zip drive

[wneil711]

On the Sh6 mb I only have 2 IDE controllers(ATA100) and I have 4 devices to connect. i have my HD connected to the primary controller and i have a cdrom and cdrw connected to the secondary. Can i slave a Zip drive(internal,IDE) off my primary controller without causing problems to my HD. Or would it be better to buy a new scsi Zip drive.(I have to have a zip drive for work and i want it to be internal)If anyone has any suggestions/fixes please let me know

Sys Info
w2k OS
piii 800(100)@912
abit sh6 MB
pc133 256mb (crucial)
asus AGP-v7700 deluxe
soundblaster Live
asus cdrom
hp cdrw

[toonzwile]

Originally posted by wneil711:
On the Sh6 mb I only have 2 IDE controllers(ATA100) and I have 4 devices to connect. i have my HD connected to the primary controller and i have a cdrom and cdrw connected to the secondary. Can i slave a Zip drive(internal,IDE) off my primary controller without causing problems to my HD. Or would it be better to buy a new scsi Zip drive.(I have to have a zip drive for work and i want it to be internal)If anyone has any suggestions/fixes please let me know

Sys Info
w2k OS
piii 800(100)@912
abit sh6 MB
pc133 256mb (crucial)
asus AGP-v7700 deluxe
soundblaster Live
asus cdrom
hp cdrw

unless ur a total speed freak, then the SCSI card is overkill... internal IDE zip drive will be fine, and i dont think that slaving it to ur hard drive will cause that much of a loss of performance that ull start noticing... u gotta do it for work right? i guess ur out of options.


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A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.
A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

[wneil711]

Yes, unfortunately i have to have a zip drive for work..i just set it up as a slave on the primary w/ my HD. I doesnt seem to be causing any problems. Thanks

[winky]

We use that IDE setup at work, and you should not have a problem.

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Knight of the OC Crusaders

[SkyDog]

Installing a Zip drive as a slave on the same controller as a hard drive will work, but there's a pretty substantial performance penalty.

There are two main types of data transfer for an IDE controller: PIO and DMA. Older devices used PIO. ATA-33 and newer hard drives, though, use DMA. Almost all IDE controllers can support either type of data transfer, but not at the same time. Connecting the Zip drive on the same controller as a hard drive will force the controller (and hard drive) into PIO mode, which will lower your hard drive's transfer rate from 33-100 MB/s all the way down to 12 or 16 MB/s.

(EDIT: Corrected a typo in the above paragraph.)

[This message has been edited by SkyDog (edited February 11, 2001).]

[LetsGo!]

I wouldn't think performance would be much of an issue. How often would you really be using the zip anyway? Another option might be to just get an external usb zip.

[wneil711]

I was thinking about going usb but i found someone to buy my ide zip for $50. i also found a scsi zip for $75. So i think i will go the scsi route.

[sww]

You won't notice a performance hit at all. Your controller will work at its max speed when accessing the hard drive and the slower speed when accessing your zip drive.

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Something like 37% of statistics are made up out of thin air.

[SkyDog]

Originally posted by sww:
You won't notice a performance hit at all. Your controller will work at its max speed when accessing the hard drive and the slower speed when accessing your zip drive.

If the Zip used a DMA mode instead of PIO, this would be true. But since Zip drives use PIO mode for data transfer, the controller is forced into PIO mode, which limits both devices on that controller to PIO's maximum transfer rate: something like 12-16 MB/s if I remember correctly. You won't get anywhere near your hard drive's maximum data throughput, regardless if you're accessing the Zip drive or not. If it's on the same controller as your hard drive, it's slowing it down.

[TLP]

Do you have a SCSI card?

[SkyDog]

Originally posted by TLP:
Do you have a SCSI card?

If not, a decent PCI SCSI card can be had for as little as $18 from pricewatch.com (Tekram DC-315U). It doesn't have a BIOS, so you can't boot to a hard drive attached to it, but it'll work for everything else.