I am replacing my DVD burner because it doesn't read CD's anymore and is very noisy. I have the new one but was wondering if there is a way to install that as the master, leave my DVD-Rom as the slave and then add the original CD burner that came with the computer as a third optical drive. I thought it would be easy but when I took the old DVD burner out, I couldn't see where I could connect a third to the computer. Both the DVD burner and ROM are hooked up to the same ribbon chord (sorry for my weak tech terms, I think it's a ATA connection?) but the slots on the computer are taken up with this, the harddrive, and something else (power supply maybe?). I noticed the chord from the hard drive had the same kind of double connector half way down. Is it possible to plug the drive into the ribbon attached to the hard drive? Thanks
Yep! The cable going to the harddrive should be primary master. You can add an optical drive since is has an empty connector.The middle connectors are slave or cable select-do not set drive to master using that center connector. If unsure how the specs are on your pc,rig it up as slave.Any issues,then rig it up as c/s. You'll have to set the jumper pins on the back of drive to slave or c/s-depending on what your mobo calls for.Pretty easy. I use that connector for an extra harddrive. Your optical drives are on the secondary ide ribbon. Most peeps configure their dvd-rom drive as the secondary master and slave the dvd-rw drive as secondary slave. I've had them both ways and no performance differences for me. 3 of my pcs are configured the dvd-rom as slave while the dvd-rw drives are master.I run dual harddrives on 2 of my pcs-all on the primary ide ribbon. 1 note: Adding 3 optical drives will draw more power. Make sure you have a big enough power supply. What burner are you getting?
Thanks for the info. I had a HP burner that gave me no problems for 2 and a half years and when I brought it back to futureshop 5 months ago, they replaced it for free with and LG odel. Didn't like it from the start (very noisy) but used it until now when it crapped out reading CD's. Funny though, I bought an extended warranty but because it crapped out within the first year, I had to take another LG as a replacement (I think the model is GSA-H10N). If it lasted a year and a day I could have picked the external HP burner they had on sale, but now I have to wait and see how this works. If this craps out, I sure hope they see that the product is crap and let me pick a better brand. Still kicking myself for not researching enough before picking the LG. There was a Benq available which I shoul have picked. Oh well, like I say thanks for the help. I'll put this drive in tomorrow and see what happens.
