BL> I need the VLB controller anyway to add CD. I notice that EIDE
 BL> quad speed is down to $120 and I'm tempted....

 KR> there are two options, use your motherboard bios, if it
 KR> supports > 528meg (you'd need to look in the setup program or the
 KR> handbook) or add a paddle card with it's own bios. the former is
 KR> obviously cheaper if it works.

  I don't like the "if" (grin). 

  At present, I use a $20 IDE card running a 516Mb hard drive and the
250Mb backup. My AWARD bios supports LBA and lists 4 drives (it only
finds two though). If I buy a big drive. I'll sell the 230Mb one and
use the 500M one as the backup. I'd like a CD too, which means I'll
have three drives, so I thought I'd buy a VLB card that does four
drives and stick the CD on its own cable.

  Will this work? Can I enable LBA and format the big-mutha that way,
but still use the 500Mb drive formatted as it is? Will the 500Mb
format LBA, or does that only work above 1024 heads?

  Obviously, I want to do it in two steps: remove the 500Mb, backup
the new drive from the 250Mb when everything works; swap the 250Mb,
reformat the 500Mb and backup the big drive to the 500Mb drive.

 KR> the only reaon that you'd need to add a card for the cd is if
 KR> you want it to be on a second ide bus (it can make a difference
 KR> to the hard disk access speed if it is on the same bus and
 KR> there is heavy access to the cd) or if you want to play audio
 KR> cds (in which case you obviously need a sound card). my quad
 KR> speed is running quite happily off a $20 standard ide card. 

  I won't be using the CD much anyway, but I want two hard drives and
the CD. I can't do that on my $20 IDE card (can I?).

Regards,
Bob

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12
@EOT:

---