Ultra DMA compatibility...

[hhh8785]

If my motherboard doesn't support Ultra DMA, and I install a Hard Drive that is UDMA, will it hurt the HD or Mobo, or will it just slow the speed of the HD down? Is there any chance the HD will fry?

[coyote]

Depending on the HD, it should be backward compatible. For instance, if you have a drive that supports UDMA66, it will also support Mode 2, PIO Mode 3 & 4, UDMA33 and ofcourse UDMA66. Check your manual, it should say...your board should not care.

[ghostface]

while setting up my new system i ran my new udma hd on an old pentium machine to install software while i waited for parts. ran fine with no problems. it'll run on any normal mobo but you just won't get the "benefit" of ata/66.

[krusty the klown]

There are some excellent PCI I/O cards available that allow you to take full advantage of ATA66 if your IDE channels on the mobo don't support it. I put an Asus (...or Abit??) Hot Rod card in mine and I'm fairly pleased with it.

This one has 2 channels capable of supporting ATA66 (up to 4 devices in total). They also come with an ATA66 cable (it has twice the number of wires - each 'signal' wire has a 'ground' wire, presumably to give a cleaner signal). The card has its own BIOS, which takes about 2 seconds to load.

Whilst the card supports up to 4 ATA66 devices, if you run an ATA66 and an ATA33 drive on the same cable, that channel will run at 33.

Tip: you will likely have to fiddle around with the IDE autodetection in BIOS to get the thing to boot off the correct drive, but it's not too much trouble.