Hi, my PC's 2 IDE channels are both in use leaving me unable to connect anything further to them. So here's my problem, does a 4 way IDE cable exist as opposed to the regular 3 way? Basically i'm trying to fit a slave HDD to up the capacity as opposed to upgrading my existing HDD. Are my attempts futile? Cheers, Bob.
This was the 3rd hit when I googled "4 ide card", but you may have to search a bit more extensively to find a card with user configurable address so you can use it alongside the onboard IDE!
What abouting using firewire/usb instead?
You need to fit an expansion card. Common ones allow 4 devices.
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*Failure is not an option. It's bundled with your software.
Dave Plowman dave@davenoise.co.uk London SW
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Nope. The reason being that a standard IDE port can only handle 2 devices.
Add-in card. I'd go with a SATA card and SATA drives.
If you already have four devices on your IDE chanells then you will have to use a PCI expansion card or USB external unit. If you go for the PCI expansion card then you may have trouble with the PSU which is undoubtedly already struggling with the existing four devices. The best route would be an external USB device that has it's own power.
Yeah but USB is so slow compared to having the drive hooked up the the IDE bus..
- Mike
Most computers have two IDE channels (Primary and Secondary), each of which can handle two devices (Device 0 and Device 1). Have you used up all four device positions?
Bill ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
JW wrote:
USB 2.0 is pretty quick, probably just as fast as the IDE on an old motherboard. I would say go with SATA though.
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