I learned today that I'm still learning. I took UIDE out of the config.sys and removed it's associated line from the autoexec.bat. I still have the NOIDE in the registry, which means that essentially Windows is accessing the hard drive through the BIOS. It works that way, but no access to the CD ROM. I decided to play around with smartdrv.
My first attempt -- I noticed that there wasn't as much slowness and pausing when copying or moving a lot of or large files. I changed the command in my autoexec.bat:
Now there's a kinda big pause when Windows is loading (I am wondering if loading Zone Alarm has something to do with that), but once loaded the copying/moving issue is just about unnoticeable. Woot!
I'm going to have to get a DOS driver for the DVD rewritable, but this will be much better. Hopefully Smartdrv will provide buffering for it too. I don't know why I didn't think of this before!
Now I'm thinking UIDE might be useful for installation (particularly if you have one of those ugrade CD and want to use on older Win95 CD for proof of eligibility), but there may be better alternatives once Windows is loaded.