New Hard Drive, 3 HD on one cable?

Raptor · Feb 13, 2006, 10:30 PM

Just purchased a 300gb HD and want to add it to my rig in a storage/slave capacity. My mobo (Asus P4C-800 Deluxe) has hookups for two Sata drives and two IDE Drives and my ribbon cable from the Primary IDE cable is a 3 head cable. I need a four head cable (I guess) to use and access 3 ATA/133 HD's. Can't use the Secondary ide plug as it's being used for the dvd rom burner.
Is having 3 HD's on one cable ok? The new HD is a 16mb buffer, 7200rpm Maxtor.

TIA

Exceededgoku · Feb 13, 2006, 10:37 PM

you should be able to use it on the same cable as the dvd rom burner... here shouldn't be a problem with that.

Raptor · Feb 13, 2006, 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Exceededgoku

you should be able to use it on the same cable as the dvd rom burner... here shouldn't be a problem with that.

Tried that but the dvd rom is at the top of the case and the HD bay is at the bottom. Won't reach.

Nacht · Feb 14, 2006, 12:26 AM

AFAIK IDE only supports a master and slave drive per each cable/channel

I would say move your HDDs over to SATA. If you can't return the drive or don't want to, you can buy a IDE to SATA converter for it.

Pluvious · Feb 14, 2006, 12:41 AM

Leave your C drive as master on ONE of the IDE channels/cables.(Ie. Primary) Make the 2nd harddrive a slave by moving the pins and then plug it into that same IDE channel/cable. This will free up the secondary IDE channel/cable and you can put your new drive as master (no pin change) on that cable.

Matth · Feb 14, 2006, 05:04 PM

So the SATA are unused and you bought a 3rd ATA drive

The motherboard also apparently has an extra ATA port, driven by the Promise controller (usable ONLY for hard disks).

Use SATA converters (better to buy SATA drives), or use the 3rd IDE port. You cannot install 3 IDE drives on a single cable.

OldBuzzard · Feb 14, 2006, 05:59 PM

Another option would be to get a Promise Ultra133 TX2 controller card. It will give you support for up to 4 more ATA drives.

Raptor · Feb 14, 2006, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matth

So the SATA are unused and you bought a 3rd ATA drive

The motherboard also apparently has an extra ATA port, driven by the Promise controller (usable ONLY for hard disks).

Use SATA converters (better to buy SATA drives), or use the 3rd IDE port. You cannot install 3 IDE drives on a single cable.

I got it for $99 Matth so I will use it

Didn't know about the 2 drive restriction though so ya got me there.

Thanks all for the help

Pluvious · Feb 14, 2006, 08:25 PM

Not 2 .. 3 drive restriction. You can have 2 drives on one cable. Either Primary or Secondary making up to 4 IDE drives at once. If you put your 2 old drives to Primary IDE channel and put the new on the Secondary channel alone.. it should work fine.

Matth · Feb 15, 2006, 03:37 PM

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=1814&p=2
According to the motherboard review, there is an extra IDE port driven by the onboard Promise (RAID) controller - looks like it's the blue one facing off the edge of the board. Should be possible to use in non-RAID (JBOD) mode.

So each IDE can have a Master and a Slave drive, and there are 3 IDE ports.
There are also 2 sata ports driven by the chipset, and 2 driven by the Promise controller - those could be used with SATA converters on IDE drives.

**dj_stick** · Feb 15, 2006, 10:02 PM

3 drive IDE cables haven't been used since the days of the 486/pentium iirc, back when each drive was accessed via an "address" rather than the current ATA method

Raptor · Feb 15, 2006, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dj_stick

3 drive IDE cables haven't been used since the days of the 486/pentium iirc, back when each drive was accessed via an "address" rather than the current ATA method

That would probably explain why I could'nt find one to buy in any of the catalog's I checked.

Thanks for the explanation. Much appreciated.

Pluvious · Feb 15, 2006, 11:46 PM

Why do you need to buy a new cable?.. Your new drive has a new IDE cable included. You only need 2 cables.

edit: opps didn't read this sentence "Can't use the Secondary ide plug as it's being used for the dvd rom burner." before.

Dyre Straits · Feb 16, 2006, 12:22 AM

I'm a little bit puzzled as to why you can't install that new HD right beneath the DVD drive? Isn't there an empty drive bay near the DVD drive? If so, you can get a brackets kit that allows you to install that new HD right in an empty CD/DVD drive bay. Then just about any ribbon cable will reach both.

