pata configuration

[Craig]

I'm looking to have 1 hard drive, a dvd-rom drive and a dvd burner. I
originally thought of having the hd on the primary ide channel and the
dvd-rom and burner on the secondary ide channel. However, I read that with
having both optical drives on the same ide channel, I won't be able to copy
cd's. Is that correct? What would be the best configuration allowing for the
addition of a second hd later on.

 

[Dee]

I'm looking to have 1 hard drive, a dvd-rom drive and a dvd burner. I
originally thought of having the hd on the primary ide channel and the
dvd-rom and burner on the secondary ide channel. However, I read that with
having both optical drives on the same ide channel, I won't be able to copy
cd's. Is that correct? What would be the best configuration allowing for the
addition of a second hd later on.

From what I have read, you're wasting your money on the DVD-ROM. Don't
remember exactly where I read the info, but the author(s) pointed out
that the data is temporarily copied to hard drive during a copy function
and the time difference really didn't justify a drive just to copy from.

 

[JS]

However, I read that with
having both optical drives on the same ide channel, I won't be able to
copy cd's. Is that correct?

No, this is identical to my setup. I have no problems using my DVD-Rom as a
source and copying to my CD-RW, both on the secondary IDE channel. I think
this is actually a very common configuration.

 

[John R Weiss]

From what I have read, you're wasting your money on the DVD-ROM. Don't
remember exactly where I read the info, but the author(s) pointed out that the
data is temporarily copied to hard drive during a copy function and the time
difference really didn't justify a drive just to copy from.

Not quite...

Most CD-burning apps have an option to copy CDs direct, without copying to HD
first. When I used this function on my old computer with Adaptec EZ CD Creator,
though, I made more coasters due to buffer underflows until I slowed down the
write speed. Newer apps with better control routines should minimize this
problem, though.

 

[DaveW]

The configuration you mentioned IS the best one for maintaining the highest
data transfer rates from the harddrive. And, YES, you CAN copy CD's, but
not on the fly. You would use CD copying software and select to copy first
from one optical drive to the harddrive and then from the harddrive to the
other optical drive. With today's high speed burners, the difference in
time in doing it this way is negligible.

 

[kony]

I'm looking to have 1 hard drive, a dvd-rom drive and a dvd burner. I
originally thought of having the hd on the primary ide channel and the
dvd-rom and burner on the secondary ide channel. However, I read that with
having both optical drives on the same ide channel, I won't be able to copy
cd's. Is that correct? What would be the best configuration allowing for the
addition of a second hd later on.

Connecting both optical drives to same cable is the easier
way to route cables, and provides highest transfer from
either to/from the hard drive. Copying from one optical
drive direct to another depends greatly on the speed the
reader can sustain, as much as where the cables are.

Try it with both on the same cable and if that isn't
working, AND you have sufficient read speeds from the
DVD-ROM (time a copy from it to the hard drive), then switch
cable positions and put the DVD-ROM as slave to the HDD.
The "best" configuration would be having each on a separate
IDE channel but without SATA, a 2nd controller on the
motherboard or a PCI ATA card, you are limited to making due
with two channels/cables.

 

[Craig]

From what I have read, you're wasting your money on the DVD-ROM. Don't
remember exactly where I read the info, but the author(s) pointed out
that the data is temporarily copied to hard drive during a copy function
and the time difference really didn't justify a drive just to copy from.

so you're saying that if I go to burn a new copy of a cd that it will be
copied to the hard drive first then burned to the new cd?

 

[Craig]

No, this is identical to my setup. I have no problems using my DVD-Rom as a
source and copying to my CD-RW, both on the secondary IDE channel. I think
this is actually a very common configuration.

I was curious. I was reading in a magazine, MaximumPC on building a computer
and they said that it would be "impossible". Needless to say I thought I'd
check in this newsgroup to see what configurations other people set up.

Thanks

Craig

 

[JS]

The configuration you mentioned IS the best one for maintaining the
highest data transfer rates from the harddrive. And, YES, you CAN
copy CD's, but not on the fly. You would use CD copying software and
select to copy first from one optical drive to the harddrive and then
from the harddrive to the other optical drive. With today's high
speed burners, the difference in time in doing it this way is
negligible.

I have both my DVD-R and my CD-RW on the same cable and I am able to copy
cd's directly from DVD to CD without any problems.

 

[JonMaC]

The configuration you mentioned IS the best one for maintaining the highest
data transfer rates from the harddrive. And, YES, you CAN copy CD's, but
not on the fly. You would use CD copying software and select to copy first
from one optical drive to the harddrive and then from the harddrive to the
other optical drive. With today's high speed burners, the difference in
time in doing it this way is negligible.

What complete tosh ......

And, YES, you CAN copy CD's, but
not on the fly. You would use CD copying software and select to copy first
from one optical drive to the harddrive and then from the harddrive to the
other optical drive.

I have no problem doing 'onthefly' copies from one CD to another directly.
If you have concerns over doing this i suggest you buy some CDRW discs & try
first - that way u don't waste CD's if anything fails - that's what i do
sometimes. I use CDRW for backup also anyway.

