Sony DRU500AX On Promise IDE Controller

[Tony Yip]

I've been searching on this forum and other forums I'm getting conflicting answers. Here is my situation.

I have my system set up as follows. It has 2 onboard IDE ports (IDE1 & 2) with an onboard Promise IDE Raid Controller (IDE3 & 4)

IDE1 Master: 60 gig HD
IDE1 Slave: 80 Gig slave
IDE2 Master: Plextor CD-RW Burner
IDE2 Slave: Pioneer DVD-Rom Drive
IDE3 Master: 120 gig HD (set as a single drive, no RAID)

I just purchased the Sony DRU500AX drive. Where would I install this drive on? I have heard that installing CDRom,DVDRom, DVD-RW drives on Promise IDE controllers is not good

Can I install the SRU500AX on IDE4 as a master in UDMA mode

Or should I just go out and purchase a Promise IDE controller card (just plain IDE controller with no RAID on it)?

Or should I move all my hard drives to IDE3 and IDE4 and use IDE1 & 2
for the DVD-ROM,CD-RW and DVD-RW devices? I can boot off of the Promise onboard IDE controller in the BIOS if need be.

Any opinions would be helpful

[donpedro]

Whatever you do, don't put Sony DRU on Promise IDE controllers.

[SashaK]

I use the promise TX2 ultra 133, I have the Sony DRU500AX on Ide2 (Mother board controller - Master.)
20 gig hard drive on Ide 1 running Win XP (C: Drive) (Mother Board controller - Master.)
40 gig hard drive on Ide 3 (Promise card - Master)
liteonit 166S DVD Rom on Ide 4 (Promise card - Master)

The Sony & Promise didn't work for me.
The above setup has worked for me without problems since Jan30/03

[Tony Yip]

SashaK;

That Promise controller card you have is just an IDE controller, not
a RAID controller?

Any slowdown with the Liteon DVD-ROM that you have on the Promise card?

[bacardi/avt]

Just move all Hds to the Promise controller and use the MB controller for CD/DVD readers/burners. I have the following setup using a Promise TX2 Ultra 100 controller:

Motherboard
IDE1: Master - Plextor 12/10/32A CD-RW
Slave - Hitachi GD-7500 DVD
IDE2: Master - Sonu DRU-500AX DVD-RW

Promise controller:
IDE1: Master - IBM 30GB (C
Slave - IBM 60GB
IDE2: Master - WD 80GB
Slave - WD 120GB

I had some problems when I first tried to install the Promise controller since I thought the C: drive had to be connected to the motherboard and becuse of thet I put my CD/DVD devices onto the Promise controller. This did not work and I read the instructions again and decided to move all my HDs to the Promise controller and then use my MB controller for the CD/DVD devices and ever since I did that I hadb't had any problems at all every thing works perfectly.

So my advice would be to rearrange your drives so you get all HDs on the Promise controller and the CD/DVD devices on the motherboard.

[Tony Yip]

bacardi/avt;

Thanks for the answer.

One more question:

Are you running the Sony DRU500AX in UDMA mode or PIO?

[bacardi/avt]

I am running it in UDMA mode...haven't had any probs at all with it.

[Alshadin]

I'll throw my $.02 into the ring here.

Since the Sony burns and plays everything, is there really a need for the other 2 drives you currently have in the system (the DVD-ROM and the CD-RW)? Plug the hard drives into the RAID channels and the Sony as a a master into one of the non-RAID channels. If you feel you need the other two ROM drives, then I would recommened plugging them into one of the non-RAID channels, with the appropriate master/slave settings and plug the Sony into the other non-RAID channel, as a standalone master. I'm guessing you have more than ample power and connections as well, since running three ROM drives, plus the hard drives is definately going to need some power.

That's my $.02 worth.

[w00tski]

its to do with these cards not supporting ATAPI devices or something like that. CDROM and such drives need this and it seems to be only properly supported with the motherboards onboard chipset IDE ports (from via intel SIS etc)

[SashaK]

My searching of the forums at this site has helped to enlighten me on what works for my system & burner!

However the ultimate performance of your system really depends on your knowledge & selection of your hardware & software and of course the setup.

My Sony burner performs as advertised with the supplied software, and works quite well with Nero, DVDSHrink, DVDXcopy, Record now & so on.

The Lite-on 166S on my system rips at betwen 7X to 12X times with DVDDecrypter, & Smartriper I have just started to test DVDSrink, & DVDXcopy so I cant say for sure that the ripping speed will be the same.
The main thing for me is the disks I have used have burned at the speed advertised, no coasters so far no software conflicts, so what can I say