Hard drive install question

[lx5091]

Joe, you don't want to run your CD-RW and DVD on the same cable (channel) this will significantly reduce the bandwidth of each device and cause an error when trying to burn one CD to the other. By the same token you want to AVOID running the CD-RW on the same channel as the hard drive.

The correct format for a your computer system would be:

Channel 1 Primary----- Hard drive
Channel 1 Secondary- CD/DVD drive

Channel 2 Primary----- CD-RW
Channel 3 Secondary- Zip drive (if it is IDE drive vs. USB, etc)

You can buy a new large drive to REPLACE your current hard drive and install a fresh copy of Windows (not as bad as you think), you can buy a USB external hard drive, or you can buy a PCI card with additional IDE channels that You can plug stuff into. If you were to go with the PCI card, it would be in your best interest performance-wise to run it as follows:

Channel 1 Primary----- Hard drive (C:\)
Channel 1 Secondary- Zip drive (if it is IDE drive vs. USB, etc)

Channel 2 Primary----- Hard drive #2
Channel 3 Secondary- CD/DVD

PCI IDE Channel #1--- CD-RW

Hope I've made sense to you.