General Computer Question

[MrNewbie]

Ok, I have all of my IDE things taken up. The master and slave on the primary and master and slave on the secondary because I have a cd rw drive, a regular cd rom drive (cos its twice as fast as my cdrw reading ability), an internal zip drive, my hard drive and a floppy drive. I'd like to add an extra hard drive for linux, is it possible? Someone said something about a splitter or something. If it is possible and I did that, would there be any performance decrease?
Thank You
MRNewbie

[Strike]

You could just buy another IDE controller (it would go in a PCI slot). You can get a good ATA66 Promise or an Iwill for around $40-60.

[MrNewbie]

Any other way? I don't have any free pci slots.
MrNewbie

[Strike]

As far as I know, you can't really split the IDE channels on your board. But, you might, who knows? When I get my CD burner, I'm just going to disconnect my zip drive and maybe pop it in my other PC. Of course, I might get a new motherboard/CPU combo for my main box anyway http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif

[bdl]

The absolute BEST way is to go SCSI all around, then you only have ONE channel to worry about, and depending on you adapter, you can run up to 15 devices; above all, its much more stable than EIDE/ATAPI. I realize that not everyone can afford all new drives and a new controller, but you might consider a used drive/controller and mix and match between your older IDE peripherals and the new SCSI stuff. Check out scsistuff.com (http://www.scsistuff.com)..I buy all my SCSI stuff there. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/wink.gif

[MrNewbie]

Well I have a scsi card for my scanner, but that has an external cable connection. If I removed something could I get a scsi adaptor and then install an internal hard drive running off it?

[bdl]

Originally posted by MrNewbie:
Well I have a scsi card for my scanner, but that has an external cable connection. If I removed something could I get a scsi adaptor and then install an internal hard drive running off it?

Of course...before you do that, check to make sure your card doesnt have an internal connector. But otherwise, you should have no trouble getting another SCSI card and running both your scanner and an internal array of drives at the same time - thats what SCSI is meant to do. You might also look into an external drive, but depending on the make of scanner you have, there is probably no place to chain / terminate the other peripheral.

Personally, I'd go with any of the Adaptec adapters; they are generally the best all around adapters and the most supported. You cant go wrong with a 2930/2940/2940UW/29160 depending on your price range and ultimate needs. I've got several different adapters from Adaptec, but I'd recommend a used 2940UW from scsistuff.com (http://www.scsistuff.com) - they have 'em for $89.00 and they're warranteed for a full 90 days.

Other than that, a new card should just *plug-n-pray* and fit right in with the existing system.

And sorry about the multiple plugs for scsistuff, but they have always treated me right and sell first rate gear. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by bdl (edited 26 November 2000).]

[evil_roy]

Or buy a bigger hd to replace one of the others...I'd suggest that you will run into power problems if you keep on adding drives to the standard unit. I wacked 4 ide hd's into an old box and had no end of probs..thought the hd's had died. Power supply problems. Just a tip.

[ph34r]

Yah, power eventually becomes a problem, especially if you are running lots of fans and such.

I have seen one box (a 98se machine... *sigh* ) that had 2 power supplies - one for mobo and system drives, and one for fans, more fans, non-essential drives (a cdrw a cdr and a cd, zip), and just a few more fans. Yes, it was a big honker tower case, and he was using a mix of scsi and ide.

[bdl]

Originally posted by evil_roy:
Or buy a bigger hd to replace one of the others...I'd suggest that you will run into power problems if you keep on adding drives to the standard unit. I wacked 4 ide hd's into an old box and had no end of probs..thought the hd's had died. Power supply problems. Just a tip.

Excellent point; I had not thought to mention it because I've run 300W+ PS for quite awhile and not had power problems. As far as power is concerned, I can also recommend PC Power and Cooling, or pretty much any supply by Antec. Luck!

[Strike]

Now power "Y" splitters you can buy http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif And cheap too, like $1.50 each or something. Of course, you risk undercurrent when you do that, and that's bad http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif