Lockups related to (possibly IDE issues) ?

[Bill Hacker]

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