My computor has 5 slots for HD's but when I hook up a 3rd slave nothing but the master works. I have heard that you can only have 2 but then why have 5 slots???
2007-06-04 12:26:19 · 6 answers · asked by Mike B 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Other - Hardware
You can attach as many as your motherboard/computer support. The total number question isn't as important as your problem. You failed to include any computer specs, so I'll have to guess/assUme. You said you were hooking up a "3rd slave" so I'm assuming this is a PATA/IDE drive jumpered as a slave. If you plugged it in and nothing but the master works, you either have it jumpered/attached wrong, or the cable is bad. Lets review.
IDE/PATA can have up to two devices per channel. One end of the cable gets attached to the motherboard. (It might be colored blue, but is the one all by itself.) If you are attaching two drives to this channel, the slave one goes next on the cable. Properly jumper the drive as slave, and put it in the middle of the cable. The master goes next. Jumper it as a master, and attach it to the other end. Provide power to all drives, and you should be good to go.
SATA drives are different. Only one per channel, so there are no jumpers to worry about. Simply attach the SATA cable, provide power, and go.
Last, you don't figure out how many of X a computer can handle by looking at the case. I my computer right now I have 3 harddrives, and two DVD burners.
2007-06-04 12:49:36 · answer #1 · answered by nerdist_nerd 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I assumed it is a PATA interface because you mentioned SLAVE, in that case, 5 HDD slots means 10 HDD (for one slot can accommodate 2 HDD, a Master and a Slave using IDE cable/ribbon). You said, you hooked up 3rd Slave, means that was your 6th HDD, why don't you make it a Master and hook up on the other vacant slot?
2007-06-04 12:52:35 · answer #2 · answered by Green T 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can have as many as you want. The slots for the drives are some(typically 4), and you can also buy some to hookup to a PC. Sadly, I don't know about Macs.
2007-06-04 12:35:00 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hi. Usually you use two in pairs with one as master and the other as slave. Two pairs means four drives.
2007-06-04 12:33:44 · answer #4 · answered by Cirric 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A ton. I've seen someone with 10 raptor HDDs (ridiculously expensive, might have been a server now that I think about it).
Usually people use two to four.
2007-06-04 12:31:51 · answer #5 · answered by Booyah 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Four.
2007-06-04 12:29:20 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