ATA66 HD run ATA66 sharing channel with Zip?

[Brangwen]

I have a 5400 rpm HD (Primary / Master) and a Iomega Zip drive hooked as Primary Slave.
On Secondary / Master I have a 44X CDRom and a Memorex 4224 CDRW as Secondary / Slave. I'm like very much to take advantage of my Abit VA-6 mobo's ability to run at ATA66, so I'm shopping for such a ATA66 HD. Will the presence of the Zip (slave) prevent a ATA66 HD from running at ATA66?

Thx

Brangwen http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

[Dave_H]

You will not get ATA-66 if you have a non ATA-66 device on the chain. Even how you got things now, I think the Zip could be slowing down your HD. You may want to try benchmarking your drive how it is now, then switching the Zip with the CD-Rom and benchmarking it again.
Personally,(IMO) I would try it like this:
Channel 1- HD master, CD-Rom slave.
Channel 2- CDRW master, Zip slave.
Of course, this depends on the perfomance of your CD-Rom. However, a Zip is a fairly slow device.
Dave

[oxOGradiusOxo]

Geez. That is a good question and with all of your IDE slots filled on Primary and Secondary, if it doesn't work, there would be no going around it.

Hmm, let's think. First of all, in my opinion, it's tough to see the speed increase from ATA33 to ATA66. Since your motherboard supports it, then by all means go for ATA66. You will benefit more going from 5400 to 7200, that's for sure.

So, on to your question. I had a Promise Ultra66 card with my Maxtor 13.6 ATA66 drive and a ATA33 cd rom. The card (which should work just like the mobo) ran each device at it's max rated transfer speed (ata66 for drive; ata33 for cd-rom) without a problem.

[Brangwen]

Both excellent and appreciated responses. I may pick up a USB external Zip drive, give the IDE Zip to a friend, thereby freeing up a Slave and running a 7200rpm ata66 HD alone.

Brangwen http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif