Disruptor wrote on 2025-09-04, 14:10:

30 Years ago I connected the HDD LED to the IDE onboard controller and the turbo LED to my SCSI controller.

That was what I was thinking when I saw the thread too.

Add some moar controllers!

Oh yeah, see eg. Promise Ultra66 card - two IDE (PATA) connectors, and 4-pin LED connector - probably for two LEDs, one for each of the IDE channels...

Grzyb wrote on 2025-09-05, 07:27:

Oh yeah, see eg. Promise Ultra66 card - two IDE (PATA) connectors, and 4-pin LED connector - probably for two LEDs, one for each of the IDE channels...

Oh cool. Something like that would be ideal! I take it I would need to connect the HDDs to that first?

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-09-05, 10:56:

Oh cool. Something like that would be ideal! I take it I would need to connect the HDDs to that first?

Yes.
With that card, you have 6 IDE connectors total:

motherboard:
IDE1 - UDMA33 - CD-ROM
IDE2 - UDMA33
IDE3 - UDMA66 - HDD #1
IDE4 - UDMA66

card:
IDE1 - UDMA66 - HDD #2
IDE2 - UDMA66 - HDD #3

Your HDDs are even faster than UDMA66, so avoid connecting them to the UDMA33 channels.

Grzyb wrote on 2025-09-05, 11:23:

Yes. With that card, you have 6 IDE connectors total: […]
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DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-09-05, 10:56:

Oh cool. Something like that would be ideal! I take it I would need to connect the HDDs to that first?

Yes.
With that card, you have 6 IDE connectors total:

motherboard:
IDE1 - UDMA33 - CD-ROM
IDE2 - UDMA33
IDE3 - UDMA66 - HDD #1
IDE4 - UDMA66

card:
IDE1 - UDMA66 - HDD #2
IDE2 - UDMA66 - HDD #3

Your HDDs are even faster than UDMA66, so avoid connecting them to the UDMA33 channels.

Awesome. Thanks. Is my IDE 1 and 2 UDMA33...? Or is that what they typically are? Looks like I'll have to re-jiggle the order then to ensure they're on UDMA66.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-09-05, 11:42:

Thanks. Is my IDE 1 and 2 UDMA33...? Or is that what they typically are?

IDE 1 and 2 are controlled directly by the chipset - 440BX, which is limited to UDMA33.
IDE 3 and 4 are controlled by a separate chip - HPT366, which supports up to UDMA66.

Grzyb wrote on 2025-09-05, 12:10:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-09-05, 11:42:

Thanks. Is my IDE 1 and 2 UDMA33...? Or is that what they typically are?

IDE 1 and 2 are controlled directly by the chipset - 440BX, which is limited to UDMA33.
IDE 3 and 4 are controlled by a separate chip - HPT366, which supports up to UDMA66.

Ahh, I see. Cool. I'll look at swapping the drives around a bit later. 😀

Grzyb wrote on 2025-09-05, 11:23:

Yes. With that card, you have 6 IDE connectors total: […]
Show full quote

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-09-05, 10:56:

Oh cool. Something like that would be ideal! I take it I would need to connect the HDDs to that first?

Yes.
With that card, you have 6 IDE connectors total:

motherboard:
IDE1 - UDMA33 - CD-ROM
IDE2 - UDMA33
IDE3 - UDMA66 - HDD #1
IDE4 - UDMA66

card:
IDE1 - UDMA66 - HDD #2
IDE2 - UDMA66 - HDD #3

Your HDDs are even faster than UDMA66, so avoid connecting them to the UDMA33 channels.

Okay, I'm having a bit of an issue (big surprise). I've connected HDD 1 and 2, which are on the same ribbon, to IDE 3, I believe. HDD 3 is on IDE 4. Since making these changes though, HDD 3 is complaining of errors and bad sectors again. I had the unfortunate task of copying all the CD images I have on there to another HDD so I could reformat it and fix it from problems. I suspect I'm going to have to do that again. It seems quite picky about being changed and doing so causes errors. The other HDDs never seem to be affected though. Scan Disk does ask if LBA is set, but I've no idea. IDE 1 and 2 give me the option in the BIOS. Accessing the Highpoint BIOS, with Ctrl + H, doesn't give me a lot of options, and there aren't any to change it to LBA if it's needed.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-09-05, 15:12:

I've connected HDD 1 and 2, which are on the same ribbon

I avoid having two drives on one cable - it often causes problems.
If you're going to add a controller card, you won't need such a setup anyway.

BTW: what kind of cables are you using?
40-conductor ones should be enough for UDMA33, but you need 80-conductor ones for UDMA66.

Grzyb wrote on 2025-09-05, 15:37:

I avoid having two drives on one cable - it often causes problems. If you're going to add a controller card, you won't need such […]
Show full quote

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-09-05, 15:12:

I've connected HDD 1 and 2, which are on the same ribbon

I avoid having two drives on one cable - it often causes problems.
If you're going to add a controller card, you won't need such a setup anyway.

BTW: what kind of cables are you using?
40-conductor ones should be enough for UDMA33, but you need 80-conductor ones for UDMA66.

I see. I believe I did order some 80 conductor ones I received the other day, so I'll try those. At the moment though, I don't have a lot of choice but to link two together as I have three HDDs and two IDE buses (3 and 4). Also, at the moment, it's not recognising my CD drive again whilst connected into IDE 1. It's complaining it needs drivers reinstalled for a Plug and Play BIOS, which it asks for the Windows 98 disc. But, obviously, I can't use the CD drive. ^^;

Grzyb wrote on 2025-09-05, 15:37:

I avoid having two drives on one cable - it often causes problems. If you're going to add a controller card, you won't need such […]
Show full quote

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-09-05, 15:12:

I've connected HDD 1 and 2, which are on the same ribbon

I avoid having two drives on one cable - it often causes problems.
If you're going to add a controller card, you won't need such a setup anyway.

BTW: what kind of cables are you using?
40-conductor ones should be enough for UDMA33, but you need 80-conductor ones for UDMA66.

I take it you can't get single 80 pin connectors? I've only seen three-way connectors on eBay so far. I've hooked up my third HDD using one of the 80-pin 3-way connectors.