Using extra IDE Channels with O/B RAID

[Hagen]

Got a M/B with onboard Serial ATA and RAID. I've got just one hard drive (ATA100/7200rpm), CD-Rom and CD Burner. I'd like isolate each IDE drive on it's own channel. Is it possible to use one of the RAID channels for the hard drive, the primary IDE channel for CD-Rom or CD-RW, and the secondary channel for the third drive? Do I just need to enable RAID 0 or 1 in the BIOS?
My hard drive doesn't support Serial ATA, but I plan to buy an adapter in the future. In that case, could I use the Primary and Secondary IDE channels for the CD-Rom and CD-RW drives.
Any advice greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Hagen

 

[Zepper]

Generally on-bard RAID can support standard hard drives (nothing else), just disable the RAID function in the BIOS and set to boot from the RAID channel. You can then put your optical drives on the regular channels.
. Don't get a serial ATA adapter - will slow your drive down. I would disable the S-ATA in the BIOS to free up an IRQ if it were mine.
.bh.

 

[Hagen]

Thanks for the advice, will try that
Hagen