Cable Connection Question

[Kubie]

I'm finishing up my second build to be given to my son for his birthday.
Epox 8K7A, Duron 800 (running at 1000), Crucial pc2100 128mb DDR ram, Enlight case w/300w p/s, a ATI Xpert2000 Pro 32mb video card, Seagate 40g 7200rpm ATA100 HDD, cd-rom and Plextor 12/10/32a cd-rw.
I'm putting the cd-rw as master and the cd-rom as slave on Ide 2. With the 40 wire cable, does it make a difference which device is connected to the end of the cable/ or in the middle of the cable?
Carl

[Greedo]

hey Carlgif

HDD and CD-Rom drive assignments go by the master/slave jumpers and shouldnt' care which connector they're on. floppy drives do go by A: at the far end and B: in the middle of the cable however

[Kubie]

Thanks Greedo,
I thought that may be the case. As master, the cd-rw is listed first as far as drive assignments are concerned. So I have C, D, E, F, (HDD), G (cd-rw) and H (cd-rom).
Carl

[Rancher]

Originally posted by Carlgif Thanks Greedo, I thought that may be the case. As master, the cd-rw is listed first as far as drive assignments are concerned. So I have C, D, E, F, (HDD), G (cd-rw) and H (cd-rom). Carl

Are ya sure ya want them cd's on the same drive with only 128 ram? Not planning on burning on the fly, eh? Primary ide channel does require an ATA/100 cable to run that hot seagate drive. These cables must be attached correctly, with the slave in the middle, where I would place the cdburner with jumper to cable select leaving cdrom as master on ide channel 2 40 wire cable.

[WJWheels]

Originally posted by Carlgif Thanks Greedo, I thought that may be the case. As master, the cd-rw is listed first as far as drive assignments are concerned. So I have C, D, E, F, (HDD), G (cd-rw) and H (cd-rom). Carl

I'd suggest you change the drive letters on your CD drives Carl. If you/he later change partitioning or add another hdd, you may end up messing up loading of any installed programs, games, etc. I always make my cdrom "R" and my cdrw "W" (my zip is "Z"). This way the letters never get changed by the sysem.

[Kubie]

Rancher,
The Seagate does have the 80 wire cable and connected correctly. My old E-Machines only had 64mb ram and I burned cd to cd without a problem.
I've seen comments on this site that since the cd's are ATA33 and that the burner likes to be the master, that my connections are OK.

Wheels,
I'll reletter the drives so that I don't run into a future problem.

Thanks for the replies, it is much appreciated.
Carl

[whr2206]

Originally posted by WJWheels I'd suggest you change the drive letters on your CD drives Carl. If you/he later change partitioning or add another hdd, you may end up messing up loading of any installed programs, games, etc. I always make my cdrom "R" and my cdrw "W" (my zip is "Z"). This way the letters never get changed by the sysem.

hey, how do you do that? I'd like to know how....

[Confused]

WHR you don't indicate what OS you're running, but if XP, right click My Computer, click Manage, click Disk Management, right click drive you want to change.
Chas

[WJWheels]

Originally posted by whr2206 hey, how do you do that? I'd like to know how....

It's the same as Confused answered for win2k, but in win9x (including ME), just go to "Device Manager", choose the "Settings" tab under "Properties" and change to whatever letter you wish. XP & W2K will let you change any drive letter, whereas win9x will not let you mess with the hard drives or their partitions.

[PMich]

I thought that the end connector was master and the middle was slave. I know this is the case with cable select setups but I thought they needed to be connected that way even if you were setting the jumpers for master and slave. Are you guys saying that the jumpers will override this?

[WJWheels]

Originally posted by PMich I thought that the end connector was master and the middle was slave. I know this is the case with cable select setups but I thought they needed to be connected that way even if you were setting the jumpers for master and slave. Are you guys saying that the jumpers will override this?

Yes... master or slave can be on either connector. On a 40 wire cable, the drive jumpers ONLY determine which is which.

[glc]

Pmich: 80 wire cables are always master on end and slave in the middle because they are wired for cable select (you should NOT attempt to override this with jumpers) - 40 wire doesn't matter, just use the appropriate jumpers.

[PMich]

So what happens when you try to CS with 40 wire cables?

[whr2206]

oh ok thanks...

[glc]

You can't CS with 40 wire cables unless they are CS cables (Dell and Compaq DID use those).