Be aware....that there are two distinct types of IDE cables.
There is a cable (either 40 or 80 conductor ) that is designed for cable select, where the drive on the end of the cable will be the master and the drive on the center connector will be the slave.
Many of those cables are actually labeled in Black Ink to denote which connector is which.
Then when two drives are connected, both drives must have their jumpers set to "Cable Select" (CS).
There is also a straight thru cable. When two drives are used on such a cable the two drives must be jumpered, "Master" and "Slave".
If both drives on such a cable are set to "CS", the mobo won't know which one is the master and which one is the slave. The system probably won't boot.
The 80 conductor cable MUST be used on ATA 133 drives to attain maximum speed in data transfer with the drive.
Never, replace an 80 conductor cable with a 40 conductor cable.
The 40 conductor cables should be used on CD/DVD drives only.
If you remove a floppy drive, it must also be removed in the Bios Setup and drive boot order, or trouble will ensue.
That's just a word from experience.
Good Luck,
The Shadow
