3 hard drives?

[rogerdee]

ok silly question i got 3 hard drives
2 are connected and the 3rd isnt can i take out the cd rom player and connect the 3rd hard drive there instead?

i already got a dvd rom so the cd rom players is surplus to reqirmenrs at moment?This 3rd hard drive has a couple of programs i want  but when i try transfering the programs to the other drive they then wont work ,even i restart the .exe folder to reiestal the program?can this be done and will it save or cause problems?

[Krusty]

The problem with that is the connection cable. If the HD is IDE (I'm assuming it is) then you have to route the plug from your CD-ROM to your third HD. Chances are it won't reach from the HD up to the DVD-ROM, now. So you're going to lose something.

You can also pick up PCI insert cards with IDE plugs. Not sure why, but my old PentiumIII from Gateway had one of these. With it, and pri/sec IDE on my mobo, I never lacked a free plug.

I would say the easiest solution would be to somehow mount the HD in the 5" bay the CD-ROM currently occupies. This also has its own problems (is there such a mount available? Heat may build up around the drive -- no ventilation) or move the DVD-ROM (shuffle it) to the lowest physical 5" bay you have in order to reduce the distance between the HD (in standard position) and the DVD-ROM.

I think you have to shuffle stuff, but it *should* be possible, right?

[Tigger29]

Yes.. technically you can connect this third hard drive in lieu of your cd-rom drive, ASSUMING it's an IDE drive (uses the same connector).

If you're wanting to hook it up temporarily don't even bother mounting it.  Just shutdown, unplug the CDROM, make sure the jumper setting is the same on the hard drive you're putting in (master vs. slave), plug in the hard drive... just kind of let it hang.  Boot up.. copy it all over to one of your other two hard drives... unhook it and then plug the cdrom back in.

If you want to hook it up permanently, and you don't have an extra hard drive bay, AND the cable won't reach.. then you can purchase a 5 1/4" to 3 1/2" bay adapter.  The hard drive mounts into the adapter, and then the adapter mounts where the CDROM currently is.  They even make some with fans built in, but I doubt you'll really need that being it doesn't sound like a real high performance setup (but I could be wrong).

ANOTHER thing you can do is purchase a USB external enclosure.. usually like $30 or so... you can mount the hard drive in that.. then connect it to your computer via USB.. then you won't even have to bother taking your computer apart.

Good luck

[Roscoroo]

you can hook up a 3rd drive on the cdrom ide cable just set it to slave .

I use a removable hard drive rack in the bay for it . this works great for doing quick formats and or tranfuring programs for different pc's





they have them in ide and sata interface . Just another option to look at.

[Cyg]

Originally posted by Krusty


...... Not sure why, but my old PentiumIII from Gateway had one of these. With it, and pri/sec IDE on my mobo, I never lacked a free plug.

 

They were Promise cards, and they gave a faster transfer rate.