NASLite Network Attached Storage

with a standard PC configuration, i am using the two primary IDE connections for two 250GB drives. The floppy is necessary for the NasLite boot disk. The CD-Drive for the NasLite+ CD. Do I simply connect a third HD to the secondary IDE (DVD) drive connector, for a three drive system?

many thanks1 Terrific product!!

Dell Inspiron
Dan PC
Avent Notebook
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Naslite+ Server

You can connect a hard disk drive to any IDE/ATA connector, they are not specifically assigned for hard disk or CD/DVD drives.

Just ensure that the device has the appropriate jumper setting - master, slave or cable select - and it will work.

so with 3 Drives on primary (1+2) and secondary (1) How do i select the jumpers (Mst. Slv, Auto) usually?

thanks Jeff

It depends on your make/model hard drive.

Usually there are diagrams on the white label of the hard drive. You can also check on the plastic (very small text/imprint) near where the jumpers are, usually on the underside of the drive.

If you don't see that information on the hard drives, you can reference the support section of the respective vendors website for jumper configuration information.

For each channel (primary and secondary), you'll want to set one to master and the other to slave, of course (the two that are on the same ribbon). I've heard mixed things about which one should be at the end of the ribbon. To be safe, I try to set the drive at the end of the ribbon to slave, but I don't think it really matters.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

sorry - my english was rather ambiguous - normally something I am rather fastidious about!

I meant not 'how to place the jumpers' but rather what is the protocol. master + slave, or cable select on all four. what is it that determines settings?

thanks jeff

If I'm understanding you correctly, you want to know what jumper configuration NASLite recommends for hard drives.

I don't see anything in the documentation that states one way or another.

To be safe, I would use the method I described (on each channel, setting one to master and one to slave), but cable select may work as well. Granted, I don't know a lot about cable select, I don't like the idea of it because I don't want NASLite to ever get confused about which drive is which. That is, I want to be the decision maker, instead of some hardware or software deciding which is master and which is slave.

So, when I initially setup my NASLite box, I set them to master/slave, master/slave then verified they were all auto detected in the BIOS before I installed NASLite. Of course, I changed them from AUTO to OFF in the BIOS right before installing.

I hope this helps. Maybe something else can give more clear answers that address your question more directly.

Each channel can have one master, one slave - how the drives are jumpered depends on the type of cable you are using.

There are two type of 40 conductor cable, a normal cable, which requires the drives to be jumpered master & slave, and a much more rare cable-select cable (often found in Compaq systems) that required the drives to be jumpered cable-select.

The 80 conductor cables used with ultra-dma controllers are all cable-select.

With normal cables, the drive jumpers determine which drive is master and slave, with cable select cables, the position of the drive on the cable is the determining factor - the drive at the end of the cable is master and the one in the middle is slave.

The advantage of cable-select is that the computer manufacturer can ship a replacement drive to an end-user with the drive pre-set for cable-select and the end-user can install it without having to pay attention to what the existing drive (if any) is set for.