On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 19:43:16 +0100, anahata <anahata@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Thu, Oct 21, 2004 at 07:44:11PM +0200, David Baron wrote: > > Why does "everyone" set things up with HDs on one channel, CDs on the other? I > > was told that the slower CD device will slow down the HD. I had run Windoze > > with a setup like the above with no problems, however. > > It used to be true. It was often misrepresented as the CD slowing the HD > down to its speed No - this actually is true. An EIDE controller that is compliant with the ATAPI specs will recognie that one drive operates with the cable going 100MHz, while the controller recognizes that the CDROM only works when the cable goes 33MHz or 66MHz. since the two drives are on the same cable the EIDE controller sets the cable speed at 33MHz and therefore you get less throughput from the hard drive. I wasn't aware until about 2 years ago that the controller had to do this. There are some good white papers somewhere on the Seagate or Maxtors sites if I remember correctly.
