Will using a ATA/100 w/ a ATA/66 degrade performance?

[Kerry]

I just bought a 80 GB ATA HD which I will install as my C:\ (Master). The 80 conductor ATA/100 cable also will go to my D:\ (Slave) drive which is a ATA/66 drive.

Will this arrangement degrade the speed etc. of my new ATA/100? I seem to recall reading somewhere that installing dissimilar ATA's on the same cable will degrade the higher rated one to the lower.

I have a Pavilion 7960 and use XP Home. According to HP the Pav is ATA/100 ready and therefore has the correct ATA/100 cable and does not require a ATA/100 Controller Card.

Advice please,

Thanks,

Kerry

[gwallen4]

Hi Kerry. I don't think you'll have a problem -

From the PC Guide:

"Independent Master/Slave Device Timing: Hard disk controllers on modern systems support running the master and slave device at different speeds, if one supports faster transfer modes than the other. Some systems, however, especially older ones, do not. If you are using two devices with radically different maximum transfer rates, and the chipset doesn't support independent timing, you will slow down the faster device to the speed of the slower one."

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/conf_Performance.htm

[Kerry]

Thanks, gwallen4.

I'll read the /rev/hdd/... and see if I can get some certainty.

Kerry