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Thread ID: 78659 2007-04-24 01:04:00 Connecting drives to the ide cable Ravage (6815) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
543681 2007-04-24 01:04:00 Howdy

Just did some spring cleaning on my PC and added some hardware from a slightly better PC whose motherboard died.

I took the CPU, DVD-ROM, GFX card and 80 GB HDD from the dead PC and have successfully integrated into my PC and are about to do a clean install of WinXP home (SP2).

I have both HDD (2x80 GB) on on IDE1 and a DVD-RW and DVD-ROM on IDE2.
Msster and slave have been correctly set for each.

The question is: Should the master drives plug into the middle or end sockets of the IDE cable? Does it matter?

cheers

Ravage
Ravage (6815)
543682 2007-04-24 01:08:00 Doesn't matter unless you choose cable select. DeSade (984)
543683 2007-04-24 02:10:00 It does sometimes matter. I have had one PC which did not like a DVD drive (master) connected to the middle of an IDE cable while the CD-ROM drive (slave) was connected to the end. The PC couldn't fully install programs from the DVD drive which caused all sorts of problems.

Master drives are best on the end and slaves in the middle.
FoxyMX (5)
543684 2007-04-24 02:24:00 I did a similar job to yours on mt PC except that I installed a new hard drive rather than a used one. The instructions with the new hard drive required the master on the end and the slave in the middle. Why question the powers that be?:D Xam (11850)
543685 2007-04-24 02:32:00 Masters on the end then, it is ;)

Ravage
Ravage (6815)
543686 2007-04-24 02:57:00 Must say never run into a IDE moaning about which end its plugged into, live and learn :) DeSade (984)
543687 2007-04-24 03:05:00 If the connectors on the cable are identified "Master" and "Slave", follow the marking. It does matter if the drives are configured "CS". The cable used for CS (Cable Selection) has one wire not connected at one of the drive connectors, to give the selection. If the cable is a "plain" 40 conductor one, you can use either connector, but there is a theoretical reason to use the connectors on the two ends if there is only one drive connected.

Disk drives never "moan" if the selection is not correct. They just don't work. The owner might moan about that situation.
Graham L (2)
543688 2007-04-24 06:43:00 Howdy

Yeah, the cables were unmarked, no clues there, but I knew coming here would shed some light on the matter ;)

Ravage
Ravage (6815)
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