Drive installation Question

[james636]

Hello, I've just got my Optorite DD1203 (I'm very happy so far) and I'm about to install it. My question is, does it matter If I connect the drive as slave drive (Primary IDE) which would be on the same IDE as my Booting hard drive or to the secondary IDE? Will performance be different either way as far as writing speed ability?

Dell Dimensions 4400, XP Home, 1.7ghz, 256MB memory.

PS. I currently have a Sony DRU-500A with 2.1A firmware. After unistalling the sony, does the 2.1A firmware remain on my pc or will it automatically be removed.

[phuocle]

Hello, I've just got my Optorite DD1203 (I'm very happy so far) and I'm about to install it. My question is, does it matter If I connect the drive as slave drive (Primary IDE) which would be on the same IDE as my Booting hard drive or to the secondary IDE? Will performance be different either way as far as writing speed ability?

Dell Dimensions 4400, XP Home, 1.7ghz, 256MB memory.

PS. I currently have a Sony DRU-500A with 2.1A firmware. After unistalling the sony, does the 2.1A firmware remain on my pc or will it automatically be removed.

I'm assuming you're burning files off your hard disk, in which case you should have it on the secondary IDE channel (separate from your main hard drive). This will help give you more reliable performance.

As for your second question, the firmware is burned into your DRU-500A (that's what I have too), so it will go when you remove the drive... the firmware installation files though, may still be on your drive and it's your call whether you want to retain those or not just in case.

[alchemistresearch]

Putting a DVD (or and CD) drive on the same channel as your IDE hard drive would have a big effect on performance in general.

Your very best bet is to just have one device on each IDE channel (as master) and, if you need to, buy a IDE controller card (they aren't expensive) for other drives.

[wulf109]

IDE channels run at the slowest speed of any device on that channel,primary or secondary. Since CD/DVD drives are usually ATA33 and your HD is 100/133 you are slowing down your HD. NEVER place a CD/DVD on the same channel with a HD.
Make your DVD burner the secondary master.