<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <title></title> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> Tim wrote: <blockquote cite="mid1159161558.12155.22.camel@mongrel.lan.evpc.biz" type="cite"> <pre wrap="">On Mon, 2006-09-25 at 15:04 +1200, Hadders wrote: </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">Rule of thumb used to be, "pin 1 to power side". works 90% of the time. Pin 1 is usually denoted on the cable by a red stripe. So basically Pin 1 was/is usually closet to the power (molex) connector. </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""> Only for the connector on the drive. There's no real rule of thumb for the connector on the motherboard. For what it's worth, that rule doesn't work with floppies. I've even seen them use the socket upside down. i.e. If you tried to insert a keyed connector, they've wired it wrong, and it won't work. I've got one of those bastards in a box around here. </pre> </blockquote> Expect that usually the mainboard is keyed and usually your ribbon has a keyed end for the board. Still, it's often easier to flick open/download the manual as they always indicate where pin 1 is. Also there's usually a white triangle or a tiny little 1 written on the board outline that indicates it too. As for the floppy, usually when you get that in backwards the light is always on, otherwise, the mainboard is around the wrong way. Easily fixed. But yeah, floppies are pretty random. Still that's why we love USB bootable boards and flash drives, cause we can escape that evil legacy. H </body> </html>