How to organise IDE devices

[dragon]

I have 4 IDE devices working on 2 IDE slots.
256MHz PC-133 SDRAM.
OS = Win98SE

Primary IDE connected as follows :
Master ¡V D:\ 46Gbytes Ibm 7200 rpm [files, data, MP3 etc]
Slave - C:\ 20GbytesSeagate 7200 rpm [where window resides]

My reason for not putting C:\ on the Primary Master is due to D:\ drive is fitted on a removable rack. This rack [longer than HDD by 1 inch] must be mounted on the top part of the case, well clear of the motherboard. At such position only the Master connector can reach it.

Secondary IDE connected as follows :-
Master ¡V Cd-ROM
Slave ¡V Cd-RW [wiring suspended due to awkward twisting of the IDE cable]

I am going to set up the Windows Swap File in D:\ drive, what is the best arrangement? I would appreciate if you could give me your comments.

[Simon Clausen]

The swap file should be fine on D: drive, you usually want to place it on the fastest drive with the most free space (so it doesn't get fragmented).

Windows will probably make whatever drive is primary master as your C: drive, unless you use some extra partition software.

Regards,

Simon Clausen
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WinGuides.com - Windows Guide Network
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[RWSchlatter]

let me add my bit of wisdom too:

if you start up your machine without the D: removable in place, Windows will fall back onto C: drive and stay there.

If your second machine is set up the same way, then to my knowledge they will be sharing the swap file on D:. At least to my experience several years back that worked in a setup with multiboot and shared partitions - J have not tested it since.

And together with this last remark a warning: always make a regular and complete shutdown. Never try something like hibernation and then move the D: disk between machines as you will loose the state of the active swap file.

______________
Regards - Richard

[dragon]

Thank you Simon and Richard.

At present I still can’t install the Cd-RW because of physical IDE cabling problem. To smooth out the Ide cable, the IDE devices will be re-arranged as follows :-

Primary IDE :-
Master – Drive C:/
Slave – CD-ROM
Secondary IDE :-
Master – Drive D:/
Slave – CD-RW

What is your comment ?

[Simon Clausen]

It's really a matter of personal taste and trial & error. But most of the CD-RW drives I've used have recommended they are a seconday master. So you might want to arrange it:

C: Primary Master
D: Primary Slave
CD-RW: Secondary Master
CD: Secondary Slave

Regards,

Simon Clausen
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[RWSchlatter]

no special comment concerning HW (J am no "guru" there) - but you may like to follow a tip: after installation, go to the Hardware Properties dialog for your removable media (cdrom, cd-rw) and allocate drive letters in the upper range of the alphabet. This will prevent you from getting funny error messages should you choose to partition the disk drives later on and get new drive letters allocated to the removable media.

______________
Regards - Richard