Adding New Hdd And Dvd Writer

[Skillian]

/treads nervously into Hardwareworld...

To cut to the chase, my current setup is:

Primary IDE

Master - HDD (40 GB)
Slave - DVD-ROM

Secondary IDE

Master - CD Writer
Slave - none

I am soon to be getting a DVD writer and a second HDD (200 GB) which is faster than my old HDD, so I will be using that as my primary drive with Windows on it. My question is firstly which drive should I get rid of, the CD writer or the DVD ROM? I won't really need either anymore, but I'll probably keep one, not least because I have no blanking plates.

Secondly, how should I set it up? At the moment I'm thinking:

Primary IDE

Master - HDD (200 GB)
Slave - old CD Writer

Secondary IDE

Master - DVD Writer
Slave - old HDD (40 GB)

Does this seem suitable? Sorry for the long-winded question, I hope I'm making sense as I'm kind of a newbie to the insides of my PC.

edit: In case it matters, P4 1.8, WinXP Home, MSI-6534 mobo, 768MB PC133 SDRAM.

[Mr. Elmo]

get rid of the cd writer and keep the dvd rom becuz u can copy dvd...and the dvd writer can burn cd also.


y make the 200GB drive be the one w/ windows....just make the current one which already has window installed be the primary and the slave is the 200gB

so

PRIMARY IDE

master 40GB (window installed)
Slave 200GB for your media

SECONDARY IDE
master dvd rom
slave: dvd writer

[TheFilePirater]

like elmo said, dont put an optical drive on a same channel as hdd, it slows the hdd down

[Skillian]

Thanks for replies.

I had heard it's not a good idea to put two optical devices on the same channel as it can cause conflicts, especially recording directly from one drive to the other. I also heard its a good idea to put the writer as a master to minimise errors - do these ring true?

Also I wanted to put Windows, programs etc. on the 200GB HDD as it is a 7200 rpm 8MB cache, as opposed to my current drive which is 5200 rpm 2MB cache. I figure this will increase performance?

[tesco]

I would make it

master:
new hdd (with windows for performance)
old hdd(media files)

secondary:
dvd burner
dvd reader

(although if i wanted to copy a cd i wouldnt copy on the fly form the dvd to the burner because usually the copy protection makes it not burn properly for me so i use clone cd to copy the files to my hard drive then burn the image to a cd.)

[clocker]

Originally posted by ROSSCO_2004@4 January 2004 - 14:27
I would make it

master:
new hdd (with windows for performance)
old hdd(media files)

secondary:
dvd burner
dvd reader

I think that this arrangement is the best.
I copy directly from my DVD-ROM to my CD-RW all the time with no problems.

[**GASHA**]

primary:
master:new hdd (with windows for performance)
slavelder hdd(media files)

secondary:
master:dvd burner
slave:dvd reader

I have the exact same setup and have not had any problems burning etc etc etc.

[Skillian]

OK I think that's how I'll do it then. Thanks for your help everyone

Just to double check because I'm paranoid, you mean this right?

PRIMARY IDE

Master - new HDD
Slave - old HDD

SECONDARY IDE

Master - DVD burner
Slave - DVD reader

edit: my copy of Windows is a recovery CD (ie came with a pre-built PC) so will it install OK on a completely new drive? I have formatted and installed previously with the old HDD and all was OK.

[tesco]

yes thats perfect

[**GASHA**]

Yes