Geek Question
By Mitch Berg
So now that I have a computer, I did some digging through the office, and found that I have about six old IDE hard drives lying around. Some of them are stuffed with data (including probably six gig of music files).
Now, opening up the PC and plugging them in, one or two at a time, isn’t the worst way to handle things, but c’mon. One at a time. Dude.
So I’m wondering – is there something about IDE the prevents there from being more than three devices on a controller? Or is there such a thing as an IDE controller and bus that allows more than three? Say (allowing for a couple of squib disks in the pile) four or five?
October 12th, 2007 at 7:18 am
“is there something about IDE the prevents there from being more than three devices on a controller?”
Yes. An IDE controller can control either one drive or two. The drives are jumpered for either slave, or master with slave, or master without slave.
Most IDE controller cards actually have two separate controllers. If you have three IDE devices connected, you could add a fourth. You’ll need to open up the case, find the plug for the fourth device, rejumper the existing device to operate as master, jumper your fourth device as slave, and plug it in.
October 12th, 2007 at 7:24 am
“is there something about IDE the prevents there from being more than three devices on a controller? ”
heat dispersal is a big issue – HDs generate a lot of heat so you may have to add more fans to the box
the power supply may not be able to power all of them adequately IDE drives consume anywhere from 0.83 to 1.4 amps
the bios/MB may limit you to 2 or 4 drives and may only support >2 as Raid drives
you might be better off pedaling down University Ave (3014 University Avenue SE, Minneapolis) and picking up one of these:
http://www.nanosys1.com/usb-hd-280u2-sl.html
October 12th, 2007 at 7:33 am
“”master with slave””
Actually, the new terminology is Parent and Child. You should have seen the look on my students’ faces, minority urban kids, when I let slip Master/Slave when describing drive function. I won’t make that mistake again.
And what kel said, Mitch. I actually have a 2.0 USB drive enclosure that has bailed me out of several predicaments. Unfortunately it will be tied up and work all weekend running a SpinRite disk recovery. But if you can wait, I can borrow it to you Monday. Unless, of course, you choose to bop down to Nano and get one. Well worth the price for the convenience involved.
Flash
October 12th, 2007 at 7:57 am
I had such a problem keeping good backups on my last system, that on my current system I had all drives mounted in these:
http://www.nanosys1.com/hw-hd-102fd-sl.html
My CPU case has two racks, and I bought four drives and four cartridges. After using the system for a year or so, I bought another rack+cartridge, and mounted it in one of these:
http://www.nanosys1.com/usb-hd-525u2fw-bk.html
The USB-mounted drive is slower, but it’s fast enough for overnight backups, and having three drives lets me boot off #1, and copy #2 to #3.
October 12th, 2007 at 8:03 am
Thanks, all.
I notice the enclosure is for a 2.5 disk – but I know they exist for 3.5 as well, and may just have to invest.
Thank you so very much!
October 12th, 2007 at 8:25 am
There’s a bunch:
http://www.nanosys1.com/cases—enclosures-external-enclosures.html
October 12th, 2007 at 8:44 am
The real geeky way to handle this is to get some used, old, slowish computer on ebay or whatever, plug in a couple of additional IDE controllers, put all the old hard drives on that, then get the data off. After that, install Linux on the old machine, and use it as a fileserver.
Probably more trouble than it’s worth, but . . .
October 12th, 2007 at 9:01 am
Re: Master and slave.
I had a roommate in college who called them “Pimp and ho.” He really wanted it to catch on. Sadly, no.
October 12th, 2007 at 9:02 am
Sorry about the 2.5 link – I just linked to the cheapest enclosure on the page
another in town source is
http://www.microcenter.com/at_the_stores/st_louis_park.html
its just 100 yards off the Greenway Bike path that starts in south Mpls and ends somewhere by Victoria
I bought a couple of these:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0245436
I leave them open and swap out drives as i need them
October 12th, 2007 at 9:25 am
IDE/PATA controllers are limited by their hardware to 2 connections. You can’t change it, it’s in the hardware spec. I should know…
It’s a bad idea to keep a much older drive and a newer drive on the same channel, too. The problem is that you queue up the operations and only one can complete at a time, so slow devices keep getting in the way of faster ones, and older drives are much slower than the newer ones since drive data speeds have been going up faster than CPU speeds.
You’re better off transferring the data to a newer drive and being done with it, especially since the older stuff just wasn’t built as well as the newer. Personally, I’m a big fan of the newer Seagate 7200.10 drives, them being the best overall performers and carrying a 5 year warranty. And I’ve seen them around for as low as $80 for a 320 GB unit.
October 12th, 2007 at 10:07 am
Yoss.
“Pimp and ho.”
Why didn’t I think of that. My students would have caught on right away *grin*
Flash
October 12th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
I use the usb adapter here at work all the time.
October 12th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
You’re better off transferring the data to a newer drive and being done with it
That’s the plan, actually. I have a 200GB drive in the new machine, and I’m going to burn a ton of CDs too.
October 12th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Hehe — I think the “new terminology” is SATA.
Nerbert, I recently got two of those 7200.10 500GB drives, and I like them, but one started “clicking” right off the bat, so I may be using that warranty in the near future. Too bad I opted for the two cheap servers instead of the one expensive (and more redundant) one. 🙂
October 13th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
I have one of these:
http://microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0255154
This would make it supremely easy to switch drives if needed. If you wanted more than one drive, you could buy another adapter, as many as you needed, and plug them into a cheapo USB hub when you run out of slots on the computer. And they’re entirely portable too. Not as pretty as a drive enclosure, but it works, and drive enclosures without a fan don’t do a lot to keep the drive cool.
I strapped a fan onto the drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999152
(Microcenter used to carry a plastic drive fan for $10, but not anymore, they only have a well made aluminum chassis hard drive fan for $18)
This combo keeps the drive slightly warmer than room temperature.