IDE cable - Am I using them the wrong way round?

[jy88888888]

Hi,

I have a

WD SE 80Gb master
Lite-On DVD drive slave
MSI CDRW master
Old Seagate 6.4Gb slave

On boot up, it takes a long time to detect the drives - sometimes the POST stops because it did not detect a boot drive or something.

I use 2 ATA 100 cables but for the primary channel, the one with the WD SE, the cable is being used the oher way round. That's because the WD SE and the DVD drive are too far apart.

What I mean is, the cable has 3 connectors. The middle one is not centred and is positioned nearer to one of the cnnectors at the end. The other connector is meant to be plugged into the motherboard, but I plug it into a drive instead.

Is this causing the boot up problems?

I hope you understand me. If only I could load up a picture - you'll know what I mean.

Thanks

AMD VS INTEL - AMD anyday

 

[lhgpoobaa]

well the connectors that connect the drives are the two that are closest together. the connector for the motherboard is the most distant connector.

im unsure if it would cauze problems... its possible as the max cable length is 18 inches, but there is also a minimum allowable length of 10 inches between mobo and drive.

try changing your drive over.
Also, if you have only one drive on a cable its reported to be better having the lone drive on the end, not the middle, to avoid any signal reflection.

<b>My Computer is so powerful Sauron Desires it and mortal men Covet it, <i>My Precioussssssss</i></b>

 

[Crashman]

Try unhooking the Seagate drive.

<font color=blue>There are no stupid questions, only stupid people doling out faulty information based upon rumors, myths, and poor logic!</font color=blue>

 

[sjonnie]

Experiment with the drives attached in different ways and find out. If this is the case just use longer cables. The offical max maybe 18inches but in a tower case that is clearly ridiculous. Cables of 24 or 36 inches are not only possible but sometimes necessary.

 

[jy88888888]

Thanks,

What do you mean by "try changing your drive over".

All 4 drives are screwed in as close as possible. The problem is the very top drive (DVD) and the lowest drive (WD) are still too far apart. That's why I can't connect them together using the two closest connectors.

AMD VS INTEL - AMD anyday

 

[RobD]

I've seen this on a machine at work. Had 2 drives, but the second was mounted way the other side of the case. Only way to hook 'em up was to reverse the cable. Each boot, took 2 minutes to clear POST. And it came like that straight from the supplier. Dumbasses! Bitched at em long enough they shipped a longer IDE cable.

 

[_WW_]

Without seeing your case I don't know if this will work for you, but it did for me. My case had four 5.5" bays so I moved the two CD drives to the lower two slots. Below that is one 3.5" for a HD, then the floppy space, then another HD space. Instead of combining the lower HD to the upper and furthest CD, I connected it to the lower of the two. Then combined the upper HD to the upper CD. This gave me the shortest routing possible in my case.

Another thing I found that helped out was using some round cables instead of the flat ribbon cables...Not sure if the plugs were further apart or just able to route in a more direct fashion because of the round design but it did make things easier.

If I wouldn't have been able to connect them this way I was going to purchase an adapter to convert one or both of the extra 5.5" bays to 3.5" and then have the option of positioning all the drives in the most advantagous position.

If you are desperate to do this you can always purchase a case configured to better suit your needs. The case I have was purchased w/o power supply for $20 at a local shop. It had one rear fan port, one on the side and another in the front, and also came with a removable mobo tray. She ain't the prettiest thing on the block but has everything I needed.

....WW

 

[jy88888888]

Thanks!

I've got the same arrangement as you now. Why didn't I think of that?!

I did consider it, but had the flat ide cables and so your arrangement was not possible since the cables will cross over each other very uneatly - if you know what I mean.

I am now using 2 Akasa 90cm round cables - Twice the length of my old flat cables - Have I slowed my system down because of this?

Thanks again!

AMD VS INTEL - AMD anyday

 

[lhgpoobaa]

YIKES! 90cm... thats 35" cables!

With cables that long you may be risking IDE data corruption. Read dansdata for more info about this: <A HREF="http://www.dansdata.com/rcables.htm" target="_new">http://www.dansdata.com/rcables.htm</A>

<b>Anyone claiming they can see the difference
between 450 and 500 FPS in Quake3 deserves to
be severely beaten with a rock. </b>

 

[jy88888888]

I knew this would come.

So what's IDE data corruption?

What would you recommend for my situation? I have a CDRW, DVD, WDSE and an old Seagate.

My system is running stable right now, but if there is a risk of data loss/corruption, then I will be very grateful for your help.

How about 45cm round cables?

The only neat and possible arrangement is as follows. Like I said, I have 4 drives - 1, 2, 3 and 4. 1 being my most upper drive and 4 being my lowest drive.

I connect 1 to 3 and I then connect 2 to 4 - hope you know what I mean. That's why I need round cables.

AMD VS INTEL - AMD anyday

 

[lhgpoobaa]

What is data corruption?

Did you even look at that link i gave you? Dan @ dansdata goes into the details and explains it quite well.

45cm cables are the OFFICIAL MAXIMUM.
i personally would only up to 60cm if the cables were SHIELDED.

I have had 60cm rounded cables before. They seemed to be ok at stock bus speeds (133FSB, 33Mhz PCI), but any overclocking gave me loads of errors.



<b>Anyone claiming they can see the difference
between 450 and 500 FPS in Quake3 deserves to
be severely beaten with a rock. </b>

 

[4Ryan6]

If you're after faster transfer speeds;

Transfer the information you need from the old drive to the new one;

Ditch the old drive you don't need it;

Use ATA100 18" IDE cables, set the WDSE as master of the Primary IDE 1;

Set the CDRW as Master, the DVDROM as Slave of the Secondary IDE 2;

Use this configuration and you won't have any problems, the Blue connector end of the ATA100 cable goes to the M/Bs connector, and if you hook it backwards you will have problems, and you could eventually damage your system;

Do yourself a favor take a deep breath, and ditch the old drive, its probably an ATA33 anyway, you will be amazed at the difference.



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