Install CD-rewritable drive alongside a DVD drive

Helpline Q&A Directory

I want to install an IDE CD-rewritable drive in my PC. The existing DVD-ROM drive is connected to the secondary IDE socket on the motherboard, and the ribbon cable has an extra, unused connector attached to it. The jumper on the DVD-ROM drive is set to Slave, which I think is unusual. Should I set the jumper on the new CD-RW drive to Master and leave the DVD-ROM set as a Slave? If I start changing things about, will this have an effect on the DVD-ROM's performance?

It is unusual for a drive alone to be jumpered as a Slave. However, with many IDE drives, if it is the only one on the cable the setting doesn't matter. Only if there are two drives do you have to choose which is Master and which is Slave. In the case of a DVD-ROM and CD-RW, it will probably make no difference because both controllers are likely to have similar capabilities.

A point to bear in mind when installing IDE drives is that some computers, particularly those from larger manufacturers, use cable select. This means the connector to the drive is the Master. The advantage to the manufacturer is there's no need to worry about jumper settings: drives can be installed as they come from the factory.

You can't tell from the cable whether your system uses cable select. However, your PC manufacturer should be able to tell you, or you can check an existing drive to see if the CS or CSEL option has a jumper on it. If it does, the new one should be jumpered the same way.

There are no certainties about performance and IDE devices. Usually, if two such devices share a data cable the maximum transfer speed for both will be that of the slowest controller. For this reason, it is a bad idea to have hard drives and other devices on the same cable. Hard drive controllers are usually faster than those of CD-ROM drives and similar devices, and they often support DMA which the other devices may not. If the devices are mixed, this can reduce hard drive performance.

On the other hand, if a CD-ROM and CD-RW drive share a cable, you may not be able to copy disk-to-disk reliably without going via the hard drive. A lot depends on the capabilities of individual components. With SCSI, each device is more or less guaranteed to offer optimal performance, which is why SCSI is still a better option for anyone who is serious about CD mastering.