More SATA drives No Raid

[xxgemini]

hello all, my first post

I want to add 2 more SATA 300gb wd drives. I have no more SATA ports on my MB. I need sugestions.

I have :
MB = Gigabyte ga-8knxp rev.2 (4 sata + like 4 ide)
Hard Drives = 2 Raptor 74gb. SATA ( raid - stripe )
2 WD 300gb. SATA ( No Raid... jus storage )
2 WD 120gb IDE
4 IDE devices ( card reader..ect )

So i want to add 2 more 300gb drives for a total of 4. all sata. no raid. 4 seperate drives( D.E.F.G. 300gb each) I was thinking highpoint 1640 raid card.

1. can this card be used "without RAID function" (when in win XP i see 4 seperate 300gb drives ?
2. I have data on two of the 300gb sata drives, if i move them to a controller card will i have to format ( lose my data ) ?
3. Will sending data through PCI card be fast enough for 16x dvd burner
4. If i move a sata drive to another computer will my data still be there just like a IDE drive can.

What do you guys think ? will this work... is there a better option im missing? Thanks in advance

 

[Mercutio]

Yes that will work.

You should not have to format the drives if you move them from controller to controller as long as you don't RAID them.

PCI is more than fast enough for a burner BUT the last PCI card I'm familiar with that was compatible with ATAPI devices was the Promise Ultra66; your burner should stay on an onboard, native IDE channel.

Also many motherboards can't handle multiple non-native disk controllers with BIOSes. A lot of systems won't boot if you have say, a PCI IDE controller and a PCI SCSI or PCI SATA controller installed.

I question the wisdom of purchasing so many Western Digital hard drives, but hey, it's your money.

 

[xxgemini]

thank you for the info. thats exactly what i needed to know.

i wasent going to put burner on the card. was talking about thuroughput from drive to card through board to ide dvd burner.

You are so right about questioning my buying WD drives. had two fail on me 2 years ago... swore never to buy WD again. guess im a sucker for punnisment when i see a good deal...lol.

one of the 300gb wd drives is already acting funny. when i open a folder it pauses for like 4-6 sec. very anoying. dont know if thats a sign of a drive going bad or not ?