Tech Support Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

IDE cable help

2K views 28 replies 7 participants last post by  bnm81002 
#1 ·
I'm trying to connect my main hard drive(Windows XP), extra hard drive(storage of data, music, etc.) combo drive, CD-ROM drive to my "Master" and "Secondary" IDE cables on my motherboard, how do I connect all 4 components and what Jumper Settings do I use? when I connect the extra hard drive onto the IDE cable, the computer doesn't recognize the drive but the other main drive is recognized, when I disconnect the drive the computer boots up fine w/o problems, the drive has been working fine till I installed the combo drive, I need help here please, thanks :sayyes:
 
#2 ·
Make sure the drive at the end ot the cable (Black plug) is set to master. the second plug (Gray) drive should be set to Slave. The (Blue Plug) to the Motherboard. Some controler will allow you to set them all to cable select you could try that first. There should be a diagram on the drive indicating which is which.
 
#3 ·
first of all I would connect the 2 hard drives to the master ide and i would check to make sure that the first HD that has windows on it has the jumper pins on the rear set to master and the second HD has the jumper pi set to slave, do the same with the seconary IDE and make sure 1 rom is set to master and the other to slave.

If the second HD has not been formatted you may have to formatt it before you can use it
 
#4 ·
blackduck30 said:
first of all I would connect the 2 hard drives to the master ide and i would check to make sure that the first HD that has windows on it has the jumper pins on the rear set to master and the second HD has the jumper pi set to slave, do the same with the seconary IDE and make sure 1 rom is set to master and the other to slave.

If the second HD has not been formatted you may have to formatt it before you can use it
True from the sound You will be burning from the HDD to cd/DVD?
If you copy cd's make sure you have it copy to HDD first it will be faster and less prone to errors.
 
#5 ·
the 2 IDE cables are replacements so no different colors plus, just black color, the hard drive has been working fine prior to me installing the combo drive, here's what I did Master IDE cable(main drive-top end plug, master jumper setting)>(extra drive-middle plug, slave)>bottom end plug(motherboard), Seconadary IDE plug(combo drive-top end plug, master setting)>(CD-ROM drive-middle plug, slave)> bottom end plug(motherboard)
the computer had boot up problems till I disconnected the extra drive,
should I try the cable select setting instead of slave for the extra drive, would that make it all work then? thanks
 
#8 ·
yes and yes, I've been using the 2 cables ever since my computer was built by someone, I purchased a new longer one from Radio Shack, so it's not the cables, my thinking it's the Jumper Setting on the Extra Hard Drive, should I set it "Cable Select" instead of "Slave" on the Master IDE with the Main Drive as "Master"? thanks
 
#10 · (Edited)
oldmn said:
Is this the CABLE you got? could you check the part # please.


there's no link showing up?
but the part # is 278-780 Internal IDE Cable (connects 1 or 2 IDE cables 40-conductor ribbon)
I don't think it's any of the cables, I'm using the computer as you can see, so the main drive works as does the combo drive and cd-rom drive, the 2nd drive is not connected at all, all 3 components are shown in "my computer" screen, should I set the Jumper to "Cable Select" instead of "Slave", would that make it work properly? thanks
 
#15 ·
kodi said:
A 40 conducter ribbon is not an 80 conducter ribbon unless they have changed the way you add up these days.
Look at the cable and try and count the nuber of wires that make up the cable and not the number of pins in the plug


all 3 IDE cables that I have and using 2 of them in computer now are 40 conductor ribbon , I don't think it's the IDE cables but I think it's the Jumper setting on the 2nd drive that is preventing it from operating and not letting the computer boot up properly, should I try "Cable Select" on both drives on the Primary side of the motherboard or "Master" on the main drive and "Cable Select" on the 2nd drive? thanks
 
#18 · (Edited)
kodi said:
You keep saying 40 conductor cable, I will say this only once more.
MOST new drives must have 80 wire cables to work,get the right cable then try messing with the jumpers

both drives are not new, so the IDE cables are fine, or how else is the main drive working then?
could the problem be the BIOS? how can I set it w/o the 2nd drive connected to the IDE cable?
 
#19 ·
blackduck30 said:
first of all I would connect the 2 hard drives to the master ide and i would check to make sure that the first HD that has windows on it has the jumper pins on the rear set to master and the second HD has the jumper pi set to slave, do the same with the seconary IDE and make sure 1 rom is set to master and the other to slave.

the BIOS sees the components as "Primary"- main hard drive(Master) and 2nd hard drive(Slave) and "Secondary"- combo drive(Master) and CD-ROM drive(Slave) and also shows up in the Device Manager in the System Information but now I can't access the 2nd drive, I get an error message,
F:\ is not accessible
the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable
what can I do to solve this problem? thanks
 
#24 ·
Here's a relevant question to this. I have an older HDD, and it was working with a 40 wire cable. If I upgrade to an 80 wire cable so that I can add a newer HDD, will it still work? Basically, are the 80 backwards capatable?
 
#25 ·
back again to try to solve my problem, when I connect everything to the IDE cables, the BIOS reads it correctly as the way that I have them connected,

Primary Master- Boot Hard Drive(Windows XP)
Primary Slave- Extra Drive(storage for music, movies, etc)
Secondary Master- CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo Drive
Secondary Slave- CD-ROM Drive

when I try to access the Extra Drive, it doesn't open up, plus the computer takes awhile to boot up into Windows XP, when I have this drive disconnected, it boots up faster and no problems,
what can I do to solve the problem? thanks
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top