"Steve James" wrote in message
. ..
Hi

I have two HD's on the same IDE channel, I think one is faster than the
other (ATA and RPM), will the fastest one be 'held back' by the slowest
one
or not ? I have my O/S and program files on the main (fastest) drive and
only use the slower one for storage and the pagefile. (to reduce head
travel)

MTIA

Steve



Steve,

Short answer: Yes.
Pagefile should be located on the boot partition. If you only want to
consider speed, it should be on the fastest drive.

Long answer;
My understanding of the IDE bus is that the drives will operate a the speed
(transfer rate) of the slowest device on a channel. RPM rates of the drives
are definitely independent (i.e., A 7200RPM drive always spins at 7200RPM,
even with a 5400RPM drive attached to the same channel).

My practical experience suggests;
1) This generally excludes CD/DVD drives. Although I've experienced some
that seem to "slow-down" a hard drive.
2) Note the term "channel". As you know most computers have on-board IDE
controllers. Most IDE controllers operate 2 channels. (EIDE1/EIDE2 or
Primary/Secondary connections on the MB). My experience dictates for the
best hard drive through-put drives of "like types" (i.e., ATA/33 or ATA100
or ATA133) should be on the same channel.

That said:
Of course, you'll want to check performance at each step including the
current configuration. Find a tool that'll measures drive performance in
each configuration. This way you can measure your results and determine the
optimum connections.
If you have a total of 3 devices; (2 HDD's, 1 CD) I'd connect the slower of
the 2 hard drives on the same channel with the CD and leave the faster drive
by itself. If you have 4 devices; I'd try 1 HD and 1 other device on each
channel.

Articles I've read and my personal experience with pagefile.sys indicates
that it should be located on the boot partition.


Rick
http://www.howtorecoverdata.com