SATA And IDE Configuration Help

[LOL_NESS]

Hey guys, heres the go, i have 2 SATA harddisk drives, one sata DVD/RW drive and one IDE DVD/CDRW drive. How should i have these setup? I want to gain the best performance. I have a dual boot setup (but i use the press f12 to choose boot device, so it keeps xp and vista seperate).

There are 4 sata ports, labeled as follows
SATAII0
SATAII1
SATAII2
SATAII3

Would this be the layout of the ports?
SATAII0 - master?
SATAII1 - slave?
SATAII2 - master?
SATAII3 - slave?

Which option would have the best performance, and everything getting along just nice?
Option 1=
Xp hdd = sata 0
Vista hdd = sata 1
DVD/RW = sata 3
IDE DVD/CDRW = ide master, jumper setting master

Option 2=
Xp hdd = sata 0
DVD/RW = sata 1
Vista hdd = sata 2
IDE DVD/CDRW = ide master, jumper setting master

 

[kmote]

There's no such thing as master/slave SATA. Either of your options are fine.

 

[LOL_NESS]

But in the bios POST screen it says all the channels and beside them slave master slave master etc.. So it said hdd 1 master hdd slave dvd master

 

[Lexluethar]

As long as you have a hard drive with a operating system on channel 0 you'll be fine. All the others doesn't matter as you can't have a master slave configuration with SATA, just 0-3 (or 0 through however many channels you have).

 

[Trotter]

You set the order in BIOS, i.e. master, slave, whatever. You can set any one of the hard drives as the main drive, be it SATA or IDE, in the BIOS.

 

[LOL_NESS]

So my first option would be optimal?

 

[Trotter]

You can plug the drives into any SATA port as long as you set them in the BIOS (at least set the main boot drive as first). the boot drive is the only one that has to be set as the first drive (C as the other's are assigned letters are are not really accessed during boot (unless it is a multi-boot and you choose an OS installed on one).

 

[LOL_NESS]

I still think i should have the two hdd's as masters, and the dvd slave, thats what i have it at now and its fine. Option 2 is what i'm doing.

 

[Trotter]

i normally set my IDE drives as Cable Select and plug them up in order. SATA can be set to Master or Cable Select.

 

[Harper]

Would this be the layout of the ports?
SATAII0 - master?
SATAII1 - slave?
SATAII2 - master?
SATAII3 - slave?

There not master slave configuration SATA as you can only have 1 SATA device per port.

I still think i should have the two hdd's as masters, and the dvd slave, thats what i have it at now and its fine. Option 2 is what i'm doing.

There is no master or slave with SATA. SATA only works off channels. Channel 0,1,2,3 etc etc. Stop it calling it master and slave, or you are going to force me to hurt you. J/K

Which option would have the best performance, and everything getting along just nice?
Option 1=
Xp hdd = sata 0
Vista hdd = sata 1
DVD/RW = sata 3
IDE DVD/CDRW = ide master, jumper setting master

Make sure that your SATAII2 and SATAII3 channels does not cross over into your IDE MASTER and IDE SLAVE. Some of the cheap all-in-one motherboard have bios that will only suport 4 devices.
SATA II2 and IDE MASTER are shared by the BIOS
SATA II3 and IDE SLAVE are shared by the BIOS
There for if you connect a SATA hard drive into SATAII 2 and your DVD/CDRW is set to master, they might conflict and only one of those devices might will detect.
My test bed PC has one of these motherboard and it does annoy me that i need to diconnect my IDE DVD Burner if I need to user my SATAII 2 or SATAII 3 Channels.