When buying a HD...

[JeremyPC]

I got all my comp parts from new egg but my 60GB HD doesnt have a cord that leads to the mobo, the Master cord I think its called.. does the HD come with the cord or do you buy it separate?

[jmebonner]

It should be a ribbon cable. If you bought a retail hdd, it should have one in the box. Do you have one for your cd-rom? It may have two ends on it, one for the cdrom and one fot the hdd.

Just set both jumpers to CS (cable select) and the computer should automatically detect them.

btw, you want the hdd on the end of the cable, the cd on the middle plug.

[JeremyPC]

ya the CD-Rom did come with 2 ends but I thot the other was like a spare, and is spaced to close to the Cd-rom plug to make it to the HD

[DoctorReno]

Since CS never caught on as a standard many IDE cables are NOT CS compatable. Take the time and jumper your devices to Master/Slave correctly.

And another thing, NEVER put your HD and CD on the same IDE cable unless you want to reduce the DMA performance of your HD. The HD(s) should go on your Primary IDE cable and any other IDE devices should be on the Secondary IDE channel.

[DoctorReno]

Should have also mentioned, if your HD is Ultra DMA 66 you will want to get an ATA 66/100 cable. These cables have 80 wires and 40 pins for maximum signal quality at the highest speeds. If you use the standard 40 wire cable your HD's DMA performace will be reduced.

[ragtop]

The ribbon cables often come with the HDD or motherboard. If you don't have one, you can pick one up at any computer shop or electronics store for a few bucks.

[jmebonner]

Jeremy, you can't move the hdd so it will be close enough to the end at least temporarily?

Every cable I've gotten in the last 3 years has been CS compatible. I know it was probably for future reference, but if he doesn't even think he has one cable, he couldn't possibly have two, so the hdd and cd rom will have to be on the same cable for now. I also doubt newegg is still selling dma 66 hdds (although I may be wrong, again ). The last 66 I had was on my HP 900Mhz Pavilion (circa 1999).

[JeremyPC]

Ya I fixed it jmebonner was right, I am using the Chenming ATX Tower, same as you all I did was move the HD from Port 2 to Port 1 and now it fits, thanks for the help.

[DoctorReno]

jmebonner,
Sorry bud but you need to get your facts straight. I believe you are referring to a FSB (Front side Bus) of 66mhz. DMA (Direct Memory Access) is a totally different subject. I am pretty certain that in 1999 Ultra DMA 33 was the best you could get. Now most drives are Ultra DMA 66 and receintly they have started mfg Ultra DMA 100.

[originel]

i dunno...my seagate is 100 and it's about 2 years old. also they have dma133 now too.

sorry to thread crap...here's a link to a udma cable at
newegg