Max number of disk drives for one computer?

[MikePizzoff]

How many CD/CDR/DVD/etc drives can you have on one computer? Is 2 the max possible?

EDIT: This is for a friend of mine. Why he wants to have more than 2 drives is beyond me. I tell him that since he has one CDR and one DVDR that's all he needs... but he still wants three hooked up.

[Eyebiter]

IDE or scsi?

Normally with ide you can have four devices (hard drive, CD, or DVD)

Primary Master/Slave and Secondary Master/Slave


SCSI - number of devices depends on the card. Advanced technology Adaptec 2940UW cards support up to 15 internal and external devices.

[LoSTBoY]

You can have as many as 26 (A: - Z:) I think, maybe even more.

You can fill up your USB ports with external drives as well as using the IDE ports, and now that you can get SATA hard drives you can use all 4 IDE places for CD/DVD drives.

EDIT: 3 shouldn't be a problem, as long as he still has 1 hard drive to run his OS.

I'm guessing he wants a DVD drive so he can copy DVD's with his DVD writer.

[coma]

I have 3 and 1 is a serial. I had 4 at one time.
Why? More storage, plus redundency and back up.

[Neil]

Typically, the most people will have is three HDs and one CD/DVD, via two IDE slots, each with a master and slave.

You can have more, but typically three is the most...

[Dawg]

Typically, the most people will have is three HDs and one CD/DVD, via two IDE slots, each with a master and slave.

You can have more, but typically three is the most...

I have three hard drives.

A: 3 1/2 Floppy Drive;
C: Local HD;
D: 120GB HD;
E: Partioned HD from C: I believe?
F: DVD +-RW/CD-RW;
G: DVD-ROM;
H: Sony Memory Stick Drive;
I: Compact Flash Drive;
J: SmartMedia Drive; &
K: 300GB USB HD!

That is a lot of freaking drives!

:dead: Dawg

[7feet]

You can also get an extra IDE card that you can slap in one of the PCI slots and get another 4 channels for hard or optical drives. Or a RAID controller, most'll let you set things up in a lot of different ways, including just having a bunch more drives. One kinda cool thing you can do with that, also, is to "span" a bunch of smaller drives and have the system see them as one truly huge drive.

[Philly_SWAT]

I'm guessing he wants a DVD drive so he can copy DVD's with his DVD writer.

Thats what I was guessing. If so, he only needs 2, the DVD drive and the DVR drive. I am told that a DVR can copy CD's as well, so you dont need another drive for that.

[Dawg]

Thats what I was guessing. If so, he only needs 2, the DVD drive and the DVR drive. I am told that a DVR can copy CD's as well, so you dont need another drive for that.

You can get by with only one DVD-R drive as long as you don't do a direct copy of a DVD to another DVD Drive. (Which I don't think is possible anyway because of copy protection.)

One DVD-R can be used to copy it to the hard drive and then back to the same drive on a blank DVD.

:dead: Dawg