Promise IDE adapter bad for DVDRW?

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

Marcin Nowak <Marcin.Nowak@remove_it.cern.ch> wrote:

>
> For some time I had a setup with 2 HDDs on one onboard IDE channel
>and 2 DVDRW drives on the second. After experiencing difficulties
>with concurrent use of the two DVD writers I wanted to try if giving
>each writer a dedicated IDE channel would improve things.
>I connected the second DVDRW to a Promise Ultra100 IDE adapter. The
>result is a big failure: the drive can only write at 1x speed instead
>of 8x, and eats 50%-100% CPU. I have tried both DVD writers (they are
>different) and different cables.
> Funny enough, the DVD reading is working fine, it's only writing that
>hit some strange barrier.
> Any ideas what is the problem here?

Why not put your hard drives on the Promise card and put the DVDRW
drives on the motherboard controllers?
--
I am TERRIBLY cruel to my cat. I tease him with a vine tendril
until he either jumps up in the air to bat at it or zooms around
in a circle until he gets too dizzy to stand up. What is cruel about
it is that I don't do it nearly as much as he wants me to.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

Daniel Prince <neutrino1@comcast.net> writes:

> Marcin Nowak <Marcin.Nowak@remove_it.cern.ch> wrote:
> > For some time I had a setup with 2 HDDs on one onboard IDE channel
> >and 2 DVDRW drives on the second. After experiencing difficulties
> >with concurrent use of the two DVD writers I wanted to try if giving
> >each writer a dedicated IDE channel would improve things.
> >I connected the second DVDRW to a Promise Ultra100 IDE adapter. The
> >result is a big failure: the drive can only write at 1x speed instead
> >of 8x, and eats 50%-100% CPU. I have tried both DVD writers (they are
> >different) and different cables.
> > Funny enough, the DVD reading is working fine, it's only writing that
> >hit some strange barrier.
> > Any ideas what is the problem here?
>
> Why not put your hard drives on the Promise card and put the DVDRW
> drives on the motherboard controllers?
> --

I think I have tried that some time ago, and I believe it gave me
problems of some kind. Right now I can't really remember what exactly
the problems were, but most likely it was something to do with
booting. I have a multiboot to DOS, Win98 and 2k. I also have a SATA
disk, which could (?) possibly become C: if I move the others to
Promise.
Well, it might be doable, but before I start messing with that setup I
would first like to know the full story about Promise and DVD writers.

Marcin

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

"Marcin Nowak" <Marcin.Nowak@remove_it.cern.ch> wrote in message news:4qkmeuwh.fsf@remove_it.cern.ch
> Daniel Prince <neutrino1@comcast.net> writes:
> > Marcin Nowak <Marcin.Nowak@remove_it.cern.ch> wrote:
> > > For some time I had a setup with 2 HDDs on one onboard IDE channel
> > > and 2 DVDRW drives on the second. After experiencing difficulties
> > > with concurrent use of the two DVD writers I wanted to try if giving
> > > each writer a dedicated IDE channel would improve things.
> > > I connected the second DVDRW to a Promise Ultra100 IDE adapter.
> > > The result is a big failure: the drive can only write at 1x speed instead
> > > of 8x, and eats 50%-100% CPU. I have tried both DVD writers (they
> > > are different) and different cables.
> > > Funny enough, the DVD reading is working fine, it's only writing that
> > > hit some strange barrier.
> > > Any ideas what is the problem here?
> >
> > Why not put your hard drives on the Promise card and put the DVDRW
> > drives on the motherboard controllers?
> > --
>
> I think I have tried that some time ago, and I believe it gave me
> problems of some kind. Right now I can't really remember what exactly
> the problems were, but most likely it was something to do with
> booting. I have a multiboot to DOS, Win98 and 2k. I also have a SATA
> disk, which could (?) possibly become C: if I move the others to Promise.
> Well, it might be doable, but before I start messing with that setup I
> would first like to know the full story about Promise and DVD writers.

Promise only very recently started to support ATAPI on their controllers.
You should probably give them a few years to catch up. *eg*

>
> Marcin

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

"Folkert Rienstra" <see_reply-to@myweb.nl> writes:
> Promise only very recently started to support ATAPI on their controllers.
> You should probably give them a few years to catch up. *eg*

Oh, I see. This controller is not even very recent, it's the
original Ultra100. So maybe the ATAPI support was really poor than.
I actually assumed that there is no difference between HDD and DVD
IDE interface. I suspect that was naive. I am off to learn some more
on this subject.
Thanks,
Marcin