Connecting 3 Drives?

[Shamrock]

Is it even possible to connect 3 cd rom drives? My friend has 3 drives, a cd-rom a dvd-rom, and a dvd-burner. Now, is it possible for him to connect all 3 drives? I don't think its possible. Its logically not possible since there is only a slave and master port and no secondary slave or whatnot. All I really need is a simple yes or no. Is it possible to connect 3 optical drives?

 

[Chris D]

Assuming it's an IDE mobo, the motherboard should have two IDE channels. A primary with a master and slave and a secondary with a master and slave. Assuming he only has one hard drive, which is the primary master. Then he should have a primary slave, secondary master and secondary slave set up. Use those three spare connections for all three drives.

 

[Shamrock]

Hmm.. So use the IDE cable on the HD to connect a primary slave? Then proceed to set up the other drives as secondary? Seems simple enough.

 

[Chris D]

Should work. See if there's any jumper settings on the optical drives - obviously make sure after you've connected them that it's all detected in the BIOS correctly.

 

[Shamrock]

Damn it. I wish my friend lived closer to me.. He is the person that wants to upgrade their computer but is a computer illiterate buffoon..
I know exactly what to do.. It is just hard for me to tell him what to do since he does not understand one word I am saying..

 

[bryanf445]

tell him to wait until you can help him, dont want him messing anything up

 

[Chris D]

I work in technical support, it's never a case of them not understanding you, it's you not explaining correctly! There's loads of ways to explain things so just try and be patient.

Why on earth does he need three opical drives anyway? The DVD-ROM drive will read CDs. In fact, the DVD-RW will read CDs and DVDs...

 

[bryanf445]

yea he shjould get rid of his cd drive and switch it with the dvd burner

 

[Shamrock]

I work in technical support, it's never a case of them not understanding you, it's you not explaining correctly! There's loads of ways to explain things so just try and be patient.

Why on earth does he need three opical drives anyway? The DVD-ROM drive will read CDs. In fact, the DVD-RW will read CDs and DVDs...

I do not even know. He purchased a computer with a DVD-ROM and a CD-ROM and no burner.. Now, he wants to install this previously purchased DVD-RW, but since he doesn't have a clue as to what he is doing, it is easier for me to wait till he has a means of transportation. Believe me, I tried and explained myself as clear as day. I don't think I could have been any clearer. It is just he is computer illiterate. Like I said, he is going to wait till he is able to come to my humble abode to install his burner.

 

[Chris D]

Though it's possible, there is absolutely no functional use that I can think of to have three generations of optical drives. Sure, have a CD-RW and a DVD-ROM or a DVD-ROM and a DVD-RW if you must, but a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM and a DVD-RW -- there's just no point.

EDIT: Surely it's just a case of saying "Find the drive that only plays CDs". "Unplug the cables from the back". "Take the DVD-RW". "Plug it in and connect all the cables to the same places they were on the other one."

 

[gweedodogg69]

Ask him...WHY!, lol. I only have one DVD-RW burner and I copy/burn everything just fine...well that and all my HDs are SATA so I can have 4 CD/DVD-ROMs if I want but that's just silly. Tell him to go to SCSI, he can have up to like 7 drives on one channel.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Should work. See if there's any jumper settings on the optical drives - obviously make sure after you've connected them that it's all detected in the BIOS correctly.

Bearing in mind that if you set any of the jumpers to either slave or primary and the bios doesn't recognise the drives, change the jumper to the cable select option (which are available on all new drives). The Cd drives should be alright with this, its just the HDD that can sometimes be a bastard (Cable select for the HDD is crucial if you can't get it to work)


experience

I'm lucky enough to have 3 IDE ports