[lug] ide drive questions

[karl horlen]

> You could also have a ide controller that doesn't
> support DMA or
> unmasked irq's or other things. If it's a pretty new
> ide controller
> however, thats likely not the case. You can see by
> doing a
> 'hdparm /dev/hda' or the like.

no i'm fine here
 
> > if so, is it possible to put each hard drive on a
> > separate channel and then have the hd share that
> > channel with a slower device (dvd / cdrw)?
> 
> Sure. Just move the drives/devices and then make
> sure you have their
> jumpers configured for the appropriate master/slave
> setting. 

I would imagine that if i mostly backup to cd from hd
Y, then it would probably make more sense to put my
cdrw on the opposite channel (that way they won't be
sharing the channel when writing from one to the
other).  However, when i do write from hd X to cdrw
that's on the same channel, it's going to be pretty
piss poor slow (i wonder if there will be any hangs
coastered cds when using this method).

Alternatively, I mostly use the DVD for watching
movies so it probably makes sense that it's not on the
same channel as my boot drive where teh software loads
from but probably not a big deal as compared to the
cdrw to hd sharing the channel on cd writes/reads.

> > i thought the slowest device on the channel is the
> > determining factor for the channel speed.
> 
> I don't think thats the case... it's more of a
> matter of IDE channel
> bandwidth. If one drive is sending a bunch of data
> over the channel, the
> other drive has to try and fight with it to get data
> out. There is only
> so much that will fit at once. 

Can anyone confirm this is correct?  If it is, i'm
swapping those drives pronto :-).

thanks for your input
> 
> kevin
> 
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