It shouldn't matter... but it does.

If you have a typical PC, you have a dual IDE controller with two channels. Each supports a master and slave device. Ideally, your root drive (C) contains your operating system and should be on the master of your primary IDE channel with the second drive a slave.

Now it gets sticky...

If you bought both drives around the same time and they are the same make such a configuration should present no problems. However if your present main drive is several years old rather small and now you add a new, bigger, faster drive as a slave on the primary channel making it a "slave" of the older drive that's the "master" the result can mean slower performance. Again, depends on the drives. Some set up this way will only run at the transfer rate of the slowest drive, in this case your old master.

Your best option likely is to install the new larger drive as "master" on the secondary channel. Have your CD drive DVD drives as "slaves" to either.

If your motherboard is also showing its age, and you bought the latest technology and/or a really big new drive it may require its own NEW IDE controller card. If you don't install that and run your new drive off the newer 133 type card, it still may function, but not nearly at its rated speed.

Don't forget to also use the newer 80 wire IDE connector cable.

What's video editing specific is it makes sense to have a seperate physical drive (not just a seperate drive letter and a partition of a drive) as a dedicated drive which should ensure problem free and greatly reduce the 'drop frame' problem when capturing or printing to tape which can happen with some configurations.

Since you said your 120g is faster, I wouldn't put it on the same bus as your 40g system drive. If they were the same ata mode, I would put the 120g as a slave on the primary IDE, with the atapi (cd, dvd) devices on the secondary IDE.

In an ideal situation, I would put the capture drive as a secondary master, except I would not put an atapi device on as a slave, because they are rarely the same ata mode and tend to slow down everything on that channel.

I now have an HD 40 GB IDE 5400rpm, and have bought a Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9, 133 MB/s, 7200rpm, cache 8 MB, access 9 ms.

What is you advice Billy Boy (or anyone else)? Can I have my 40 GB on "C:\"?

Go with BillyBoy's advice: Put the new drive as a Master on the Secondary IDE channel, and keep your existing hard disk as the C:\ drive with all the programs on it.

This is what I did several years ago when I first started editing. I was editing on a 450 MHz PC and things were a little flaky before I added the large hard disk. However, when I added the new hard disk on the secondary IDE channel, I never had another dropped frame, and never had another problem (at least not related to disk drives).

Well lets see, yes, leave your 40 GB as C.

Now...That Maxtor Diamonmax Plus is exactly the kind of drive I was referring too. It should be on a SEPERATE 133 IDE CARD unless you have a motherboard that supports that speed. Depending on where you bought your card it may or may not come with the 133 card. Mine did in the box. If you buy retail you should see a little sticker on the box saying as much.

Can this drive work with your other drives on the regular IDE controller?

Yes, but not as fast or as well as it will on the card made for it. This is a blistering fast drive. It needs a newer IDE card to work at its best.

Some info on the card:

http://www.epinions.com/prI_O_Boards_Host_Adapters_Maxtor_Ultra_ATA_133_PCI_Adapter_Card_IDE_EIDE_Storage_Controller_K01PCAT133

master or slave?

That's kind of a personal question for this board, don't you think?

I agree with Billy. I would get an add-on card (Promise) that supports the higher speed and put the drive on it. Besides, you will want additional "master" availability for more hard drives later.

Harddrives are an addiction (I now have two 120 gig harddrives, two 200 gig harddrives, plus a removable harddrive (80 gig) that I swap with another for large project backups. The removable tray's and original case are only $20 (with 2 built-in HD fans, and additional tray's are only $12.

Before I saw that you got the drive, I was going to recommend that you do not get a 120 gig, but get a WD 200 gig at Fry's (only $99 with rebates). This HD comes with a promise card that supports 4 more IDE (only 2 masters (which is all I use for my harddrives--except one slave for the backup). The card also supports more than 137 gig, although I would only run 200 if you have XP (ME, etc. supports the 200 with the card, but certian utilities don't work (such as defrag)--which is useless, so I would partition the drive 135/53 in such a case).

Whenever adding harddrives, remember to watch the heat. I have 4 of my drives behind 2 of the front fans that blow air across and keep them cool.

Fry's must be out of the package deals. I couldn't find any WD 200GB with an IDE card. And a rebate that drops it down to $99?

JBJones

It was labor day. Even still, I got one for $129 during a normal sale (about every 2 weeks).

It was labor day. Even still, I got one for $129 during a normal sale (about every 2 weeks).

I use 7200 RPM drives. 80 Gig for master, and 120 for slave. I put video on 120 Gig drive. My DVD writer and CD writer are master and slave on second ide channe. Works fine. If I had a slower master drive, I would put data drive as master on second ide channel and make DVD and CD writers slaves.

Putting CD and DVD drives on the same bus as HDs is not a good idea as they are typically IDE 33 which will slow the other device down to that speed.

If you cannot config you system so that all the fast drives are on the one bus then buy a separate IDE controller, they are pretty cheap compared to HDs.

One other tip with the new fast drives, try to keep the cool, an extra little fan helps a lot. If you can figure out how add some ait filtration, its amazing how much lint gets into the electronics and blocks the airflow.

I'm trying to organise things so that I have postive air pressure inside the case and that's fed by filtered air. With negative air pressure in there you find that your CD and DVD drives are acting as air filters, not a good look.

It's common thought that an ATAPI device on the same channel will slow down a hard drive. This is not always the case. In informal testing on my system, there was no slowdown whatsoever as long as the CD drive was not accessed. Others have found the same thing. Of course, if it IS accessed, yeah - major slowdown.

Hard drives work the same way. Given a fast channel & cable, a slower device on that channel shouldn't matter, IF it's not being accessed. For this reason, I put hard drives on separate channels, as it's common for me to access both at the same time. Also remember that ATA66 is as fast as you need to be (for now, anyway). The mechanicals of 7200 RPM hard drives can't even saturate that interface, so ATA100 & ATA133 is unnecessary. Nice if you have it, but don't sweat it if you don't.

Older systems DID dumb down to the lowest common denominator on IDE channels, but newer ones have seperate timings.

This is my experience, anyway.