IDE Drive speed help

[GrinningGSer]

Two IDE drives on the same IDE ultra cable. Win XP Both set to write cache and both set for auto DMA boy one is showing POI mode and will not change. 1GB RAM Dell Optiplex GX260
Both set as cable select on IDE cable
Problem is date copy (backup from one drive to other) now frustratingly slower than usual
I need to speed up data transfer. How ?
More RAM
Is there a card which will provide faster data transfer to second drive ?

 

[Bear]

It's a long time since I last had to think about such things so I might well be a little rusty but I'm not convinced of two drives both using cable select. I'd try using the master and slave selects on the discs themselves.

 

[GrinningGSer]

Ok, will try that for starters, but I wondered if there is a card that one can insert, to speed up data transfer to the slave drive.

 

[uncle dick]

From memory, it was always quicker to transfer files when the drives were on separate cables.

 

[Clive]

Two IDE drives on the same IDE ultra cable. Win XP Both set to write cache and both set for auto DMA boy one is showing POI mode and will not change. 1GB RAM Dell Optiplex GX260
Both set as cable select on IDE cable
Problem is date copy (backup from one drive to other) now frustratingly slower than usual
I need to speed up data transfer. How ?
More RAM
Is there a card which will provide faster data transfer to second drive ?

There are cards available with "antique" IDE capabilities - what have you done, hardware wise, since it wasn't "slower than usual"?

 

[GrinningGSer]

Clive, HD master died, so contents ghosted from ghost backup to a new hd. Somehow this has resulted in one drive being restricted to poi mode and I finally fixed it yesterday in a roundabout route and a bios tween and suddenly everything is restored to ultra dma mode on both drives. Speed now back to normal.Thanks everyone.

 

[bowser]

In anwser to your question, data transfer will be slowser if both drives on same IDE cable, and in any case transfer will take place at speed of slowest drive.