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OK with the ATA 66/100 80 wire cables, the Master HDD is supposed to go on the end connector which is black, with Slave HDD connecting to middle connector which is grey.

My question is if your are hooking up other devices as master and slave beside two HDDs to this same 80 wire cable, does this same rule apply?

IF so why? As I understand it, with a regular cable it made no difference which connector was used for master and slave, so why now?

Having to hook it up as above creates some problems when a HDD is above the motherboard connector and then a CD is above that still. Having to use the end connector for the first one means that cable will have to be awfully long to work.

If you don't want to use cable select (which is letting the primary / secondary spots decide master/slave) than set the jumpers on the HDD/CD/Burner/Etc for master/slave. Most items come with directions. If not, check the manufacterers website.

My question is if your are hooking up other devices as master and slave beside two HDDs to this same 80 wire cable, does this same rule apply?

Not generally. If you're dealing with things like CD-ROMs and Zips that run at UDMA/33 or slower, you don't have to worry about that.

Well I was told on this forum that I should have my cdrom and burner on separate channels (I don't) and have both my HDDs on separate channels (I don't).

Well using that 'master' on end of cable', I can't get this to work as stated in my previous post. Cables just aren't long enough to have to have the HDD on the end of cable and cd on middle of cable. I just got some round cables but they still aren't long enough to do this. I would like to know how the guys that told me to hook this stuff up are doing it. I'd have to have some special cables like at least 24 inches and even that would be cutting it close because it sure wouldn't be 24 inches from end of cable (IDE hook up) and middle connector. The middle connector has to go all the way to the top of my case to hook up each CDrom. I don't know why the cables are made to have to hook up this way. I would like to know the reasoning behind this if anyone knows.

I've got my HDD on IDE1 and my DVD and CDRW on IDE2... I don't burn on the fly so it don't matter to me... But generally from my experience if you have the drives set to master/slave it don't really matter where they go at on the cable. And i hear ya on the part about the cable... Why they had to make them so screwy is beyond me.

<i>the Master HDD is supposed to go on the end connector which is black, with Slave HDD connecting to middle connector which is grey. </i>

That sounds odd. With my previous RAID array, I put both drives as master on their own channel and used the first IDE connector on the ribbon that I came to (thus, not using the "end" connector) and it worked fine?

That sounds odd. With my previous RAID array, I put both drives as master on their own channel and used the first IDE connector on the ribbon that I came to (thus, not using the "end" connector) and it worked fine?

Yes, but that's with a single drive per channel. If you had two drives on each channel you'd have to put the master on the end. I think setting a UDMA/66/100/133 drive as master enables termination on it.

Here is an email I just received from Western Digital after I asked this question.


Thank you for contacting Western Digital.


When the system boots the first signal through the ATA 66/100-cables travels to the end of the
cable. If an IDE device is found it then travels to the middle connector to determine if a slave is
present. If you have one device on the cable, connected to the center instead of the end, the
system would not recognize the device. This is the industry standard for ATA 66/100-cables.


You may make the CD the master and the hard drive the slave. When the system boots it will go to
the CD first and then to the hard drive. This is not the recommended way but it will work.


If I can be of further assistance, please notify me.