run 2 cd drives+hard drive off of same ide cable?

[footballstevo75]

So have a pc with only one ide channel. (other one is broken)
Can I run a cd drive + a dvd burner + a 60 gig hard drive all off of one channel, if I find a cable that permits?

 

[PC eye]

No! On the old IBM 386 machines you saw a three device cable for the old 40pin/40conductor ide cables. Then along came the 486 two device standard seeing the overall increase in hard drive capacities. That was one of the original reasons for seeing a hard drive chain for the increased drive space with multiple drives.

For a newer system seeing only one ide channel you now can find sata cd and dvd srives available if you lack a sata type hard drive. On the last build here I ran 2 ide hard drives along with two ide optical on top of two sata type hard drives. The new build lacked the second ide channel where one ide remained in the old build along with the two ide optical drives. The solution for the new build? One sata dvd burner, two ide drives(1 WD ide drive from the old case and a new ide cd writer), and a simple move of the two identical sata models into the new build.

 

[johnb35]

So have a pc with only one ide channel. (other one is broken)
Can I run a cd drive + a dvd burner + a 60 gig hard drive all off of one channel, if I find a cable that permits?

The answer is no, as PC EYE has told you. The only thing to do now is to buy a pci adapter card that has IDE channels on it to run your devices. Here are some examples from newegg.com

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...=ide+controller&name=Controllers+/+RAID+Cards

You can get just ide or combination of ide and sata or others. They are fairly cheap

 

[PC eye]

The one thing looked at here when planning out the new build was knowing the board selected would likely see only one ide channel. The general trend seen now is sata while the single ide channel allows for using ide drives left over from older systems. That can cut down on overall costs.

The addon controller cards johnb35 is pointing out is an alternate method of expansion as well as using an ide or sata RAID setup where two drives mirror each other. That can also allow you to add additional drives when you already have two optical drives along with a pair of ide hard drives installed on a board with two ide channels.

 

[StrangleHold]

No! On the old IBM 386 machines you saw a three device cable for the old 40pin/40conductor ide cables. Then along came the 486 two device standard seeing the overall increase in hard drive capacities. That was one of the original reasons for seeing a hard drive chain for the increased drive space with multiple drives.

No they didnt, it was only 2 devices on each IDE channel for 386 and it was made between IBM/Compaq and W/D

ATA-1 (IDE), [Obsolete] 8.3MBytes/sec, 8 or 16 bit data width, 40 pin data ribbon cable/connector. ((With a maximum of 2 devices on the bus)). Using PIO Modes 0, 1 or 2. Performed no bus error correction. The ATA-1 specification was released in 1994, and was withdrawn in 1999.

ATA-1 - The original specification that Compaq included in the Deskpro
386. ((It instituted the use of a master/slave configuration)). ATA-1 was
based on a subset of the standard ISA 96-pin connector that uses
either 40 or 44 pin connectors and cables. In the 44-pin version, the
extra four pins are used to supply power to a drive that doesn't have
a separate power connector. Additionally, ATA-1 provides signal timing
for direct memory access (DMA) and programmed input/output (PIO)
functions. DMA means that the drive sends information directly to
memory, while PIO means that the computer's central processing unit
(CPU) manages the information transfer. ATA-1 is more commonly known
as IDE.

A single IDE interface can support ((two devices)). Most motherboards come
with dual IDE interfaces (primary and secondary) for up to four IDE
devices. Because the controller is integrated with the drive, there is
no overall controller to decide which device is currently
communicating with the computer. This is not a problem as long as each
device is on a separate interface, but adding support for a second
drive on the same cable took some ingenuity. To allow for two drives
on the same cable, IDE uses a special configuration called master and
slave. This configuration allows one drive's controller to tell the
other drive when it can transfer data to or from the computer. What
happens is the slave drive makes a request to the master drive, which
checks to see if it is currently communicating with the computer. If
the master drive is idle, it tells the slave drive to go ahead. If the
master drive is communicating with the computer, it tells the slave
drive to wait and then informs it when it can go ahead.


