Ultra ATA PCI 133 cards

[Dave Phillips]

I have two hard drives already, a 52x CDRW and a DVD-ROm drive. I have
purchased a DVD writer and I want to have all five drives in my system.

I am using Windows XP......will it automatically recognize one of these
Ultra ATA 133 PCI cards? Or do I have to install the software that comes
with it???


Dave

 

[John]

I have two hard drives already, a 52x CDRW and a DVD-ROm drive. I have
purchased a DVD writer and I want to have all five drives in my system.

I am using Windows XP......will it automatically recognize one of these
Ultra ATA 133 PCI cards? Or do I have to install the software that comes
with it???

You need the drivers that come with it.
My Maxtor/Promise wouldnt bootup when I added the card.

This is usual - the basic ide controllers tend to be OK - bootup with
the special drivers but the addon ones builtin or added with a card
can lock your system up and bluescreen unless you bootup in safemode
and then install the drivers or pick install extra drivers during
installation of XP. Unfortunately even this hasnt worked recently -
wouldnt go into safe mode for some reason and I had to dump WIN xp
again over the old WIN XP to make it work since I didnt want to
reformat my drive with all the data still on it.

You have to put the HDs on the card since most cards/addons dont work
well with ATAPI devices. Ive read some claims they do but Ive always
had weird problems with it so I avoid it. Tested it many times - since
my last 3 boards had extra IDE connectors and Im running the ASUS
deluxe Nforce board with the maxtor card.

The other thing is you have to set your mb bios to boot up with the
card. Usually its under other devices or something.

Anoither thing - this may not be typical but Ive had slightly erratic
performance lately whenever I change anything. Like the Maxtor card
wouldnt bootup no matter what I did for about an hour while I futzed
around with it and then suddenly it did and had no problems with it
since. I dont know why but the last two baords Ive had they seem to
have to adjust or something and then they work. Could it be corrosion
or something? I dont know I live by the sea in a super humid
environment. Not sure if this has an effect or not.

Dont let that scare you away though. Overall its very easy and I like
to have lots of devices since I dont like to wear my DVD burner out -
I have a separate DVD reader and a CD burner too.

 

[kony]

I have two hard drives already, a 52x CDRW and a DVD-ROm drive. I have
purchased a DVD writer and I want to have all five drives in my system.

I am using Windows XP......will it automatically recognize one of these
Ultra ATA 133 PCI cards? Or do I have to install the software that comes
with it???


Dave

It may recognize the card, but you still need the driver.

If your motherboard's IDE ports are ATA100 or better and it's a
semi-modern chipset (uses DDR memory), try running the optical drives
from the PCI card, since ATA100 onboard is faster than ATA133 over a
PCI bus.

IF the opticals act funny on the PCI card then you'd need to switch
the HDDs to it, but often they work fine... the system I'm typing on
right now has 3 opticals attached to a Promise ATA133 onboard
controller, though it started out as a RAID controller and was hacked
into an Ultra133 to work with ATAPI devices.


Dave


Dave

 

[DaveW]

You'll have to install the driver software.