Saw this mentioned on another forum and not really thought about it before...

I have the typical mobo with 2x IDE connectors on it, allowing me 4x IDE devices (I have a master HDD (C:\) and a slave HDD (F:\) on IDE1, and a DVD-RW (D:\) and DVD-ROM (E:\) on IDE2)

Anyway, I read that the above set up is very efficient. I know I can only get PIO ONLY mode between the two HDD's rather than DMA or ULTRA DMA....

It was written that the best way to do it is like so;



Apparently that way, when "talking" between the two HDD's, the speed will be quicker, specially when copying data between HDD's, as they aren't using a common cable/IDE channel, and having the DVD-RW drive on the same channel as the master C:\ HDD means that burning data from the slave HDD will be quicker, and copying from disc to disc between the two DVD drives will also be quicker....

Is this right?

Next question - if I power off my PC, swap the connectors to the above config, and boot up, will it all work fine, as in the pooter recognise which drive is which and where it is and all work as per normal, or will it have a fit as drive letters are already assigned?