SCSI/IDE questions

[lee551]

a friend recently gave me his computer to install a new harddrive. when i opened up the case i noticed that the hdd & the burner were scsi. the cable runs from the burner, to the hdd to a card that is plugged into a pci slot. is that just a scsi controller card? why would someone have done that when there are plenty of ide cables with nothing to do?

the other cd-rom & floppy are the only ide devices connected. i dont think it's really worth it to stick a high-sized hdd into this machine. i think its a 700mhz cpu and is older than old. i'll probably tell him to just get a new machine.

the thing i was really wondering is if it's ok to mix scsi & ide stuff like that? it seems like its just more work thats not necessary. :huh:

[tesco]

yes it's ok to mix. I'd just go for it not really any point in buying a new computer if that one suits him fine. ;)

But are you sure they're scsi drives? it could just be a pci ide controller card (not sure why they would use that). You can tell by the size of teh connectors...are they just like ide or are they wider, fatter plugs?

[lee551]

the cable said SCSI LVD/SE, so i assumed from that. the plugs are a little shorter, and have pins instead of ide's connectors.

i'll have to go with an ide hdd also b/c large scsi drives are expensive.

[tesco]

the cable said SCSI LVD/SE, so i assumed from that. the plugs are a little shorter, and have pins instead of ide's connectors.
alright that's scsi then. :P

[lee551]

:lol: ok. well now that that is established, why would someone have done that?

i'm gunna be ordering this (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-148-022&depa=0) new drive for it.

[SingaBoiy]

They could have used SCSI cause they are capable of faster speeds and better performance.

Dont get that hd. You can get 160's for ~$80 from newegg ;)

2 MB (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-145-062&depa=1)
8 MB (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-152-014&depa=1)

[lee551]

They could have used SCSI cause they are capable of faster speeds and better performance.

Dont get that hd. You can get 160's for ~$80 from newegg ;)

2 MB (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-145-062&depa=1)
8 MB (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-152-014&depa=1)

thanks for the nfo. :cool2:

[lynx]

WARNING

Some early machines can not boot from SCSI drives if there is an IDE drive present. This is usually because the SCSI drive can not be drive C when an IDE drive is installed.

Check to make sure that you can set the boot order (which usually sorts out which is drive C) otherwise you will have to re-install onto the IDE drive in order to get it to boot.

[lee551]

i'm planning on a reformat+xp install on the new drive and maybe throwing the scsi on as a slave. i dont even know if its worth keeping it in the case for ~8GB of space. i think 160GB will be enuf for my friend.

thanks for the nfo lynx :cool: