I want to fit my new dvd writer next to my existing one. is it best to have it set as master on the secondary IDE channel. Because i already have my hard drive & first dvd writer on the primary channel.

I would recommend having both dvds on the secondary channel, using cable select.

Having a hdd and optical drive on the same ide channel may slow down the hard drive.

I have had problems with both dvd's on the same IDE. I was not able to do a copy "on the fly" sometimes, or when it did the files were corrupt. Not always, but it happened. With the computer I now have, I let DIT build it and they put in my second hard drive for me, so I would not lose the warrenty, then told me I have a software problem because every time I put in a CD I got a BSOD. I opened the case and saw that they had both dvd's on the same IDE. I put one on as a slave with the HDD IDE and had no troubles since. Moral of story, if you have problems with both on same IDE, put one on the other IDE.

Thanks for the replies

The thing is when i open the case and have a look i only see my original dvd writer connected to the primary ide channel. With a spare connector a few inches down the ide cable. I know my hdd is connected to channel one because it shows up in device manager. But i cant work out how its connected if you follow me.

Is your HDD a IDE? Or is it SATA? If it's IDE, it should be on IDE1 and your dvd sounds like it would be on IDE2. Keep your HDD on IDE1, if that's where it is.

I have always setup my hard drives on the primary IDE channel and the optical drives on the secondary channel.

Primary (IDE1)
HDD0 (XP) Master
HDD1 (98SE + storage) Slave

Secondary (IDE2)
CD-RW Master
CD-Rom Slave

Your optical drive (burner) should be the Master on the secondary so you don't experience burning problems. I have found that using Cable Select for my opticals can cause problems when copying from one drive to the other.

Thanks for the replies

My HDD is sata. What i'm saying is their is only 1 ribbon cable going from my dvddrive to IDE 1. so how is my HDD connected to IDE 1 if not by ribbon cable ?

Your hard drive is connected to a SATA cable which connects to the SATA port on your mobo. So your IDE is connected to your dvd and that's why you only see it on the ribbon cable. SATA cables are much smaller that the IDE ribbon cables.