Regarding the cabling - pretty much any combination should work in theory,
just try it......there may be some combinations which in theory should work
faster, but in practice I would imagine negligable.
I would say HD on PRI 1, DVD ROM on SECOND 1 - Burner on PRI 2. In future
with another HD put that as PRI 2 - burner as SECOND 2.
Easiest way i find is set all devices to CABLE SELECT, then move around as
required (don't have to worry about jumpers then if you move/change/add a
drive.
HTH JOnmaC

 

[Dee]

so you're saying that if I go to burn a new copy of a cd that it will be
copied to the hard drive first then burned to the new cd?

Right. If I can find the article(s) I will post the link(s) here. I
know there is one post that disagrees and I can't prove anything either way.

 

[Art]

Right. If I can find the article(s) I will post the link(s) here. I know
there is one post that disagrees and I can't prove anything either way.

Craig & Dee:

This is simply not so. I and my colleagues routinely build computers that
are equipped with two optical drives - a CD/DVD-ROM and a CD/DVD recorder.
We find there's an enormous speed improvement in the time it takes to copy a
CD or DVD from the reading drive to the recording drive when compared to
using a single reading/recording device for this function. Assuming you have
the necessary bays to accommodate the two drives, it's really the way to go.
Especially when you consider that the CD/DVD-ROM drives are so cheap
nowadays -- I've seen them selling routinely on sale in the Office stores
for as little as $9.95.

Art

 

[Craig]

The configuration you mentioned IS the best one for maintaining the highest
data transfer rates from the harddrive. And, YES, you CAN copy CD's, but
not on the fly. You would use CD copying software and select to copy first
from one optical drive to the harddrive and then from the harddrive to the
other optical drive. With today's high speed burners, the difference in
time in doing it this way is negligible.

I wouldn't think the time difference would be that much. Thanks.

 

[Craig]

On Mon, 18 Oct 2004 23:51:07 GMT, "Craig"

Connecting both optical drives to same cable is the easier
way to route cables, and provides highest transfer from
either to/from the hard drive. Copying from one optical
drive direct to another depends greatly on the speed the
reader can sustain, as much as where the cables are.

Try it with both on the same cable and if that isn't
working, AND you have sufficient read speeds from the
DVD-ROM (time a copy from it to the hard drive), then switch
cable positions and put the DVD-ROM as slave to the HDD.
The "best" configuration would be having each on a separate
IDE channel but without SATA, a 2nd controller on the
motherboard or a PCI ATA card, you are limited to making due
with two channels/cables.

Thanks.

 

[Craig]

I have both my DVD-R and my CD-RW on the same cable and I am able to copy
cd's directly from DVD to CD without any problems.

I'm not sure how much copying from cd to cd I'd do, but I want the ability
to be able to. It sounds like I should have no problems.

 

[Craig]

What complete tosh ......

I have no problem doing 'onthefly' copies from one CD to another directly.
If you have concerns over doing this i suggest you buy some CDRW discs & try
first - that way u don't waste CD's if anything fails - that's what i do
sometimes. I use CDRW for backup also anyway.

Regarding the cabling - pretty much any combination should work in theory,
just try it......there may be some combinations which in theory should work
faster, but in practice I would imagine negligable.
I would say HD on PRI 1, DVD ROM on SECOND 1 - Burner on PRI 2. In future
with another HD put that as PRI 2 - burner as SECOND 2.
Easiest way i find is set all devices to CABLE SELECT, then move around as
required (don't have to worry about jumpers then if you move/change/add a
drive.
HTH JOnmaC

My understanding is that the "faster" drive has to be the primary device on
the channel. That being the case, I would assume that the rom drive would be
the primary drive with the burner being the secondary?

Craig

 

[kony]

My understanding is that the "faster" drive has to be the primary device on
the channel.

No it does not.

 

[Craig]

Craig & Dee:

This is simply not so. I and my colleagues routinely build computers that
are equipped with two optical drives - a CD/DVD-ROM and a CD/DVD recorder.
We find there's an enormous speed improvement in the time it takes to copy a
CD or DVD from the reading drive to the recording drive when compared to
using a single reading/recording device for this function. Assuming you have
the necessary bays to accommodate the two drives, it's really the way to go.
Especially when you consider that the CD/DVD-ROM drives are so cheap
nowadays -- I've seen them selling routinely on sale in the Office stores
for as little as $9.95.

Art

That was my plan. While I haven't seen cd\dvd-rom drives for that price,
I've seen them in the $20-30 range. So I planned to mainly use the rom drive
for playing cd's doing installs and such. I figured to wear out that drive
instead of having just a burner and wearing that out prematurely.

 

[JonMaC]

My understanding is that the "faster" drive has to be the primary device on
the channel. That being the case, I would assume that the rom drive would be
the primary drive with the burner being the secondary?

Craig

The faster drive does not 'have' to be on Primary channel - virtually any
combination whould work - experiment and see which is better configuration,
if any, for you.
JonMaC

 

[Craig]

No it does not.

does that apply to just optical or hard drives also.