How well does the PCI IDE add on work

[BR7]

How well does the PCI IDE add on work?

[Chewy]

they work great for hard drives but real iffy for atapi drives

as katz found out tho they are a pain during a reload

anytime you can have more drives and have 1 drive/1 cable, things are going to speed up to their maximum potential.


what are you wanting to do?

[katzdvd]

as katz found out tho they are a pain during a reload

No kidding

I have seen posts where users have found "stable" cards to use, but I don't rem. which ones they are. Maybe Chewy has a better recollection than I do.

I am running 2 1650's on my card, & I finally got everything working well (I think), but I dread the time when I need to reformat the system!

I think a bit of my problem came from not really understanding how to set it up properly - I didn't have any prev. experience with them, & the whole raid/stripe/mirror thing had me a bit confused!

Follow Chewy's (& Lightning UK) lead!

regards, katz : - ()

[Chewy]

It's really a lot easier than it sounds, make sure you understand the boot options in bios. The idea is to free up your motherboard ide controllers for your atapi drives and use the pci controller for hard drives. Getting the system drive to boot from the controller card can be as simple as just loading the driver after installing the card then hooking the drive up to the card.

For a clean install you have to have a floppy to load the driver from, and it's better to have no other hard drives hooked up at the same time, that was
katz's downfall. He's got system files on a non-active drive??

[katzdvd]

The idea is to free up your motherboard ide controllers for your atapi drives and use the pci controller for hard drives

that was
katz's downfall. He's got system files on a non-active drive??

Yep, that's true; I thought I had wiped the drive clean, but when I viewed the "hidden" files, sure enough they were there.

The HD (2) that I had on the PCI card were only being used for storage; My boot drive was the new Segate SATA 250 GB; that's what was kind of throwing me off; I thought the sys. should boot from the SATA drive without looking at the storage drives on the PCI card, & seeing the system files on one of them.

If it boots from the SATA drive ok with that same (storage) drive connected to IDE 1 on the mobo, why do I have problems when I put them on the card?

[Chewy]

1. boot system drive must be set active
2. in a clean install it's safest to only have that hard drive hooked up
3. any old drives with system files should be cleaned up
4. windows defaults to installing on an ide drive before a sata if I understand the problem?
been there, done that, that's how I deleted a 160 gig data partition by mistake one day, don't want to go there again, painful memories

[katzdvd]

4. windows defaults to installing on an ide drive before a sata if I understand the problem?
been there, done that, that's how I deleted a 160 gig data partition by mistake one day, don't want to go there again, painful memories

Yes, that is/was the problem - except...

I thought the sys. should boot from the SATA drive without looking at the storage drives on the PCI card, & seeing the system files on one of them.

To recap; The SATA drive has xp on it which boots & runs fine; The IDE drive (storage) USED to have windows on it, which I deleted, but I don't believe I actually formatted it, so I guess that is why the hidden system files still reside there.

SO - I am not talking about problems during an installl; I am talking about a drive (SATA) that already has windows installed on it.

It will boot fine from the SATA drive as long as the storage drive with the sys. files are on the IDE 1 mobo, but if I switch that storage drive to the pci card, that is when the pc sees the sys. files on it, & I get the "NTLDR missing" message.

I believe I wrote it in a confusing way in the prev. post, I hope I explained it better now!

BTW, I noticed BR7 hasn't been back; I hope we didn't scare him off with my issues!

[jm1647]

I'm not booting from the PCI card, I still have my 2 DVD drives on the IDE secondary channel and 2 PATA drives on the primary. I have a Maxtor SATA/150 PCI card with 2 SATA and 2 PATA drives on it in 1 of my boxes. No problems at all. My present MOBO does not support SATA drives and I have 2 SATA II 3GBS drives on it until I update my mobo.

[BR7]

BTW, I noticed BR7 hasn't been back; I hope we didn't scare him off with my issues!

LOL No you didn't scare me off I was catching up an some Z's .The reason I was asking was because I was thinking of using one so my burners don't have to share the same cable.I am trying to figure out why I am not getting the great burns like I used to my PIF's are always hitting 20000+.Even my 004 Verbs are doing this.I can't be this unlucky in getting bad batches of discs

[NightTran]

LOL No you didn't scare me off I was catching up an some Z's .The reason I was asking was because I was thinking of using one so my burners don't have to share the same cable.I am trying to figure out why I am not getting the great burns like I used to my PIF's are always hitting 20000+.Even my 004 Verbs are doing this.I can't be this unlucky in getting bad batches of discs

only 10% are from program and component, 90% are from your media, as soon as I saw Chewy's post some TY 03 's scan I bought so much TY 02

[BR7]

I will be glad when my TYG02's get here on the 3rd

[Chewy]

going to bestbuy tommorrow for the 28 cent verbs

[jm1647]

going to bestbuy tommorrow for the 28 cent verbs

004's?

[Chewy]

25 packs dvd+r, luck of the draw to how good they will be

but I am hooked on bitsetting

[katzdvd]

I was thinking of using one so my burners don't have to share the same cable.I am trying to figure out why I am not getting the great burns like I used to my PIF's are always hitting 20000+.Even my 004 Verbs are doing this.I can't be this unlucky in getting bad batches of discs

only 10% are from program and component, 90% are from your media,

I agree with Night, although my experiences are not as in depth as his.

I have;
(2) 1655s set up as slave/burner on IDE 1 mobo
(2) 1650s set up as slave/burner on PCI card 1

I regularly do Queue burns with Imgburn, & I have no issues with that setup, works great & very nice scans; I will post some if I ever get a chance!

Chewy, that's why I am hesitant to change it; it is working okay now, for the most part, & it seems like when I try to connect something differently, I usually end up creating about 3 more problems in the process!

But I will dive into it one day though, maybe when the holiday rush settles down & I get a free moment!

katz