I used to buy hard-drive/cd-rom (IDE-style, mostly PATA) controllers for machines that ran at like 166MHZ. Suppose I wanted to install a controller on a newer machine that runs at a higher bus speed - like if my machine has a front-side bus speed of 533MHZ (a typical value for a Dell Optiplex GX520, an older machine), or perhaps a faster front-side bus of 800MHZ, another typical value, which controller would I use if I simply wanted to control a PATA or SATA CDRW-DVDRW drive? I realize newer machines and drives are mostly SATA now. But I would like to know the answer since sometimes I might still have PATA CD/DVD drives. Is there one made by Promise or another manufacturer? I don't want to use my Ultra133 even though it can run with XP since the bus speed for it is really only about 66MHZ. I would hate to overdrive some circuit it on it that it can't handle by putting it in a Pentium 4 class computer (with higher bus speeds). Any thoughts appreciated. Thank you.

What I'm basically asking is, does anyone know of a good PATA (IDE/E-IDE) controller that will work on a newer (533 MHZ and up)
bus speed motherboard? I'm looking to control a specific CD/DVD RW device that happens to be PATA. If I had a SATA drive, I would ask for a recommendation for a SATA controller. I don't know whether or not such controllers exist. I am constrained in this case by the drive itself. It may seem crazy to allow yourself to be constrained by a PATA, when a SATA is more common, but I just don't have that luxury. If I absolutely must change to SATA, I'll do it. I suspect that I can still find a controller. If not, then I will have to buy another drive. I have two PATAs already and I want them tested on a controller that is separate from the motherboard's controller hence the need for a controller card. Perhaps I was not making that clear.

There is more than one bus on a motherboard. The PCI bus is where the drive controller card will reside. The top speed, or the speed range, of the attached PCI device does not affect the speed at which the drive controller communicates with the remainder of the system.

I am not addressing in detail here the fact that the PCI bus can operate at more than one speed. Also, SATA drives do not operate at 400/533/800 either. It is still a different bus.

Any PCI controller card that you select will function completely within the specifications of any board that includes a PCI slot.

edit - you could even use a controller that sits in a PCI express slot. The drive still operates at the rated speed. Like driving slowly on a highway.

Also, use the fastest drive available. If your board and/or PCI controller card supports an ATA133 (Ultra133) drive, by all means use it.

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=410&name=Controllers-RAID-Cards&Order=PRICE

If you shop locally, this is a $5 - $10 part.

Thank you, yes, I have an Ultra 133 controller card new in a box that I have not yet used. However, I decided to just hook up a new CD/DVD drive on the same cable as my existing CD drive and the bios had no problems. I was getting ready to write to an unused DVD when something bothered me a little - not a lot, the built-in XP wizard said, getting ready to write to a CD. Just curious, does their writing wizard simply not mention that I have a perfectly writeable DVD on a perfectly write-ready DVD RW drive? Did XP just use the term CD for both CD/DVD drives. I would like it to say, "getting ready to write to a DVD when I have a DVD in the drive. I also admit that I can install a CD/DVD writer on the machine. I haven't yet fully explored this old parts box since the woman who sold it to me said it didn't work. It works now that I disabled the floppy drive so I guess I just need to explore this fun box more. Anyway, I'm only testing the drive for installation on yet another computer so I just need to record a CD and a DVD. I'll look for some better software that says "Writing to a DVD". I will also try a controller card and prove that your comments are correct - after I test this CD/DVD read-write out completely.

Thank you.

A DVD drive is (almost always) also a CD drive. It is (should be) clearly labeled on the drive face.

XP is old. Old. Old. The text on screen reflects the technology that was current when XP was released.

I am away from my office, the following is supposition:

XP will either write to the first available writable drive, or the drive on the primary IDE channel, or XP will prompt you for the target drive. You should not have an issue writing to an optical drive.

Writing an ISO file to the drive is a different matter. You will need a plug-in. Another option is to use a more advanced application. Many users are happy with MagicISO (freeware) for all of the CD/DVD needs.

Funny you mention MagicISO, I just used it to burn a .iso of HDClone, a hard-drive copying tool. And I had forgotten that I have a licensed copy of Cheetah DVD. MagicISO is nice as I can even convert stuff to .iso first. Thanks, I'll try a different tool so I'm not
so nervous about what is going on.

