Hd Confusion

[MaiPenLai]

Hi, I wonder if someone in the forum can tell me if it is ok to run 2 different hard drive types on the same computer.

I currently have an : AMD Athalon 3000+

1 GIG of Kingston Ram DDR 400

Seagate Barracuda, ST380011A, 7200 RPM, 80GB drive, It is an Ultra ATA/100

NVIDIA GeForce 6800XT Video card

Motherboard is a DFI board model number DNF4DAGE

Running Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 ( Build 2600 )

I have the PDF file for the board and it shows 4 connections for SATA drives as well as the native IDE/EIDE drive currently in computer specs above. The board also supports SCSI and RAID but I am just a normal user with a small home network so I prefer cheaper options. What it does not specifiy is IF I can run different types of drives at the same time or will this cause some sort of problem. I guess it is commonly understood by most people but I have no idea at all ?

What I need to do is add a 250 GB drive and I don't understand SATA technology so I am not sure if it is a good idea to buy a SATA drive OR add a slave to the existing master, another ATA drive.

Windows hardware shows the following controllers:

IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers

NVIDIA nForce4 AMDA Controller

NVIDIA nForce4 AMDA Controller

NVIDIA NForce4 Parallel ATA Controller

SCSI and RAID controllers

SCSI/RAID Host Controller

As I said I guess that many people know if it is ok to mix and match drives, But I have never used the newer SATA drives. Also I have never owned a motherboard that was so elaborate in it's controls and features.

I am thanking the group in advance for any help with best solutions.

MAIPENLAI

[kayo]

far as I know different drives can run off a computer, no probs. but what do I know. tywais is better in this dept.

[Tywais]

It's not a problem mixing drive technologies on the same mainboard. My office computer I have a 250GB SATA drive and an 80GB IDE drive in the same box. The 80GB was a spare and added it to do backups to. I would recommend getting SATA since that is the mainstream interface now and in the near to distant future. So, just put the SATA drive in and connect the cable to the mainboard. You will need a SATA power cable connection or an adapter to supply power to the SATA drive. This will depend on your power supply or if the drive or mainboard comes with the adapter (most likely the mainboard will have it).

[MaiPenLai]

It's not a problem mixing drive technologies on the same mainboard. My office computer I have a 250GB SATA drive and an 80GB IDE drive in the same box. The 80GB was a spare and added it to do backups to. I would recommend getting SATA since that is the mainstream interface now and in the near to distant future. So, just put the SATA drive in and connect the cable to the mainboard. You will need a SATA power cable connection or an adapter to supply power to the SATA drive. This will depend on your power supply or if the drive comes with the adapter.

Thank you for your lightning fast response gentlemen ( assumption ) kayo and tywais.

MAIPANLAI

[Jing-jo]

It's not a problem mixing drive technologies on the same mainboard. My office computer I have a 250GB SATA drive and an 80GB IDE drive in the same box. The 80GB was a spare and added it to do backups to. I would recommend getting SATA since that is the mainstream interface now and in the near to distant future. So, just put the SATA drive in and connect the cable to the mainboard. You will need a SATA power cable connection or an adapter to supply power to the SATA drive. This will depend on your power supply or if the drive comes with the adapter.

Thank you for your lightning fast response gentlemen ( assumption ) kayo and tywais.

MAIPANLAI

Hi

the easiest option will be to buy an external pata(thats an ide type ) drive that you connect by USB 2.0 all you would need is an external usb 2.0 cable which usually comes with the complete drive,in the uk now they are @£55

the cheapest option is to but an ide and put it inside @£40 just remember to set it to slave on the jumper pins

hope this helps

[guardian]

I've got 3 HDD on my PC. Either 2 SATA and 1 IDE or 1 SATA and 2 IDE. Running without any problem whatsoever.

Now, if only someone could help me to find out how many of which do I have without having to open up the PC and actually reading the info on the label of the HDD. I'd posted asking for help regarding this, but the info posted then was not very helpful.

PS: In the link, I've mentioned 2 int, 1 ext. I've since installed the ext inside the PC, but it did not strike me then to find out the interface of the three. @ self for this.

[Jing-jo]

I've got 3 HDD on my PC. Either 2 SATA and 1 IDE or 1 SATA and 2 IDE. Running without any problem whatsoever.

Now, if only someone could help me to find out how many of which do I have without having to open up the PC and actually reading the info on the label of the HDD. I'd posted asking for help regarding this, but the info posted then was not very helpful.

PS: In the link, I've mentioned 2 int, 1 ext. I've since installed the ext inside the PC, but it did not strike me then to find out the interface of the three. @ self for this.

when you fire up the pc it should unless you have disabled it show the list of components and should show the different interface hdd's on different pages of the bios as it goes thru it's checks you may to be quick to catch the info

on my overclocked P4 3.2 takes about 3 to 5 mins to go thru start up checks and be ready to use but it does have sats raid and giga ide raid enabled plus rather a lot of hdd's nearly the full alphabet up to U already and not the thai phrase no puns please

where as my core duo laptop takes about 20/30 secs from pressing on button to being able to use machine

if not just take off the side apnel and have a look takes all of 2 mins 40mm ish wide cable ide narrow red cable sata easy peasy

hope this helps

Jing-Jo

[bkk_mike]

Assuming you're running XP - This will find out which disk(s) are IDE,

Use the Device Manager (you can get there multiple ways - one is...)

go to Control Panel

Administative Tools (This is under Performance and Maintenance if you're using the Category View)

Computer Management

Device Manager

Once in the Device Manager, under Disk Drives, right-click on each disk and choose properties, then click on the details tab.

The Device Instance will (on all my computer's disks, from different manufacturers), show IDE if it's an IDE (i.e. parallel cable) drive.

The SATA drive I have in this PC shows up as SCSI, so that's not as guaranteed...

Alternatively, if you choose Hardware IDs in place of Device Instance ID in the drop box, you'll have the model number, which means a quick google will tell you exactly what the drive is... (IDE/SATA, 33/66/100/133 (if IDE) or 150/300 (SATA), how fast it spins, cache size, etc.)

You only see the details tab when you go to the disk properties from the device manager (as far as I'm aware) - so you can't see this from My Computer (or even from Disk Management).

Edited February 25, 2007 by bkk_mike