Hard drive cable question -

[Wolfgang Gill]

On Wed, 22 Feb 2006 18:48:24 -0500, bobgoodwin wrote
> Does it matter which forty pin connector plugs into the master and 
> slave drives?
> 
> I have come to the realization after struggling with some problems 
> that there are a lot more wires in the ribbon cable than there are 
> connector pins.
> 
> I now see that Maxtor designates the connector at the end of the 
> cable as the "master" and the one just below it as the "slave."  I 
> presently have only one drive jumpered as master with FC4 running on 
> it and it ;doesn't seem to care which data cable connector is 
> attached to it, but when I put in the second drive, jumpered as 
> "slave" the computer won't boot.  I decided the drive was bad but 
> now I'm wondering? It may be the wrong connectors plugged into the drives.
> 
> I thought "cable select" cables had wires obviously crossed in the 
> ribbon cable but that may not be true with this 80 wire ribbon?
> 
> Can someone clear this up for me.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Bob Goodwin   Zuni, Virginia
> 

Nope it doesn't matter. Drive selects are done with jumpers on the drive. All
IDE 40/80 pin cables are straight through, so the drive itself govens whether
it's master or slave. When I only have one drive, I use the middle connector,
and hide the other one out of the way, to give me better casing air flow.

Usually (Depending on brand of drive), the master drive is jumpered, and the
slave drive isn't.

Wolf
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