Configuring SATA and PATA drives? at DVinfo.net

Bogdan Vaglarov · November 11th, 2003, 10:26 PM

Ifm close to ordering my compact bare bone system and the components for making an editing PC. I decided to go and fill up all the space available for hard drives. There are 2x3.5h and 1x5.25h bays I can occupy. The onboard connections are for 2 IDE and 2 SATA drives.

How shall I configure my drives? I will order 2 SATA and 1 PATA but wonder which can be the C: (OS drive). Can I make 1 SATA system and the other SATA for video capture. Then the PATA to be for rendered files and ready projects? Or the PATA drive to be on the IDE and the 2 SATA drive for capture and multimedia? Can I change the drive letter in the BIOS at first boot up or the system decides which is the system drive automatically?

Ifll have also DVD-RW. Is it better to be master on the secondary IDE channel as Ifll already have one IDE HDD? For less cable clutter itfs easier to be slave using the same cable as the HDD though.

Ifll appreciate any suggestions. Thank you.

Glenn Chan · November 12th, 2003, 12:59 AM

When installing windowsXP there's a slight issue with instaling windows on a SATA drive. see http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~pacstar/satatech.html Just work around it.

Bogdan Vaglarov · November 12th, 2003, 03:54 AM

Thanks Glenn,
The motherboard supports Two Standard SATA connectors ICH5 so shouldn't be problem.

How about the DVD-RW and the IDE drive? I have too many questions.

If I use SATA drive for the ready projects does it matter if the DVD burner is master or slave on same channel as the IDE drive?

Glenn Chan · November 12th, 2003, 10:51 AM

You should put each drive on its own bus if you can (it's on its own bus if there aren't any other devices on the same ribbon/cable). The drive controllers can only communicate with one drive at a time so 2 drives on one bus is not the best.

The manual for your drives (hard drive and DVD burner) should have information on how to set them up. Putting them both on the end of the IDE ribbon (not in the middle) and leaving the jumper on cable select should usually work. Otherwise go read the manual.

I'm not sure which drive you should put your OS on. Maybe choose the smallest one OR a drive with a 8MB buffer. What hard drives are you using?
You can try asking around on the storagereview.com forum, they know a lot about hard drives there.

Bogdan Vaglarov · November 13th, 2003, 01:41 AM

Thanks Glenn - as always your advise is very helpful.

I searched for opinion here as the people from this forum know better what is good for handling video (rather than gaming or other aplications).

I'm considering all my drives to be with 8MB buffer. I'm in proccess of ordering via the net so wanted to figure out which type to be what size depending on the use (for OS or data...)

I'll probably go for a 80GB SATA for system and then add another SATA (160GB) and larger PATA (may be even 250GB) for storage.

Glenn Chan · November 14th, 2003, 12:12 AM

How much storage space do you need?

Depending on how much you need, I'd get the largest drives you can get. One choice is to get 2 large drives. Use one of them as the system drive and the other for video capture. An example would be to use the Hitachi SATA drive for the OS (best performance for OS and apps for a 7200rpm drive) and an Hitachi/IBM, WD, or Maxtor PATA/SATA drive.

On huge projects, use the system drive for video too. You might get a problem if your OS/applications are trying to access the system drive at the same time you are capturing. The Hitachi SATA drive has lots of extra bandwidth/speed for DV capture (DV is 3.6MB/s while the Hitachi can theoretically do at least 30MB/s writes) so theoretically it shouldn't ever drop frames- but I could be wrong. With wimpier drives on macs and PCs I have been able to successfully capture onto the system drive, but temporary hard drive activity from other programs can mess you up. You can set up Windows to not run any other applications.

Another choice would be to get a small PATA drive (WD with 8MB cache is recommended) for the system and OS. Then use SATA drives for video capture. You might want to get the largest ones possible or the best capacity/price ratio capacity drives. The largest drives might be the best bang for the buck. Check newegg.com

Arnaldo Paixao · November 19th, 2003, 10:25 AM

Hi Bogdan.

IDE 1 : Parallel ATA Drive configured as Master
IDE 2 : Parallel ATA Drive configured as Master
______DVD-RW configured as Slave

SATA 1 : SATA Drive
SATA 2 : SATA Drive

In Windows XP, build a RAID 0 array with the two SATA drives for your audio/video files. Use the Parallel ATA Drive on IDE 2 as your export drive.

Best regards,
Arnaldo

Bogdan Vaglarov · November 19th, 2003, 08:08 PM

Thanks Arnaldo,

I'm not very clear with the terminology.

What do you mean drive for audio/video files - the drive on which to capture and store such data. How about the editing projects?

And export drive - is that where you render to MPEG2 and prepare for DVD burning?

No problem for the DVD-RW being slave?

Thanks again,
Bogdan

Arnaldo Paixao · November 20th, 2003, 03:29 AM

Hi Bogdan.

"What do you mean drive for audio/video files - the drive on which to capture and store such data. How about the editing projects?" --> Yes, its the drive to capture to and store the files with your movies, music, photos and all that you will use in your video editing.

"And export drive - is that where you render to MPEG2 and prepare for DVD burning?" --> Yes. The export drive should allways be separate from the capture drive.

"No problem for the DVD-RW being slave?" --> No.

