Posted by Max on January 20, 19102 at 22:13:08:
In Reply to: Adding a second hard drive posted by Saundra Pinali on December 29, 19101 at 09:04:14:
Each IDE channel can serve at most 2 devices. You probably have one ribbon cable for each IDE channel, and it sounds like you already have 2 devices on each channel - HD and Zip drive on one channel, and DVD and CD on the second channel. Unless your motherboard has more than 2 IDE channels (rare, but there are some), its IDE capacity is all filled up.
You can add more IDE channels by adding an IDE controller card (assuming you have a PCI slot open), such as the Abit HA100 or HA66 or those made by Promise Technology. One of these would probably cost between $50 and $100, and allow up to 4 more IDE devices. It might also speed up your hard drives, if the motherboard IDE channels are slower than your present or future drive (i.e., don't support UDMA/100).
Another possibility: replace the existing hard drive with a much bigger one, Partition it into 2 more partitions if appropriate. You didn't say what your reason is for wanting to add another drive.
If you want to follow up this answer, email me privately rather than replying here.
: I am thinking of adding a second hard drive to my computer. The problem is, that it already has a DVD ROM drive, a CD-R drive, a zip drive in addition to a 3.5" floppy drive. The ribbon cable from the motherboard to the hard drive is also connected to the zip drive at the point where you would typically connect a second hard drive. Is it possible to buy and install a ribbon cable with two extra connectors, one for the second hard drive and the other for the zip drive? Would there be problems associated with this type of setup? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.