PATA cabling

[BackwoodsBob]

I am building an old pc. So far it is working!
I put 2 dvd/rw in it and they both showed up under my computer. When I was testing them out,I noticed one is noisy. So I swapped it out with another one and neither drives are showing now. I put the noisy one back in and they are still not showing up.
I think I screwed up the cable when I unplugged it despite using the D shaped ring on the end. The cable doesn't look damaged...
Is there anything in a DVD/RW that would cause it to not show up at all and make another one that worked stop showing? Like is there anything internally that could have fried stuff? The one that I swapped in was good when I took it out of it's original computer
I had it off and unplugged when I did the swap, both times.

 

[hat]

Check master/slave jumpers

 

[micropage7]

usually on pata is bad from the plastic connector to the cable, could be from the cable too since it's old

 

[Bill_Bright]

I agree with hat.

PATA (ATA, Ultra ATA, IDE or EIDE) allows you to put two drives per cable. If using one per cable, it will be Master (MA) and will be connected on the opposite end from the motherboard connector. If using two drives per cable, the Slave (SL) drive will be in the center of the cable.

Note the center connector will be off-set, positioned closer to one end. While crude, insensitive, very inappropriate and totally politically incorrect (and I apologize in advance), "the master always keeps his slave close" is how you remember which connector goes where, if the cable is not labeled.

The drive jumpers can bet set two ways. The first requires you set the jumpers on the drives to MA or SL. The second method requires you set both drive jumpers to Cable Select (CS) and the interface will sort them out.

You cannot mix methods - that is, you cannot use CS and MA/SL on the same cable. You must use one method or the other.

If your cables only allow one drive, then you set the drive jumper to CS or MA. Never SL.

 

[BackwoodsBob]

I agree with hat.

PATA (ATA, Ultra ATA, IDE or EIDE) allows you to put two drives per cable. If using one per cable, it will be Master (MA) and will be connected on the opposite end from the motherboard connector. If using two drives per cable, the Slave (SL) drive will be in the center of the cable.

Note the center connector will be off-set, positioned closer to one end. While crude, insensitive, very inappropriate and totally politically incorrect (and I apologize in advance), "the master always keeps his slave close" is how you remember which connector goes where, if the cable is not labeled.

The drive jumpers can bet set two ways. The first requires you set the jumpers on the drives to MA or SL. The second method requires you set both drive jumpers to Cable Select (CS) and the interface will sort them out.

You cannot mix methods - that is, you cannot use CS and MA/SL on the same cable. You must use one method or the other.

If your cables only allow one drive, then you set the drive jumper to CS or MA. Never SL.

wait...I almost understand. There is a jumper. You are saying that I could have replaced the master with a slave? Would that cause both drives to disappear?
I put the original master back but still have no drives, thats why I think I damaged the cable, but want to make sure there are no changes that would have been made by BIOS automatically. Or worse straight fried something. Looking at the drive I took back out, I see the jumper is indeed set to slave.
Tell me I didn't fry something...
Edit: this is on a Dell Dimension 5150 if it matters.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Something along the lines of this. You can only have one master and one slave. So if both drives are set to the same thing, neither will be seen by the system. Change the jumper according to the settings listed on the drives.

 

[BackwoodsBob]

Something along the lines of this. You can only have one master and one slave. So if both drives are set to the same thing, neither will be seen by the system. Change the jumper according to the settings listed on the drives.

I see the jumper. I understand. I put the original master back in. First rule of computer stuff, if you do something and get unexpected results, put it back, right?
I still have no drives. Did I fry something or do I need to adjust a setting?

 

[TheLostSwede]

I see the jumper. I understand. I put the original master back in. First rule of computer stuff, if you do something and get unexpected results, put it back, right?
I still have no drives. Did I fry something or do I need to adjust a setting?

I don't think you're getting it.
You need to look at all the drives you're using on the same cable and make sure one is set up as Master and the other as Slave or no drives will be visible to the system.
Putting back something that doesn't work, isn't going to help solve your problem.

 

[Bill_Bright]

You are saying that I could have replaced the master with a slave?

Umm, no. I never said that.

Looking at the drive I took back out, I see the jumper is indeed set to slave.

You cannot have a Slave without a Master. So if you only have one drive on the cable, the jumper must be set to either Master or Cable Select and the drive must be connected to the Master connector on the cable (opposite end to the motherboard connector).

If you messed up the jumpers, that should not fry anything.

 

[BackwoodsBob]

Umm, no. I never said that.


You cannot have a Slave without a Master. So if you only have one drive on the cable, the jumper must be set to either Master or Cable Select and the drive must be connected to the Master connector on the cable (opposite end to the motherboard connector).

If you messed up the jumpers, that should not fry anything.

Again, I fear I am not being terribly clear, somehow. My apologies.
The machine had two optical drives connected by a PATA cable. I didn't realize at the time I replaced a noisy one that there was a master and slave setting. The Master I replaced was replaced with something that was set to slave. When the machine quit recognizing the optical drives, I put the noisy master back in and still have no optical drives registering. I am trying to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. If it isn't something fried (WHEW!!) then it must either be the cable or a setting. But what setting?

I don't think you're getting it.
You need to look at all the drives you're using on the same cable and make sure one is set up as Master and the other as Slave or no drives will be visible to the system.
Putting back something that doesn't work, isn't going to help solve your problem.

I am totally getting it. Somehow I am not communicating effectively.
I have a computer. It runs windows xp. I was installing command and conquer and noticed that one of the optical drives is noisy.
Reading about the positioning of the drives on the cable, I know that I replaced a master optical drive with one that is set to slave.
Before I did the swap, I used the installed slave optical drive to do the install of the game and then replaced the drive that was set to master with one that was set to slave not knowing there was a jumper.
At which point both of my optical drives quit showing up.
So I put the noisy optical drive back in. The one that was and is set to master and is on the master position, just like it was before the drives were swapped. It was/is noisy/failing but both drives showed up before I messed it up. They should show up after the mistake got corrected
I am still not registering either optical drive.