ide cable - does master, slave etc matter

sare^baw's · 26 Apr 2006 at 20:03

this may seem like an obvious answer but i dont like to assume things where pc hardware is concerned

i was wanting to know if it matters which way round the connectors are used on an ide cable, i have these alaska round coloured cables i bought from oc a while ago and they are marked 'master' / 'slave' / 'system board'

can they be used any old way round or is it essential to use them in the way they are marked?

Fulcrum · 26 Apr 2006 at 20:16

Use them the way they are marked or it will mess up.

My computer currently refuses to accept I have a DVD drive and its most likely related to the cable in some way I figure :confused:

fornowagain · 26 Apr 2006 at 21:04

What matters is that pin 1 goes to pin 1 on the drives and the board. It's marked with a black strip conductor or a little triangle or a number 1.

sare^baw's · 26 Apr 2006 at 21:21

fornowagain said:
What matters is that pin 1 goes to pin 1 on the drives and the board. It's marked with a black strip conductor or a little triangle or a number 1.

yeah as they all seem to have a location tooth on the connectors there should be no problem

im wondering if i can plug the mobo end into the master drive and vice versa

Plasmoid · 26 Apr 2006 at 21:23

You can do that... you can reverse the cable alright.

The Master and Slave bits really indicate what setup you will get with Cable select enabled (via the jumpers on both drives)

AFAIK most modern ide controllers can handle the slave being on the first bit of the cable and the master on the second.... at least any i've used in a while didnt complain.

sare^baw's · 27 Apr 2006 at 11:16

Plasmoid said:
You can do that... you can reverse the cable alright.

The Master and Slave bits really indicate what setup you will get with Cable select enabled (via the jumpers on both drives)

AFAIK most modern ide controllers can handle the slave being on the first bit of the cable and the master on the second.... at least any i've used in a while didnt complain.

that is good to know, cheers

as i might need to use one of my round cable in reverse in my htpc set up but thought i would check its ok before i do so.

is there such a thing as small short single ide cables?

Dutch Guy · 27 Apr 2006 at 11:42

normal is slave in the middle and master at the end, this requires both drives to be jumpered accordingly, you can also put them both on cable select, that way the first/middle connector will be the master and the end connector the slave.

tomos · 27 Apr 2006 at 12:44

i just use cable select now. its just easier.

had an experience where i took out a drive and the remaining one due to the pings being master with slave or whatever, wouldnt be seen in the bios.

the label had faded to had to try all random combination with 2 jumpers to finally set it to CS.

sare^baw's · 27 Apr 2006 at 12:52

and does that mean cable select configures the drives automatically?

tomos · 27 Apr 2006 at 13:02

think it goes by the order they are connected on the IDE cable.

dont think it makes a diff really