IDE Cable - reverse it

[Iturea]

I was wondering if you can reverse the IDE cable - in other words normally you have the end at the motherboard and then a far gap until the next connector (the middle one) and then a small gap to the master connector..

So can you reverse it and plug the master connector in the motherboard and then plug the next connector (the middle one) into a zip drive and then the next connector (the one far away - the end) to a CD/RW..

Does that make since??

Please help!!

[elroy]

I think you can with an older 40 pin IDE cable but not with the new 80 pin ATA133 cables.

[Iturea]

thanks :-)

nice aviator... haha!!

[Uncle Bob]

Originally posted by Iturea
I was wondering if you can reverse the IDE cable - in other words normally you have the end at the motherboard and then a far gap until the next connector (the middle one) and then a small gap to the master connector..

So can you reverse it and plug the master connector in the motherboard and then plug the next connector (the middle one) into a zip drive and then the next connector (the one far away - the end) to a CD/RW..

Does that make since??

Please help!!

I've done that with both 40 & 80 conductor cables successfully.
Master/slave stayed the same. Cable select didn't work.

[Iturea]

Ok I just did it and it worked! Yip eeeee!!!! I got them both on cable select too!! I can't believe it!! I am happy cause that just saved me from having to make my zip drive a slave to the hard drive!

FOR ANYONES INFORMATION - IT CAN BE DONE! I DID IT!


THANKS FOR THE INPUT AND HELP!

[Uncle Bob]

You're welcome. My Zip 750 is slave to my HDD. Why do you object to this configuration??

[Iturea]

Because when Windows needs to access your hard drive it looks at everything on that line (the IDE) - ie: if you have master and slave devices on there. So in other words if I only have my hard drive on the IDE cable and nothing else - well then it performs better.

[evereddie]

There was a time when a ide channel was limited in speed to the slowest device on the ide cable. I don't thnk that applies anymore. Anyone know any pos info on this?

[Peter M]

You can NOT reverse 80-strand cables. The reason is that there is one signal in them that does connect between Master and Slave connectors, but not on the Board connector. If you have the cable reversed, you (1) disconnect an important master/slave communication line and (2) make the mainboard incorrectly detect a 40-strand cable.

[JohnE.]

evereddie... Good article on hard drives here on that issue and many others. Most, if not all, modern chipsets support independant device timing.