption and space
considerations, but there's no reason 8 has to be the maximum.
 
How many HD'can be fitted into an average system, please?
I am thinking of adding, but don't know how many can fit?
At present I have an IDE Primary, and also a small SCSI
one with a SCSI board. (but for some reason the HD cannot
be detected at present. A problem for another day....)
Click to expand...

CC,

you already got very good advice. Just one little detail is
still missing. When you have more than one disk drive in the
computer's case, in all likelihood the disks will run too hot
unless you provide sufficient extra cooling.

Watch it, there is a temperature limit for hard disks.

Hans-Georg
 
Back
Top