How can I add a 3rd internal Hard drive?

[MachineMan]

I have 2 harddrives and need more space. Can I add a 3rd internal drive? The ribbon cable only has connectors for 2. If so does this same principle apply for adding a 3rd CD drive?

[Craig Tucker]

You will need to get and IDE controller whuch plugs into a PCI card. This will allow you to add another 4 devices.

[MachineMan]

From this card can I add both a harddrive and a DVD drive?

[jeex]

harddrive, cd burner, dvdrom, dvd burner, zip drive.. any device that hooks up through ide interface will work with a controller card..

i have a promise controller card and it kicks ass.. the drives connected to the card are faster than the ones connected to the mobo.

[g_shocker182]

I was looking into doing this, too. So what I need is a controller card?

[pyrate83]

Man everyone is TGPO crazy!!!!!


I need to work on getting a good avatar for myself.....

[gmatov]

If you have an open PCI slot, simple.

Both of you are in the States, check your local BB or CompUSA, if you're lucky, they'll have one on sale complete with ATA card. It's about 50 bucks, separately, so consider it a discount.

I bought a couple 160's with cards, 70 bucks after rebate, deduct the 50, actually the same as 20 for the drive, + tax on the 150, of course.

I hit 4 stores this week, and none had a combination on sale, so your'e gonna have to wait or hunt. Then again, maybe it's spotty, you have them, now, we don't.

Good luck,

George

[g_shocker182]

I hit 4 stores this week, and none had a combination on sale, so your'e gonna have to wait or hunt. Then again, maybe it's spotty, you have them, now, we don't.

Best Buy usually has combinations with 120s and 160 drives.

[gmatov]

BB didn't have them this week. I was there last night.

I got my last at Staples, 6 weeks ago, and, lucky me, they also had an online printable 30 buck coupon, at the time. It expired 6/30.

BTW, when I finally got around to mailing in the forms, found that they had only 1 day to go, just got in under the wire.

That'll l'arn me to put things off, dolt that I am.

George

[jeex]

i got mine at EDS for $15.. well actually, it was $20, but if you bought one item you could get another one at half off.. so a friend of mine and i decided to get'em.. great decision..

if you're using win9x/me, you will probably need drivers..

winXP & win2k(sp3) detected the card and auto installed drivers..

you will need the high speed ide cables to tack advantage of the improved speed over your mobo (well, mine atleast)..

the cards we bought were oem packaged (anti-static bag), no drivers, no cables.. maybe a retail boxed one would include cables, manual & such.. but its really a no brainer installation, and you've obviously got internet, so getting the drivers wouldnt be an issue.. just how much are those cables worth to you is the question.. but then again, maybe you dont have EDS around there..

[gmatov]

The new drive, in a box, will come with cable, screws, 5 1/4 bay kit, install disk for the drive, and the ATA drivers are on the same disk.

[g_shocker182]

I got my last at Staples, 6 weeks ago, and, lucky me, they also had an online printable 30 buck coupon, at the time. It expired 6/30.

Yeah, if you remember we talked about this a while ago ....

[almostaborted]

i have a question...i already used up both available ides with hard drives and optical drives but my motherboard also has two additional controllers for raid configuration

if i buy a dvdr drive and a hard drive can i hook it up to those raid controllers to work as normal ides? i don't want to purchase a controller if i don't have to

also, i don't plan to change my current ide hard drive/optical drive configuration

[funkguy4]

i have a question...i already used up both available ides with hard drives and optical drives but my motherboard also has two additional controllers for raid configuration

if i buy a dvdr drive and a hard drive can i hook it up to those raid controllers to work as normal ides? i don't want to purchase a controller if i don't have to

also, i don't plan to change my current ide hard drive/optical drive configuration

No. You need to empty up one hard drive. Then, RAID 0 on the empty on and the new one. They have to be same size I think........they will pop up as one hard drive on your comp. Use that empty IDe channel that you get from you old empty IDE drive for the new DVD Drive.

[gmatov]

Half the guys on the Forum use those for Raid, the others have abandoned Raid and just use them as IDE devices, same as some have bought Raid cards and given up Raid, so expansion cards, again.

Shocker,
Yeah, I remember, but at my age tend to repeat myself.

[almostaborted]

gmatov: are you replying to my questions?

funkguy4: i don't plan to create a raid array on my computer, i just want to use the raid controller as a regular ide and was wondering if it was possible

[gmatov]

Almost,

I hope it doesn't look like I'm just making smart remarks.

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=170953

Read the url above to see what some of the respondents say about using their RAID controllers as just another IDE extension, 4 additional devices.

And, yes, you can use the additional connectors for optical devices.

BTW, if your BIOS is not able to read a large drive, an ATA card will not, either. I am, at the moment redoing a 160 that I "thought" I had finished with one machine, with an ATA card, but, I guess, the BIOS wouldn't see it. It fdisked, formatted at 137 Gigs. Pulled it, put it in the other machine, and it is working with 152+ gigs

[almostaborted]

thanks for the info gmatov

i found this as well....in case anybody else was interested
http://beta.experts-exchange.com/Storage/Q_20690811.html

[gmatov]

Almost,

Thanks.

Your link was most informative, also. Scroll down to Barcelona_blom's post and follow his directions. Sounds very good to me, 'tho I have no XPerience with RAID.

[Craig Tucker]

I have 2 regular IDE channels and 2 raid channels. I use them all for regular IDE devices, no raid. I have 5 hard drives and 2 optical devices.

[MachineMan]

I just bought a Western Digital 200Gb drive that comes with eth ATA Promise Card for a sweet price at Fry's Electronics!!

Origonal cost $249 - On Sale for $199 - After Rebate only $129!!!!

A good price for a 200Gb with the ATA Controller Card. I can add up to 4 more IDE devices with this card.

[stiltman]

eth ATA Promise Card

what's eth?

[MachineMan]

"eth" should be "the"

I just finished installing it, No problems.

[stiltman]

"eth" should be "the"

I just finished installing it, No problems.

There for a minute I thought it also had a built in NIC

[funkguy4]

"eth" should be "the"

I just finished installing it, No problems.

There for a minute I thought it also had a built in NIC

The smoke from TGPO's cigarette was prolly messin' with your head.

[stiltman]

There for a minute I thought it also had a built in NIC

The smoke from TGPO's cigarette was prolly messin' with your head.

cigarette?

Oh, a tgpo style cigarette

[Rich927]

Sam's Clup has two combo drives. 200gig Western Digital Special Edition with a IDE card for $199.00 and a Western Digital 160gig Special Edition with a IDE card for $169.00. Both are 7200 rpm, 8mb cache and Ultra ATA controller.

[MachineMan]

The western dig. 200Gb with card combo is the same one I got. Except after the $70 rebate its only $129. Its working great. Now that I have the card Im thinking of adding another DVD-ROM drive.

[jarvis1781]

gmatov: are you replying to my questions?

funkguy4: i don't plan to create a raid array on my computer, i just want to use the raid controller as a regular ide and was wondering if it was possible

what motherboard do you have?
on my P4C800-E Deluxe there is an option for the Promise Controller to run in IDE instead of RAID....but I would never pass up on the goodness of RAID!

[almostaborted]

it's a epox 8kta3+...but i already got it to work...it registers as a dynamic disc rather than a primary or extended partition but it works just normally