IDE Cable

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

Hi folks,
just installed a second hard drive and have been wondering what the
IDE cable middle and end plugs really represent. I know that it says
that the middle plug is for your slave device and the end plug is for
the master device but does it really matter? When I opened my box I
found that the maker had put the single hard drive on the slave pin
and the master pin was plugged into my CD Rom. Everything worked find.
Question: again, what does it really matter what plug on the IDE cable
goes where when it seems to me that the real matter lies with how the
devices are jumpered. Thanks, Axel.

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

Thanks for clearing that up. Axel


On Thu, 12 Aug 2004 19:51:04 -0600, "D.Currie"
<dmbcurrie.nospam@hotmail.com> wrote:



>"Axel Beck" <dragonbreath@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>news:gu6oh095v2ctldh8ocu8p5dlau362uosvi@4ax.com...
>> Hi folks,
>> just installed a second hard drive and have been wondering what the
>> IDE cable middle and end plugs really represent. I know that it says
>> that the middle plug is for your slave device and the end plug is for
>> the master device but does it really matter? When I opened my box I
>> found that the maker had put the single hard drive on the slave pin
>> and the master pin was plugged into my CD Rom. Everything worked find.
>> Question: again, what does it really matter what plug on the IDE cable
>> goes where when it seems to me that the real matter lies with how the
>> devices are jumpered. Thanks, Axel.
>
>If you use master and slave jumpers, it doesn't matter what position on the
>cable the drives are. If you use cable select jumpers on both drives, the
>position on the cable determines which is master and which is slave.
>

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

I agree with BAR, Well Said!






>-----Original Message-----
>There are significant reasons why IDE devices should be
connected in the
>proper manner.
>
>All relates to priority of service by the system / bus
and IDE controllers.
>Most PCs have 2 IDE controllers allowing 2 Drives each.
The Primary IDE
>Controller and Secondary IDE controller are usually
labelled IDE0 and IDE1 on
>motherboards. These labels are not just an excuse for
putting more graphics
>onto the PCB.
>
>Also a Drive which is Jumpered as master gets priority
over a slave. Hence
>always set your system driver as the Primary Master. It
gets the highest
>level of attention. The cable position also is
interpreted by the IDE
>controller [notice that there is another option to
jumper - being CS or Cable
>Select] so yes it is also important to locate the drive
properly on the cable
>relative to its function [master / slave].
>
>Again, the higher the performance [data transfer speed,
lower seek time,
>etc] devices should be placed ahead of the slower speed
devices. Thus a Hard
>Disk Drive should always be jumpered as Master if paired
with an optical
>drive on the same IDE interface.
>
>One should also attempt to place the second hard drive
as the Secondary
>Master. Thus if IDE0 is busy working with Primary
Master, then IDE1 can work
>with Secondary Master.
>
>This is a significant part of Hardware Tuning that most
builders ignore or
>is just another thing of which they aren't aware. It
has greater
>significance today when we see comparativley huge system
swap files and very
>large data files being moved in and out of memory. Just
look at how large
>your email file is [with Outlook it's the .PST file]
many that I work on are
>well over 200Mb: and that takes time to read off the
disk.
>
>Now, when manufacturing a PC to the smallest cost and
maximum margin, you'll
>find that where there are one HDD and one Optical drive,
most manufactures
>save the few cents and only use one IDE cable. Simple
econmoics casues this
>to happen. Not because it makes a PC faster, in fact
the opposite is true.
>
>So it can be wired up with a Hard Drive as Slave, with
Optical as
>Master...BIOS is generally set to look for the Hard
Drive as the first
>bootable device.. and it will function properly: one
just finds that the
>system can be tuned a little better.
>
>Hope this helps you to get a faster PC.
>
>Quite dumb.
>
>"Axel Beck" wrote:
>
>> Thanks for clearing that up. Axel
>>
>>
>> On Thu, 12 Aug 2004 19:51:04 -0600, "D.Currie"
>> <dmbcurrie.nospam@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> >"Axel Beck" <dragonbreath@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>> >news:gu6oh095v2ctldh8ocu8p5dlau362uosvi@4ax.com...
>> >> Hi folks,
>> >> just installed a second hard drive and have been
wondering what the
>> >> IDE cable middle and end plugs really represent. I
know that it says
>> >> that the middle plug is for your slave device and
the end plug is for
>> >> the master device but does it really matter? When I
opened my box I
>> >> found that the maker had put the single hard drive
on the slave pin
>> >> and the master pin was plugged into my CD Rom.
Everything worked find.
>> >> Question: again, what does it really matter what
plug on the IDE cable
>> >> goes where when it seems to me that the real matter
lies with how the
>> >> devices are jumpered. Thanks, Axel.
>> >
>> >If you use master and slave jumpers, it doesn't
matter what position on the
>> >cable the drives are. If you use cable select jumpers
on both drives, the
>> >position on the cable determines which is master and
which is slave.
>> >
>>
>>
>.
>