I have an old but perfectly servicalble PC (P4 3.4GHz Running XP) with only one old but working fine Pioneer DVR-170D DVD Writer. I have bought a new Samsung SH-S222L DVD Writer as it will access DVD-Rom and DVD-Ram and is also Lightscribe.

My question is this: I have two IDE Channels; The Primary channel is connected to the HDD on the middle connection, the end connection being vacant. The Secondary channel has the Pioneer connected alone.

How should I attach the new drive? Either by connecting to the spare connection on Channel 1 and configuring it as a Slave or by swapping the drives so that the new drive is connected to Channel 2 alone as a Master.

I will probably be using the new drive most of the time in preference to the old Pioneer. Which configuration will give me the best performance?

Regards to all, David

My question is this: I have two IDE Channels; The Primary channel is connected to the HDD on the middle connection, the end connection being vacant. The Secondary channel has the Pioneer connected alone.

Well, actually, that configuration is not right. If you lay out an IDE cable in front of you, you have two end connectors and one in the middle. The Master is always on the end opposite the motherboard (sometimes labeled, System) connection. Note the middle connector is offset from the exact center, closer to one of the ends. If not labeled, the trick to remember is simple - the Master always keeps his Slave nearby. So the Slave is always in the middle, but offset and closest to the Master connection.

I prefer to keep my hard drives as the Masters and put the opticals as the Slaves. If there is no hard drive, the opticals can be masters. If only one drive on the cable, it should be Master. So for example, if I have two hard drives and two opticals, I would put my boot drive as Master on IDE1 (sometimes labeled on the motherboard as IDE0) and my second HD as Master on IDE2(if the 1st is IDE0, this would be IDE1). Then the opticals would be Slaves. I do this because I want my HDs to have priority, but also to make sure my boot is C drive and the other is D drive (depending on how the drives are partitioned) - so I don't have to mess with any drive re-lettering.

To be sure, when setting the drives' jumpers, you can use CS (cable select) for both drives on the cable and the Master and Slave will be determined by which connection is used. Or your can set the jumpers to MA and SL (or just MA if only one drive). In any case, you cannot mix CS and MA/SL on the same cable.

Just a quick note;

You mentioned the system/components etc are quite old. If it has 40 conductor - 40 pin (E)IDE cables, and NOT 80 conductor - 40 pin cables, CS will not work. Your optical drives should be jumpered as Master and Slave accordingly. This way drive/position on the cable does not matter.

Good point. I forgot about 40 pin cables - those would be very old indeed - likely nothing near 160Gb, I think. Maybe even less than 100Mb.

As far as MA and SL making drive/position not important, I don't think that is true with many interfaces. In those cases, if a SL jumpered drive is sitting on the Master connector, the drive does not get recognized. They have to match. So it is just best to be in the habit of the having the master on the opposite end from the motherboard connector - even if using cable select.

"Good point. I forgot about 40 pin cables - those would be very old indeed - likely nothing near 160Gb, I think. Maybe even less than 100Mb."

How is this tied into cable conductors and the issue at hand? Transfer rate? That still doesn't apply here.

Setup Single, Master and Slave Drives in Bios and hard drive Jumper setting

Many thanks for all replies. It seems from the websites that there are various conventions. However, I have replaced the IDE cables with 80 wire cables and added an additional HDD while I was at it! System HDD on IDE 1 as Master on the end connection and Backup HDD as Slave on the middle connection. New DVD drive on IDE 2 as Master on end connection with Old DVD drive as Slave on middle connection - all seems to be working well.

I double checked and, as I thought, the PC was originally supplied with the HDD connected to the middle connection on IDE 1 but configured as Master and an even older CD Drive on the end connection configured as Slave which worked fine for 5 years!

Thanks again for all your help.

If your problem was not solved then you should contact me.

No, you should not contact harshi. You should post back here so all can participate.

Quite right! I also though that my post of 18th May concluded the issue.

It did. Thanks. I will close this thread to ensure it remains that way too.