Maximum Number Of IDE Devices?

[nonzero]

I've got 3 HDs and 1 DVD-R (1 x Seagate, 1 x Samsung, 1 x Western Digital and 1 x Pioneer 106) in my machine and I've ran out of space so I need to install another HD.

I've picked up another IDE Western Digital HD but it appears that my board, Asrock K7S8X, only supports 4 IDE devices (at least - thats how many IDE plugs are on the supplied master and slave cables).

Any ideas as to how I can get the new HD up and running without using a swappable drive bay?

[Nuttapper]

Just buy a PCI card and plug it in for more IDE pluggability (new word :) )

[Van Nugent]

You can get an USB 2.0 external case for the HD at ~ $30 USD. You'll need to run XP SP1 or 2K SP3/SP4, though.

[CHR15]

This bloke managed to squeeze a couple more IDE devices in:

http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~shane/stasj/pics/humor/div/154.html

[BlackDiamondJr]

This bloke managed to squeeze a couple more IDE devices in:

http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~shane/stasj/pics/humor/div/154.html

Yeah he did, I saw that a few days ago. That's 25 hard drives. Some of them are not visible in the picture.

OC-Freak over at CD Freaks also has quite a few IDE devices, except his is mostly optical drives.

http://upload.cdfreaks.com/OC/tower.jpg

@nonzero
As mentioned above, you can simply add a PCI IDE card and attach your additional hard drive to it. However, you should note that most IDE Controller cards do not support optical drives so be careful about attaching your CD/DVD drives to them.
Should you need an IDE card that supports optical drives be sure to check that the drive has ATAPI support otherwise the drive will be locked in the PIO mode and may not function properly at all.
Also be sure that your power supply is decent enough to handle the additional load or you could face spontaneous reboots.

[geobon]

Just get a PCI raid card, either that or sell your 4 hard drives and buy 2 big ones.

[Neo]

Holly shite thats alot of Hard Drives. And all seem to be Western Digital.

[nonzero]

Thanks chaps - IDE card time :)

[Nuttapper]

this looks intresting, a real bare bones PC

http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~shane/stasj/pics/humor/div/125.html