Check out the options:

http://store.yahoo.com/cablesonline/indrivmounki.html

Feb 13, 2006, 10:30 PM	#1
Raptor DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: California USA Posts: 464 Rep Power: 0	New Hard Drive, 3 HD on one cable? Just purchased a 300gb HD and want to add it to my rig in a storage/slave capacity. My mobo (Asus P4C-800 Deluxe) has hookups for two Sata drives and two IDE Drives and my ribbon cable from the Primary IDE cable is a 3 head cable. I need a four head cable (I guess) to use and access 3 ATA/133 HD's. Can't use the Secondary ide plug as it's being used for the dvd rom burner. Is having 3 HD's on one cable ok? The new HD is a 16mb buffer, 7200rpm Maxtor. TIA __________________ [COLOR=Green][COLOR=DarkOrange] P4C-800 DELUXE/P4 3.4 NORTHWOOD/2 GB CORSAIR PC3200/X850XTPE/2 300 GB MAXTOR HD'S/LOGITECH G5/LOGITECH Z-5500/CREATIVE XFI EXTREME MUSIC/MS 4000 KEYBOARD/Vizio VX37L HDTV/Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD and Toshiba HD-XA1/Oppo HV970HD SACD/DVD-A universal player/Xbox 360/Sony PS3. [/COLOR][/COLOR]

Feb 13, 2006, 10:37 PM	#2
Exceededgoku DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Lincolnshire, UK Posts: 87 Rep Power: 0	you should be able to use it on the same cable as the dvd rom burner... here shouldn't be a problem with that. __________________ Vista Ultimate x64 edition rocks my world! Makes XP (and lower) look like dried poo stains on the wall! Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 3.2Ghz (400Mhzx8) 1.52V (set in bios, 1.47v real) \| 2GB GeIL PC6400 4-4-4-12 @ 1000Mhz 5-5-5-15 \| Gigabyte DQ6 @ 1600Mhz \| Sapphire 512MB X1900XTX @ 689/774 \| Enermax Liberty 620W \| Silverstone TJ07-B with custom watercooling \| Dell 2005FPW 3dmark05 - 13140 \| 3dmark06 - 6698 \| SuperPi 1M - 15s

Feb 14, 2006, 12:41 AM	#5
Pluvious Elisha = hottie Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: USA CA. SF Bay Area Posts: 1,318 Rep Power: 0	Leave your C drive as master on ONE of the IDE channels/cables.(Ie. Primary) Make the 2nd harddrive a slave by moving the pins and then plug it into that same IDE channel/cable. This will free up the secondary IDE channel/cable and you can put your new drive as master (no pin change) on that cable. __________________

Feb 14, 2006, 05:59 PM	#7
OldBuzzard DH's oldest Geek Join Date: May 2003 Location: Oberlin, OH Posts: 2,781 Rep Power: 142 System Specs	Another option would be to get a Promise Ultra133 TX2 controller card. It will give you support for up to 4 more ATA drives. __________________ When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

Feb 14, 2006, 08:25 PM	#9
Pluvious Elisha = hottie Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: USA CA. SF Bay Area Posts: 1,318 Rep Power: 0	Not 2 .. 3 drive restriction. You can have 2 drives on one cable. Either Primary or Secondary making up to 4 IDE drives at once. If you put your 2 old drives to Primary IDE channel and put the new on the Secondary channel alone.. it should work fine. __________________

Feb 14, 2006, 12:26 AM	#4
Nacht ein Krieger Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Clemson Uni Posts: 3,127 Rep Power: 0	AFAIK IDE only supports a master and slave drive per each cable/channel I would say move your HDDs over to SATA. If you can't return the drive or don't want to, you can buy a IDE to SATA converter for it.

Feb 14, 2006, 05:04 PM	#6
Matth Flash Banner Hater Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: UK Posts: 3,426 Rep Power: 93 System Specs	So the SATA are unused and you bought a 3rd ATA drive The motherboard also apparently has an extra ATA port, driven by the Promise controller (usable ONLY for hard disks). Use SATA converters (better to buy SATA drives), or use the 3rd IDE port. You cannot install 3 IDE drives on a single cable.

Feb 15, 2006, 03:37 PM	#10
Matth Flash Banner Hater Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: UK Posts: 3,426 Rep Power: 93 System Specs	http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=1814&p=2 According to the motherboard review, there is an extra IDE port driven by the onboard Promise (RAID) controller - looks like it's the blue one facing off the edge of the board. Should be possible to use in non-RAID (JBOD) mode. So each IDE can have a Master and a Slave drive, and there are 3 IDE ports. There are also 2 sata ports driven by the chipset, and 2 driven by the Promise controller - those could be used with SATA converters on IDE drives.

Feb 15, 2006, 11:46 PM	#13
Pluvious Elisha = hottie Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: USA CA. SF Bay Area Posts: 1,318 Rep Power: 0	Why do you need to buy a new cable?.. Your new drive has a new IDE cable included. You only need 2 cables. edit: opps didn't read this sentence "Can't use the Secondary ide plug as it's being used for the dvd rom burner." before. __________________ Last edited by Pluvious; Feb 16, 2006 at 12:50 AM.

Feb 16, 2006, 12:22 AM	#14
Dyre Straits HH Old Fuddy Duddy Join Date: May 2002 Location: Georgia, USA Posts: 14,193 Rep Power: 216 System Specs	I'm a little bit puzzled as to why you can't install that new HD right beneath the DVD drive? Isn't there an empty drive bay near the DVD drive? If so, you can get a brackets kit that allows you to install that new HD right in an empty CD/DVD drive bay. Then just about any ribbon cable will reach both. Check out the options: http://store.yahoo.com/cablesonline/indrivmounki.html