different ribbon cables

[xiankai]

i have 3 sorts of ribbon cables that i need to distinguish,

one has blue, grey and black connectors on a grey ribbon cable with a red outline on one side,

one has green, grey and black connectors on a yellow ribbon cable with a red outline on one side,

and the last one is a standard cable with all black connecotrs on a grey ribbon cable.

can someone provide me with the info? thanks!

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by xiankai i have 3 sorts of ribbon cables that i need to distinguish, one has blue, grey and black connectors on a grey ribbon cable with a red outline on one side,

That's a Ultra-ATA 80 wire IDE cable...it uses the CS jumper position on the drive.

Originally Posted by xiankai one has green, grey and black connectors on a yellow ribbon cable with a red outline on one side,

That's another Ultra-ATA 80 wire IDE cable just from a different manufacturer...it uses the CS jumper position on the drive also.

Originally Posted by xiankai and the last one is a standard cable with all black connecotrs on a grey ribbon cable.

That's a normal ATA IDE cable...this one uses the master/slave drive jumper positions.

Cricket

[TwoRails]

On the grey cable, does it appear to have the same number of wires? If so, then it is also an Ultra-ATA cable. If it has noticable fewer wires, then it's a standard ATA cable.

[edfair]

You can use Master/Slave drive selection on the ultra cables, but master must be on the end. If you use cable select the drive on the middle becomes the slave because the wire indicating slave does not get to the end.

There are 40conductor cables that show up in the field with CS capabilities, but you should be able to tell by holding the cable up to light. To make it C/S one of the conductors is broken, leaving a gap large enough to see light through.

[xiankai]

hmm thanks guys! didnt notice the difference in the no. of wires... ><

so on UATA cables,

i can either use the master jumper for the master drive on the end, and the slave jumper for the slave drive in the middle,

or use master jumper for the master drive on the end and the cable select jumper for the slave driver in the middle?

what is the difference between cable select and master/slave jumpers, i wonder?

and two last questions:

when connecting a HDD and a CD-ROM, which should be the master and the slave?

and when connecting a CD-ROM and a CD-RW(cos it cant read CDs), which should be the master and the slave, again?

[glc]

No, if you use CS, you use CS on both drives. CS is preferable because some drives (WD in particular) cannot be jumpered Master if there is no slave present.

Other than the boot drive (which should always be primary master) it really doesn't make too much difference what the other drives are.

CD-RW drives can read CD's just fine.

[xiankai]

what is WD? how can i find if a drive will not support the master jumper on its own?

my CD-RW cant read a CD, do i have to install software or anything?

thanks for the fast reply!

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by xiankai what is WD?

Western Digital.

Originally Posted by xiankai how can i find if a drive will not support the master jumper on its own?

That's only for Western Digital hard drives. If there is no other drive on a 40 wire IDE cable you remove the jumper shunt completely. If it's a 80 wire IDE cable, set the jumper shunt to CS.

Originally Posted by xiankai my CD-RW cant read a CD, do i have to install software or anything?

No, you don't need any extra software for a CD-RW to read CDs...if it can't read a CD it's probably broken. Try it in another computer and if it still can't read a CD you might want to replace it.

Cricket