Hard drive cable question -

[bobgoodwin]

Wolfgang Gill wrote:

>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
>--
>Open WebMail Project (http://openwebmail.org)
>
>  
>
Ok Thanks, that saves me the trouble of further experimentation.  I had 
done as you described, using the center connector on the master jumpered 
drive.  This all started when one of two [both] old drives began to act 
up and I replaced one of them.  I think I replaced the still functioning 
one rather than the bad one.  The problem initially was intermittent and 
not easy for me to troubleshoot.

Bob