MagicISO also includes, and will enable by default, a virtual drive. A virtual drive will allow you to mount an ISO without actually burning it to plastic.

MagicISO allows creating bootable discs not created directly from ISO. Slipstreamed XP installs, for example. The following do not:

Reliable XP plugin - http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

Also popular - http://cdburnerxp.se/help/data/burn-iso

Hey, thanks for the in-depth, scholarly commentary, that's what I need. I need to dig in deeper - my next dig will be about .iso burns vs. others - here's why: I have some directory-depths which are > 8. Apparently, .iso depths are restricted to 8 levels in the directory tree. So I'm having fun. Yesterday's test machine died (the woman was sort of right - it's a part's box - but I'll check the year on the hard-drive and put a newer one in, it's probably 8 years old ) . I'll have it up again by tomorrow morning. But I put the CD/DVD (LG of Brazil) drive in another machine today and it read a CD fine, and it wrote a DVD fine. So it works, and I'll be able to transfer it to the final machine I want to put it in. I decided to go with ImgBurn for the DVD write test (vers. 2.5.7). It did a nice write and then a verify, I guess it even popped it out for a second or two in case I wanted to take it before the verify, then it sucked it back in and did the verify . So ImgBurn had no problems burning a DVD. That's pretty good, I should give them some dough for the good tool they gave me for nothing. My Cheetah DVD which also is a good tool just didn't install right due to some sort of Admin permissions. The guy at Cheetah will probably help me with this. Perhaps I need to sign in under an Admin account. So I lost a machine (for a day or two) but it will get a new hard drive and I proved that the CD/DVD actually works. Did I learn a lot - well, no, I didn't so tomorrow I need to dig deeper. Keep up the chatter! Thanks again.

Chatter.

The 8 level directory issue may not apply, depending on your chosen software and your write options. It will take less time to test than to research. Burn and then read a disk to find out - but you must do more than read it. Copy it back to the hard drive. Is everything there? Including complete, non-truncated folder and file names?

Path length (environment variable) is the real issue. There are only so many bytes available to store this, or read it - and deeply nested directory structures have always been a bad idea for this reason, pre-dating commercial use of optical disks. Pre-dating micro computers (PCs). If you MUST nest that deeply, use the shortest folder/file names possible.

Be advised - CD/DVD is not a wise long-term storage solution. The Smithsonian and the Library of Congress are using them - but they are not burning disks, they are pressing them.

Plastic exudes caustic gas. That includes the disk, the disk sleeve and the plastic box that you are likely to keep the disks in.

I normally make large copies of things from outside of Windows XP using some sort of OS-independent tool. This time
I was within XP and had file/directory-locks due to security. I'm not an expert at dealing with those kinds of things. So I will have to read the DVD I burned and see if the directories > 8 nesting are there and report back.

I woke up today and added a new monitor to my old test pc that died yesterday since I stole it's monitor for the other machine I had to use to test the CD/DVD and decided to jiggle cables, tighten here and there, and now the machine is running again.
I am simply going to let the machine sit in the same spot for a while rather than try to make it fail. At least it's running now and it burned a nice CD for me of a Windows XP Pro OEM i386 directory in case I need to reset up stuff. It's a dual-boot XP Home and XP Pro - the drive is circa 2009, which means that I cloned the original circa 2003 or earlier drive right away out of fear of a crash. So I strongly suspect that the problem is not the drive. Unlikely. But I guess I should check things out with some tools now that it's running. So now I can breathe easy for a day. I don't want to contact the original owner - I just need to live like a long-tailed cat - hey, it was a 40.00 parts box and now it's running!

Boy, do I agree that short paths are nice to have. I hate it when I accidentally install a piece of software under
C:\Docs ...sett...\Admin..\...\..\Program Files ...
when I could have just gone
C:\XP or C:\Burntool or whatever. I love two-letter names. Or c:\i386. Or C:\XPSP3.

And your comments about storage I need to keep trying harder to find more reliable-long-term solutions. Do they really press the information ala Edison?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Disc_manufacturing