Cable management!

[Black Panther]

I have a 160GB IDE HDD lying around and decided to pop it into my rig to use for general storage. Purchased a neat black round IDE cable for the purpose.

I was just going to hook up the IDE cable to the motherboard and the HDD... but on second thoughts, I already have a ribbon black IDE cable from ODD to motherboard.

I haven't as yet opened up my rig, I am sure that I can hook up the round cable to secondary HDD and ODD and do away with the flat ribbon, but wanted to check it out just in case.

I'm not very experienced, my rig was my first and only build so far and although I don't worry much about experimenting on secondary pc's I really would feel lost if something goes wrong with mine, especially since my other pc got a bad mobo not worth replacing and I would be having no pc in the house if I muck up... (ie no access to TPU!)

I've got a SATA2 HDD already in place, but obviously that must remain as it is, cable and all. I have connected other SATA HDD's to my rig previously but this is my first time using IDE and SATA at the same time.

So I guess I can connect the IDE cable to mobo IDE slot, secondary IDE HDD and ODD and set the IDE HDD to slave... Is it so?

 

[Polaris573]

It won't break anything I have a 40GB drive and DVD drive on the same cable. Try to make the HD the master if you can though.

 

[lemonadesoda]

Important question: does the old HDD have a boot sector? If so... just be careful the PC doesnt try to boot from the old drive. When you install it, on boot, go to BIOS setup, and check boot order.

Yes, you can add a HDD and a ODD on the same cable. However, I suggest you put the items as "cable select" rather than master and slave.

I dont understand Polaris logic for making the HDD master. I really dont think it matters. Just make sure that they are BOTH set to CABLE SELECT, or, one is set master and the other slave.

 

[erocker]

Just want to let you know that there's a cable management helpdesk here.: http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=48836

 

[Polaris573]

I dont understand Polaris logic for making the HDD master. I really dont think it matters. Just make sure that they are BOTH set to CABLE SELECT, or, one is set master and the other slave.

For one it is standard convention to have the hard drive as the master when combining it with an ATAPI device. Even if you use cable select one drive is designated master and the other slave depending on their position on the cable (Master is first position and Slave is second). However, it probably isn't necessary today, but I started out working on older computers where the hard disk would not always "play nice" with certain CD ROM drives if it was in the slave position. Sometimes that knowledge spills over into what I do in the present day even though it's redundant, for example checking to see if the red stripe on the PATA cable is on the same side as the power connector even though modern connections are keyed. So, yes, it may be pointless but it's not really illogical to adhere to convention when possible. Now at least you understand my logic.

 

[lemonadesoda]

Ah, old logic. now I understand. In which case, we should recommend that Panther uses 2 separate cables, one to IDE1 and the other IDE2. Because the PIO/DMA 2 access to the ODD may conflict with UDMA 5 on the HDD... resulting in poor HDD performance

 

[Polaris573]

Haha very true. The thought did cross my mind but I was able to suppress that one because it would be completely false rather than just pointless.

 

[Black Panther]

- I have 320GB SATA containing XP and games. The pc must boot from that one.

- ODD on ribbon IDE.

- Adding the 160GB just for storage (photos, videos, some utilities etc).

I want to remove the ribbon from the ODD and add the 160GB to use the same IDE cable as the ODD.

Isn't the SATA already master? Can I make both SATA and IDE masters? Sorry if I find it hard to understand... I never had a pc with 2 HDD's before (let alone one on SATA and one sharing IDE cable with ODD)

 

[EviLZeD]

i dont think there such thing as master and slave with sata drive you have to make the IDE hard disk master or slave and the Odd master or slave depending on what you made the hard disk using the jumpers at the back of the drives you set this when you have two drives on one IDE cable afaik

 

[lemonadesoda]

1./Isn't the SATA already master?
2./Can I make both SATA and IDE masters? Sorry if I find it hard to understand... I never had a pc with 2 HDD's before (let alone one on SATA and one sharing IDE cable with ODD)

1./ No the SATA isnt the "master", it is the "boot drive". I know this sounds a bit confusing. Essentially you want the SATA to be the "*Master HDD* in your PC" but what you mean is different from the technical specification/terminology of IDE. Under IDE protocol, the drive that was designated "master" was the first drive the PC tried to boot from.

Under SATA, it looks at all drives and takes the first drive with a boot partition. If there is more than one drive with a boot partition, it refers to the priority table in the PC BIOS setup.

2./ If you add a IDE drive with a boot partition, set to "master", in addition to a SATA drive that has a boot partition, which one will the PC actually use to try and start windows? The answer is: there is no predictable answer. You need to go into BIOS setup and TELL THE PC WHICH ONE YOU WANT TO BOOT FROM!

That's the issue. If you DONT got into BIOS and set this... you might end up booting from the IDE drive... and that could get you confused... plus lock you out if the passwords are different!

 

[Black Panther]

Well it's ready and done.
And what's most important my rig is working.

I admit I panicked a bit for nothing, lol, but at the moment I have no other working pc in the house and if this one didn't work it meant I'd have no way to get online and research (or whine over here! )

To insert the hard drive I had to remove the sound card, the tie clips of most cables, and most connections... duh... And I had to place the drive pretty high up otherwise it would have been a very uncomfortable 'ass to ass' fit with the graphics card...

It's amazing how bent into shape cables which have been tied up for nearly a year become. It was like arranging intestines with rigor mortis (only I don't think intestines get rigor mortis?)

Anyway on first power-up everything worked fine. I checked the bios because the IDE HDD had XP Home installed and I didn't want to boot from that as lemonadesoda said. But in the bios the first boot was the Barracuda so there was no problem with that. Upon booting up, the Maxtor got recognised, and the ODD vanished.......

Now on the computer it had been before I remember moving the jumper for it to get recognised having a common cable with the ODD there....

So I put the jumper on the next set of pins and the ODD got recognised and functions too now.

Just for curiousity - the Maxtor's got 4 or 5 set of pins where to put the jumper. I got no idea if the one it is now is master or slave (guess I have to check the bios to see how they are configured? I would like to know).
Also, if one set of pins is for master and another set is slave, what are the rest of the pins there for?