Re: Lockups related to (possibly IDE issues) ?

[Bill Hacker <wbh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Matthew Dillon wrote:

*SNIP*

>     slave.  If you have a twisty-cable, then things get more complicated
>     because the two device connectors on the cable act differently (sometimes
>     even if the drive or CDRom is jumpered explicitly for master/slave).

ACK - they would do.
  The 'twisty cable' should have the devices set to 'CS' (Cable Select) ONLY.

>     I recommend *NOT* using a twisty cable.

Agreed.  But largely 'coz they are not easy to find - or even easy to make in 
UDMA-grade (shielded).

Their primary value is in making pre-configured spares for IDE hot swap not need 
jumper changes, so most of these exist in bespoke housings, muhc as 
externally-set SCSI-ID did.


>     Just use a straight-through
>     cable (both connectors on the cable act the same) and jumper the drive
>     as a master and the CDROM as a slave.  Put the drive on the END of the
>     cable, not the middle (this is because IDE hard drives almost always
>     terminate the cable properly while many CDROM drives do not, and this
>     is important at higher IDE speeds).

ALSO:

- IF using HDD on *both* PATA connectors of a channel, do not expect that the 
'slave' units will in all cases work well/at all if the 'master' units go 
flakey. Not HDD anyway...

- When possible, keep CD & DVD on separate IDE PATA controllers from HDD entirely.

- I strongly recommended NOT using PATA secondary channels for IDE psuedo-RAID
(ATACONTROL, GMIRROR) - or even *any* critical-use device. Often better to add a 
controller and waste those connectors.

- 'Proper' SATA controllers (not all are such) get around all this, as each 
connection is an independent animal, just 'mapped' to traditional IDE dev ID's.

- Use of a SATA controller with a SATA-to-PATA terminating adaptor to a PATA 
device can solve several of the above issues rather nicely if you have a need 
for supporting the odd legacy PATA device in an otherwise SATA box.
'GigaByte' packages some that have a pull-off loop and fit available space well.

Beware the junk SATA-PATA that is also on the market as unpackaged PCB's.

PATA -> SATA whole different can of worms.

;-)

*snip* (cron issues)

JFWIW...

Bill Hacker