IDE

Associate
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Hi there. Quick question really. Errm....If I have only one IDE cable and wish to use both a IDE HDD and my CDROM Drive, Would I be able to achive this using only the one cable with both devices connected? I have already tried doing so but have met a problem. On boot I get told to check cable which I have done and everything seems fine but once I remove one of the devices it is able to boot whether that be the HDD or a CDROM.

.....OOOOOoooo and one more question. :D On the post screen It keeps saying CMOS Checksum error and I have to re-do my BIOS settings everytime I Reboot, Why does it do this? :D
 
Soldato
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Yes, but on IDE one item has to be master & the other slave, i.e. change the jumpers on the back of hard disk & optical drive accordingly or to Cable Select & let the motherboard decide. Note: Its not advisable to share an IDE Cable between HD & optical drive, affects performance & if latter's a Writer (CD-R/RW & or DVD±R/RW), burning reliability might be affected.

CMOS Checksum error, you overclocking by-any-chance? If not could be a CMOS battery on its way out amongst other things. Helps if you give full spec of machine especially make of mobo to help diagnose your problems.

hp7909 :cool:
 
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Man of Honour
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I'd have to disagree about affecting performance in terms of speed, it hasn't mattered for years but obviously you can't both read and write at the same time. This is the problem with using two devices on the same IDE chain and that is why read/write on an optical drive may be affected.

The rest is correct though :)
 
Associate
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semi-pro waster said:
I'd have to disagree about affecting performance in terms of speed, it hasn't mattered for years but obviously you can't both read and write at the same time. This is the problem with using two devices on the same IDE chain and that is why read/write on an optical drive may be affected.

The rest is correct though :)

It's not so much of an issue, but it does matter. If you've got an ATA66 optical drive and an ATA100 or 133 HD on the same cable, your HD is going to drop down to ATA66. This is obviously still plenty fast enough for most tasks, but those interested in max performance are not going to appreciate it!

BTW STFU, the problems you are reporting... the optical drive isn't by any chance a Pioneer DVD-RW?
 
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OP
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Okay, I've now forgotten about the whole IDE Drive and am now using a Maxtor 200Gb SATA Drive instead. My Specs,

Motherboard: Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
HDD: Maxtor 200Gb SATA
CDROM: Dunno, It's a DVDROM Drive. :confused:

My New Problem. My comp dont seem to detect that the SATA drive exsists, I put in my Windows CD to install the OS and it comes up with a message "Windows can not detect any Hard Disc Drive, Please Check all cables Blagh, Blagh, Blagh....." I've checked them and everything is connected propperly, the Drive works in my other computer aswell. Any Ideas? :confused:
 
Soldato
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Hit F6 on the install to install the drivers for it, if they came on a CD you'll proberly need to copy them onto a floppy.

Once you have the drivers on the floppy hit F6 on the windows install and windows will/should grab the drivers if you have made the disk correctly. I say it like that because i bodged it up my first time, luckily 4 other PC's in the house to grab stuff on.

Though i'd advise grabbing the latest ones off the website, one because they'll be newer, and two because they'll come either as an exe (executable, ie.. application) that makes the disk for you, or they'll just come as a bunch of files you whack straight onto the disk.
 
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