At 5/10/2002 10:47 AM -0400, you wrote: >The primary issue with IDE (in spite of things like ATA/100, etc) is this: > >While you can have 2 drives on a chain, the system can only access one of >those drives at a time. So, if you happen to have your CD-ROM on /dev/hdc >and your writer on /dev/hdd, the machine has to read from hdc, stop, write >to hdd, stop, read from hdc, stop, write to hdd, etc. > >The only way around that is to have your CD-ROM on one cable, and your >writer on the other.
The other way around that is to use motherboards with onboard IDE RAID controllers such as those from Highpoint and Promise. While actually getting RAID to work on them is a whole 'nother kettle of fish, they do provide an extra two IDE channels easily and the controllers work well in Linux for simple IDE (non-RAID). This is a great way to have four devices as masters, each on its own channel. >The reason I mention this is that when writing a CD, you need a constant >stream of data, or you risk making a coaster instead of a CD. The >start/stop of the IDE system means that you risk data stream interruption. > >Newer burners do have larger buffers, which helps keep the data flowing, >but it's still a risk that I'd prefer not to take. Even newer burners have technology such as Plextor's BURN-proof, which is able to handle those interruptions and give you a No Coasters Guarantee (tm). Reportedly you can beat the hell out of your computer and the drives will still make a good CD. According to the popular magazines, this works very well. -- Rodolfo J. Paiz [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Redhat-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
