The message 434E1C7B.7070901@brownowl.com from Laurie Brown laurie@brownowl.com contains these words:
As has been mentioned, the main problem is probably two slave devices on the same IDE channel. However, there's something else worth pointing out here.
When two devices share the same IDE channel, the speed of said channel slows or is set to the speed of the slowest device. So if you have a whizzy ATA-133 HD as master, and a CD (ATA-33/66) as slave, the fastest that channel will transfer data is 33 or 66, wasting the speed of the HD. So, put the HD and the CD on separate channels or at least configure things so your HD isn't crippled... Oh, and remember there's a difference between ATA-133 and ATA-66 IDE cables...
Hum. No speakee ATA - how do I tell?
First, I had the two IDE HDs on IDE channel 1 (cable detect) and the CD/DVD-RW and Zip on IDE2, CD as master and Zip as slave. The Zip didn't work at all.
Putting HD1 (master) and the Zip (slave) on IDE2 worked after a fashion, but only, I believe, until it had filled the RAM. It only worked well after changing HD1 to slave as well as the zip.
But what you say abut IDE cables being different is new to me. How can I tell ATA-133 from ATA-33/66? I have an idea that all the innards are too elderly for the ATA-133 - the newest is probably HD0, which is a 61ยท4 GB IMB Deskstar molished in March 2002, and just says: ATA/IDE.
Everything else is older, some of it *MUCH* older.