Device location on IDE ribbon

[skutny]

I read that the IDE 80 conductor cable should not be longer than 18". So I bought some 80 cond. ribbon and connectors to make my own.

I have 4 hard drives C:, D:, E:, F:
3 DVD G:, H:, I: and a zip drive B:, my motherboard has 4 IDE connectors.

Which devices should I make master and slave ?
I'm thinking
on primary master C: and slave G:
on secondary D: and H:

second primary E: and I:
second secondary F: and B:

Any suggestions or comments?

[Blue_MiSfit]

To me, it would depend on whether you would be copying from C to D more than C to E or F. This way you can make sure your channels are optimized. I would personally not share channels with optical drives. The zip could share a channel with an optical

So, assuming you copy between C and D less than you copy between C and either E or F...

CH0 - C: Master E: Slave - Hard Drives
CH1 - D: Master F: Slave - Hard Drives
Ch2 - G: Master H: Slave - Optical Drives
Ch3 - I: Master B: Slave - Optical Drive and Zip Drive

That's what I would do. Just keep in mind that with IDE you have 2 devices sharing a channel, so copying between 2 devices on the same channel is slow.

~MiSfit