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Old September 11th 06, 08:03 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware
Rod Speed
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Posts: 8,559
Default IDE port for 3 devices

wrote:

I just bought a Seagate IDE 400G hard drive and wanted to use


it as my second hard drive. My Dell desktop already has a SATA
hard drive. Unfortunately after I bought this hard drive, I found out that
my system board only has 1 IDE port which has already been used up
for 2 device: a DVD ROM and a DVD burner. So now my question is:


Do you really need the DVD ROM anymore ?

1. can I use an IDE hard drive together with a SATA hard drive all togther?


Yes, you can get IDE to SATA converters and put it on a SATA port.

2. Can I try to get a IDE interface cable that has 3 connectors (1 master,
2 slaves) for connecting my IDE hard drive, in addition to the 2 DVD drives?


Nope, one ribbon cable can only handle 1 or 2 drives.

I searched google, in one occasion (Years 1999 post) that 1 IDE
port can only connect up to 2 devices, is that still true now?


Yes.

I called DELL support, the guy said I can use this
configuration, but I am not sure if he really knows this.


Yeah, he didnt understand what you want to do.

3. If I can use such a cable, where can I buy it?


No such animal.

My 2 DVD drive is on the top on the computer, and the
hard drive is at the bottom of the computer, so I need
a cable that is extened quite a bit on the 3rd connector.


4. My system board does has a floppy
drive port which looks like an IDE port,


Unlikely, the ribbon cable should be narrower, less wires.

can someone know for sure a floppy drive is an
IDE port which I can use to hook up my hard drive?


Count the wires in the ribbon cable.

If I know this cause so many problem, I would
have bought a SATA drive instead. really ****ed off


Yeah, a SATA drive would have been much better.