Hard Drive and DVD Writer on Same IDE Cable

I have a DELL 2400 (circa 2002--XP Pro SP2--PentiumIV--2GBcpu-1gbRAM) that I use for Internet downloading and burning data to DVD.

The layout of the case is such that there is no bay for a secondary--slave--HD (I can't believe DELL's are set up this way--proprietary configurations gone awry IMHO). The only extra bay is for an optical drive. I have a 40gb HD that I would like to use for extra data storage on this PC. The only way I could rig this up is to connect the 40gb HD to the Optical drive IDE cable. It will fit!--meaning the cable will reach both my DVD Writer and the Slave HD.

My question is which drive (DVD writer or 40gb HD) should be Master and which one Slave on the Optical IDE cable?

I really need the extra storage that the 40gb drive will allow but want to make sure my DVD Writer works at optimal performance.

This setup will only be for storing data so I don't care about copying speeds from one HD to another. But I do care that my DVD Writer drive is reliable. Which drive do I set as master and which slave on this Optical drive cable to have my DVD Writer work best?

*******
I know I've asked this question before but now I am ready to format and reinstall XP on this PC and would like to set the jumpers properly on the hardware before install.

Thanks for all advice

 

Well here ya go

ATA forbids simultaneous input and output on the same interface so only one device can be active at a time. So for CD/DVD copying the opticals must be on separate channels.

Hard Drives are ATA drives, optical drives are ATAPI drives.
Set the ATA (hard Drive) as master and the ATAPI (optical) drive as slave.

Two ATA or Two ATAPI devices can be connected either way round, but see above, you may not be able to copy optical to optical on the same cable.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks Studiot

So the general rule is put Hd as Master and Optical as slave? Which I kind of knew

Because this is such a weird work-around (I can't just put a secondary HD on the Main IDE cable, I have to put it on the Optical IDE cable) I just want to be sure that you think that that my DVD Writer will be working reliably at 18x in the slave position.

So:
IDE cable 0: My OS (Master)--80gb
No Slave position available

IDE cable 1: Data HD (Master)--40gb
DVD Writer (Slave)

Is this right?

Thanks again

 

Your only problem might be if the DVD writer is DMA capable (probable because it is newer) and your hard drive is not.

You should have DMA enabled for all drives if possible, but can only do this is both drives on a cable are DMA capable.

 

Thanks StudioT, I'll keep an eye on DMA.

 

I think i read somewhere (maybe a dvd/cd rom user manual) that the optical drive should be master. but i could be wrong...maybe thats only when you have it on the same channel as another optical drive..