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PCI IDE controller with ATAPI support

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Xacalite

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I want to build a modern PC with a bunch of older drives, mostly ATAPI: ZIP, LS-120, etc.
Due to shortage of conventional PCI slots, I want them all controlled by a single card.
There's plenty of PCI controllers with many PATA ports, up to 12 even, like 3Ware Escalade 7500 or Promise SuperTrak SX6000, but they are designed for RAID and only support HDDs, not ATAPI devices.

So, the question: anybody knows of such a controller with ATAPI support?
 
Finding an ancient PCI IDE controller with more than four supported devices, with additional support for ATAPI devices and with drivers to work on an OS which also supports the modern board you want to use is going to be a tall order. LS-120 drives don't have driver support after XP, and even XP has dicey support.

It would make more sense to get a mid 2000s Pentium 4 or Athlon XP/64 that supports four IDE channels and use an additional four channel IDE PCI card to get up to 8. I can't envision using up eight IDE channels with ATAPI devices. You could have an LS-120/240, ZIP, cd-rom, jaz and tape with 3 channels left over.
 
GiGaBiTe said:
Finding an ancient PCI IDE controller with more than four supported devices, with additional support for ATAPI devices and with drivers to work on an OS which also supports the modern board you want to use is going to be a tall order. LS-120 drives don't have driver support after XP, and even XP has dicey support.

It would make more sense to get a mid 2000s Pentium 4 or Athlon XP/64 that supports four IDE channels and use an additional four channel IDE PCI card to get up to 8. I can't envision using up eight IDE channels with ATAPI devices. You could have an LS-120/240, ZIP, cd-rom, jaz and tape with 3 channels left over.
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I never had a problem using a IDE ls120 drive on my lga775 vista system. Using the drives that were auto installed by windows.
Also don't forget PD-rom drives. :crazy:


I recall promise having a really good older chipset for IDE witch most cards did not need drivers for. Maxtor sold a lot of cards using promise chipsets. Not sure about ATAPI support, but when I need a PCI IDE card I always used a promise chipset card.
 
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FWIW, I have an LS120 that refuses to share the IDE bus with any device--it's got to be the only drive on the cable or the system hangs under XP.
 
I had an ls120 drive like that before. it failed shortly after words. Not sure why. earlier ls drives were very buggy that I know.
 
How many is "a bunch"? Why not just use IDE to SATA adapters?
 
GiGaBiTe said:
It would make more sense to get a mid 2000s Pentium 4 or Athlon XP/64 that supports four IDE channels and use an additional four channel IDE PCI card to get up to 8.
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Well, that's my Plan B, but I would prefer not to keep yet another computer.
Also, onboard IDE channels aren't guaranteed to support ATAPI, either - it was common to have 2 fully-functional channels, and 2 RAID channels (usually with a separate Promise of Highpoint chipset) which didn't support ATAPI.
 
Plasma said:
How many is "a bunch"? Why not just use IDE to SATA adapters?
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At this moment 2 PATA HDDs + 4 ATAPI devices, maybe more in the future.
A bunch of PATA<->SATA adapters hanging together in a crowded space doesn't seem too reliable, but if I won't find anything better I may resort to this, thanks for the idea!
 
Xacalite said:
At this moment 2 PATA HDDs + 4 ATAPI devices, maybe more in the future.
A bunch of PATA<->SATA adapters hanging together in a crowded space doesn't seem too reliable, but if I won't find anything better I may resort to this, thanks for the idea!
Click to expand...

StarTech makes a nice enclosed adapter (PATA2SATA3) if you are worried about them shorting out on something.
 
Agent Orange said:
How about SCSI for a possible plan C?
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Sure, I would be glad to forget about PATA and go all SCSI, but the problem is: I already have all those ATAPI drives, and finding their _internal_ SCSI counterparts would be hard and expensive, sometimes even impossible - there was no SCSI version of Zip 750.
 
Xacalite said:
Sure, I would be glad to forget about PATA and go all SCSI, but the problem is: I already have all those ATAPI drives, and finding their _internal_ SCSI counterparts would be hard and expensive, sometimes even impossible - there was no SCSI version of Zip 750.
Click to expand...

You wouldn't have to all SCSI - just enough to spread things out.
 
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