ATA-1 - The original specification that Compaq included in the Deskpro 386. It instituted the use of a ((master/slave configuration)). ATA-1 was based on a subset of the standard ISA 96-pin connector that uses either 40 or 44 pin connectors and cables. In the 44-pin version, the extra four pins are used to supply power to a drive that doesn't have a separate power connector


The original IDE/ATA standard defines the following features and transfer modes:

• Two Hard Disks: The specification calls for a single channel in a PC, shared by(( two devices that are configured as Master and Slave)).

 

[PC eye]

No they didnt, it was only 2 devices on each IDE channel for 386 and it was made between IBM/Compaq and W/D

You can throw all the links you want. I actually had an IBM DX386 sitting here with 3device cables in it. Due to a serious lack of hard drive space on the 50mb hard drive and the pair of 5 1/4" floppy drives you can imagine why that was swapped in for an AST 486 then seeing ATA33 2device cables for the 500mb then 1.4gb drive I soon put in.

The system then saw an Intel 33mhz cpu with 16mb of memory instelled. The way the case was setup there was only one 3drive cable in it when that was bought used. That was one 50mb HD on the same cable as the pair of the old 5 1/4" type floppy drives. Those were seen after MSDos 3.0 made it's appearance those many years ago. The only type of system now that could even use a 3device cable is the X-Box360 if you custom make one.

 

[StrangleHold]

Doesnt matter, theres no 3 device (IDE) interface controller, ( Show me what chipset this was on that 386 that could see 3 devices on one 1 IDE controller) Plus whats this new catagory you have for the middle drive. There Master and Slave, whats this middle drive suppost to be, Bi Sexually? Cant set them all to cable select because the bios still sets them up as master and slave and what ever you call the 3rd. one. Give me some info on this computer or board any thing to back that up as far as 3 devices on a IDE channel (link).

 

[nyhk]

The only type of system now that could even use a 3device cable is the X-Box360 if you custom make one.

I've seen some guides on that, but it's not 3 devices at the same time on the ide controller. They put a switch on the cable, so they can switch between two devices easily

 

[Geoff]

Even though it was already answered, i'll say it again. Current IDE cables and controllers can only support two devices, so you cant use two CD/DVD drives and a hard drive on the same one.

 

[PC eye]

The old I386 here was the only time I saw the old 3connector type cables used except in some old DEC and 8088s. Those were also wider heavier cables used then with a large plastic collar. But that was all old school technology applied there. In those days you ran MSDos 3.0 or PC Dos/IBM UNIX.

 

[nyhk]

I actually had an IBM DX386 sitting here with 3device cables in it. Due to a serious lack of hard drive space on the 50mb hard drive and the pair of 5 1/4" floppy drives you can imagine why that was swapped in for an AST 486 then seeing ATA33 2device cables for the 500mb then 1.4gb drive I soon put in.

Are you saying, you had harddrive and floppy on the same cable?

they made floppy cables with 4 connectors (for 3.5 and 5.25 drives), but only two of them could be used at a time.

 

[PC eye]

You couldn't run any 3 1/2" floppy drive on those old cables. Those were strictly for the old 5 1/4" drives there. The flat top desktop model then was a boat anchor with one 5 1/4" above the other and a 50mb hard drive. You ididn't see a separate floppy controller since everything was tied together like you would on newer 386 and 486 systems then.

Plus the party that sold that one ran a small custom building business after retiring from the military. The cables for any 3 1/2" drive are thinner and narrower then your typical flat ribbon cable as you would see by any quick look at anything newer. But I came across a much newer 5 connector floppy cable you can take a look over at http://www.nullmodem.com/Floppy.htm

The 4 connector type cables you are referring to are the newer multi purpose type where you could use either type of floppy in pairs or one of each. Those were for the newer systems where you could still use the older 5.25" drive in a bay you would now use for an optical drive. To see what one of those looked like go to http://www.mmprogramming.com/parts/525floppy.htm

Going back in memory?
One thing that came to mind about the old 386 and 486 systems was that the original hard drives in them were plugged into the board itself then. The 486 that I bartered for also saw a 5.25" floppy then with the two pairs of connectors for both 5.25 and 3 1/2". The drive in the 486 was the 500mb that was unplugged when a 1.4gb WD went into one of the 5 1/4" bays with a 5 1/4 to 3 1./2" adapter used for a new 3 1/2" floppy there. On the 386 only the pair of 5.25 floppy drives were on the 3device cable since the 50mb was on the board there.