Best regards,
Arnaldo

November 11th, 2003, 10:26 PM	#1
Bogdan Vaglarov Major Player Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Yokohama, Japan Posts: 366	Configuring SATA and PATA drives? Ifm close to ordering my compact bare bone system and the components for making an editing PC. I decided to go and fill up all the space available for hard drives. There are 2x3.5h and 1x5.25h bays I can occupy. The onboard connections are for 2 IDE and 2 SATA drives. How shall I configure my drives? I will order 2 SATA and 1 PATA but wonder which can be the C: (OS drive). Can I make 1 SATA system and the other SATA for video capture. Then the PATA to be for rendered files and ready projects? Or the PATA drive to be on the IDE and the 2 SATA drive for capture and multimedia? Can I change the drive letter in the BIOS at first boot up or the system decides which is the system drive automatically? Ifll have also DVD-RW. Is it better to be master on the secondary IDE channel as Ifll already have one IDE HDD? For less cable clutter itfs easier to be slave using the same cable as the HDD though. Ifll appreciate any suggestions. Thank you.

November 12th, 2003, 12:59 AM	#2
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	When installing windowsXP there's a slight issue with instaling windows on a SATA drive. see http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~pacstar/satatech.html Just work around it.

November 12th, 2003, 03:54 AM	#3
Bogdan Vaglarov Major Player Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Yokohama, Japan Posts: 366	Thanks Glenn, The motherboard supports Two Standard SATA connectors ICH5 so shouldn't be problem. How about the DVD-RW and the IDE drive? I have too many questions. If I use SATA drive for the ready projects does it matter if the DVD burner is master or slave on same channel as the IDE drive?

November 12th, 2003, 10:51 AM	#4
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	You should put each drive on its own bus if you can (it's on its own bus if there aren't any other devices on the same ribbon/cable). The drive controllers can only communicate with one drive at a time so 2 drives on one bus is not the best. The manual for your drives (hard drive and DVD burner) should have information on how to set them up. Putting them both on the end of the IDE ribbon (not in the middle) and leaving the jumper on cable select should usually work. Otherwise go read the manual. I'm not sure which drive you should put your OS on. Maybe choose the smallest one OR a drive with a 8MB buffer. What hard drives are you using? You can try asking around on the storagereview.com forum, they know a lot about hard drives there.

November 13th, 2003, 01:41 AM	#5
Bogdan Vaglarov Major Player Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Yokohama, Japan Posts: 366	Thanks Glenn - as always your advise is very helpful. I searched for opinion here as the people from this forum know better what is good for handling video (rather than gaming or other aplications). I'm considering all my drives to be with 8MB buffer. I'm in proccess of ordering via the net so wanted to figure out which type to be what size depending on the use (for OS or data...) I'll probably go for a 80GB SATA for system and then add another SATA (160GB) and larger PATA (may be even 250GB) for storage.

November 14th, 2003, 12:12 AM	#6
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	How much storage space do you need? Depending on how much you need, I'd get the largest drives you can get. One choice is to get 2 large drives. Use one of them as the system drive and the other for video capture. An example would be to use the Hitachi SATA drive for the OS (best performance for OS and apps for a 7200rpm drive) and an Hitachi/IBM, WD, or Maxtor PATA/SATA drive. On huge projects, use the system drive for video too. You might get a problem if your OS/applications are trying to access the system drive at the same time you are capturing. The Hitachi SATA drive has lots of extra bandwidth/speed for DV capture (DV is 3.6MB/s while the Hitachi can theoretically do at least 30MB/s writes) so theoretically it shouldn't ever drop frames- but I could be wrong. With wimpier drives on macs and PCs I have been able to successfully capture onto the system drive, but temporary hard drive activity from other programs can mess you up. You can set up Windows to not run any other applications. Another choice would be to get a small PATA drive (WD with 8MB cache is recommended) for the system and OS. Then use SATA drives for video capture. You might want to get the largest ones possible or the best capacity/price ratio capacity drives. The largest drives might be the best bang for the buck. Check newegg.com

November 19th, 2003, 10:25 AM	#7
Arnaldo Paixao Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Vimeiro - Portugal Posts: 255	Hi Bogdan. IDE 1 : Parallel ATA Drive configured as Master IDE 2 : Parallel ATA Drive configured as Master ______DVD-RW configured as Slave SATA 1 : SATA Drive SATA 2 : SATA Drive In Windows XP, build a RAID 0 array with the two SATA drives for your audio/video files. Use the Parallel ATA Drive on IDE 2 as your export drive. Best regards, Arnaldo

November 19th, 2003, 08:08 PM	#8
Bogdan Vaglarov Major Player Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Yokohama, Japan Posts: 366	Thanks Arnaldo, I'm not very clear with the terminology. What do you mean drive for audio/video files - the drive on which to capture and store such data. How about the editing projects? And export drive - is that where you render to MPEG2 and prepare for DVD burning? No problem for the DVD-RW being slave? Thanks again, Bogdan

November 20th, 2003, 03:29 AM	#9
Arnaldo Paixao Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Vimeiro - Portugal Posts: 255	Hi Bogdan. "What do you mean drive for audio/video files - the drive on which to capture and store such data. How about the editing projects?" --> Yes, its the drive to capture to and store the files with your movies, music, photos and all that you will use in your video editing. "And export drive - is that where you render to MPEG2 and prepare for DVD burning?" --> Yes. The export drive should allways be separate from the capture drive. "No problem for the DVD-RW being slave?" --> No. Best regards, Arnaldo