How many IDE devices can i connect to my computer

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JDLaRose

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Mar 9, 2014
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Currently i have two hard drives and two CD Roms connected and i have an empty IDE slot on my mother board.
Can i use that to add a third or fourth Hard Drive?

my setup is
Dell Dimension 1100
Western digital 160 GB Master HDD
Seagate Baracuda 80GB Slave

not sure the CD roms

1.5 GB of Ram

Please don't tell me Upgrade to Sata or anything like that
 
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mbarnes86

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Sep 16, 2010
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Hi

You need a 80wire ATA ribbon cable some spare moles connectors from the power supply
And some ata (pata). Hard disks and space to mount them which depends on which case you have. Hopefully a tower case

If you can find a 400 or 500GB ata (pata) hard disk you probably only need one

Regards
Mike Barnes
 
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Paperdoc

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Oct 19, 2006
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Each IDE port on your mobo can have up to TWO IDE devices attached to it. Most mobos have two such ports, so max 4 IDE devices in a machine. That is, unless you added extras via a controller card in a PCI slot.

I'm guessing your two CD-ROM units must be connected to SATA ports. You claim the HDD's are Master and Slave, and those terms apply only to an IDE port, so I'm assuming those two share one wide (80-conductor) ribbon cable to one IDE port, leaving the other empty.
 
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mbarnes86

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Sep 16, 2010
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Hi
According to specs you have 2 ATA. Ports supporting 4 ATA devices
There is a floppy connector which is smaller than ATA cable connector
Is spare ATA connector on motherboard or on a PCI or PCI-e card ?

Do you have a floppy disk drive fitted ?

If above applies replace one DVD drive or one hard disk with new 400 or 500 GB ATA hard disk

Regards
Mike Barnes

 
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Ijack

Ijack

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Jul 30, 2008
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Be aware that if you run a hard disk and an optical disk on the same IDE channel the performance of the hard disk will suffer. As others have said, you can't have a spare IDE slot if you already have four IDE devices in the computer. But IDE or SATA interface cards are very cheap if you want to add more storage. Despite your request I would recommend a cheap SATA card as it will give better performance than the IDE one and I think SATA drives are cheaper.
 
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JDLaRose

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Mar 9, 2014
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No sorry
i have no sata What so ever, i like to keep away from it as my Data tends to disapear from it

all my Drives are IDE my Dell has 3 or 4 IDE Slots only using two of them they are all the same size with same amount of pins on them




 
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Ijack

Ijack

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my Dell has 3 or 4 IDE Slots only using two of them they are all the same size with same amount of pins on them
Click to expand...
Then you have a unique Dimension 1100. According to the service manual the 1100 has a floppy disk connector a hard disk connector and a CD connector. The latter is, in reality, a second IDE connector.
 
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JDLaRose

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it may have had a floppy but it might have been takin out i found the computer ina dumb pile a year ago and replaced the harddrive so that might just be the IDE port for it but theres still that second one
 
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Ijack

Ijack

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Well, if you're convinced that you have three ide connectors go ahead and use them. According to the service manual from Dell you have one floppy connector (black), which looks similar to an IDE connector but is quite different, the hard disk connector (black) and the CD connector (white).

Let us know how you get on; it will be quite a trick to run a hard disk from a floppy interface.
 
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JDLaRose

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ok well ill double check the board and see what i get. It's a tight fit so i might be wrong
 
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Paperdoc

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By the way, "tight fit" is not it. An IDE port connector has 2 rows of 20 pins (total 40) with one pin missing. A floppy drive connector port has 2 rows of 17 pins (34 total) minus one pin missing; hence it is smaller than an IDE port connector. You cannot fit an IDE data cable into a floppy disk mobo connector.

It is likely that you have two IDE ports, each already connected to two IDE devices - two HDD's on one port, and two optical drives on another. To add more HDD's you will have to add a hard drive controller card to a PCI slot, and you can choose between more IDE ports or some SATA ports. SATA is the current "standard", and IDE HDD units are getting harder to find.
 
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JDLaRose

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Mar 9, 2014
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by tight fit i meant i meant the area where they are is tight from all the wires from the power supply and IDE cables


but it turns out that the empty IDE connector on the board is Black and is missing 2 pins so i assume thats for the floppy

i'll stick with IDE as long as i can i have problems with sata staying pluged in and connected nothing against sata just not good for studio to have drives disconecting all the time
 
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JDLaRose

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ya my granies computer has locking Sata conectors

right now im looking into another 160 GB HDD aswell as a HDD docking station and a PCI USB card just so i can store my data on the D; drive and Keep C open for Programs and software

but im not looking into updgrading yet my dell been good to me the best computer i owned can always rely on it
 
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