3rd rom drive

[wblue]

Somebody set me straight. Can I attach 3 drives to one IDE connector on the mother board, or not. And if not, why do they sell data ribbons with four plugs.
I have a Gateway 700 tower with 2 hard drives and 2 rom drives, and I want to add a 3rd rom drive. There are 2 IDE connectors on the mother board. Can I do this?

 

[SESaskDFC]

Howdy:

In order to do that, you are going to need an IDE expansion card and fit it into one of your PCI slots.. IDE only allows one master and slave per connection.

Murray

 

[wblue]

This being the case, why are there data ribbon cables with 4 connectors.

 

[SESaskDFC]

Those are for floppies.. Not IDE drives..

Murray

 

[wblue]

But what the salesman sold me is a 48" 4 device 40 pin IDE cable. So I threw $10 dollars away...but I am still confused.

 

[garebo]

I dont believe there has ever been, at least in the last 10 to 15 yrs, a 48inch ide cable, i think the tops is 36 inch for servers and full towers. But never with 4 connectors.
Myabe you have a scsi cable? There are different types of scsi and i dont know much about them but i think they are all pretty much wider than ide but some may be close in size.
Are you absolutely positive that its ide as i dont think it is?

A tip: salespeople at computer stores mostly work for min wage and i have listened in on horror stories and complete lies told to customers. I correct them on the spot if its a dangerous lie or a lie that will cost the customer for nothing, which means most of the time. They dont like me much at the future shop store in Windsor where i am living at present, because of that. I was offered a job but min wage or just above, no thanks. Sometimes their knowledge level is below your own so dont trust what they say. Use the internet, google, and fora (forums) to teach yourself, easier, faster, and much more honest!

 

[Bozz]

Look in your BIOS. There are only 4 devices, primary master & slave and secondary master & slave. If you really want lost of devices get a RAID motherboard which leaves the 4 normal IDE's for your CD ROM/DVD etc.

Ian Boys
DTE Systems Ltd

 

[edfair]

The IDE specification is for 2 devices per channel.
You have 2 channels on your motherboard.
If you want 4 more device capability buy another controller. If you are in windows, the OS will automatically find the controller board and then the CD.

Agree that the ribbon is more likely SCSI. IDE specifications are for 24" and some have had luck extending it to 30 without failures.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[garebo]

just so you know when you go back to the store you got the cable from.
First, they will take it back if you have the bill or the plastic it came in.

ide cables: if it fits on a hard drive or cdrom or cd burner or dvd burner, then it would be an ide cable.
The standard is, i think, 18 in and has 2 connectors plus the connector that goes to the motherboard.
Sometimes you see ide cables with only 1 connector besides the one that goes to the mobo. And you see ide cables in sizes from 12 in, 18 in, 24 in, and even 30 and i believe also 36 in. Use the smallest you can use in your setup.
You have to bear in mind that when you connect an ide cable to the mobo and then to 2 devices, say a hard drive and then to a cdrom, usually you have to twist the cable at some point so it goes on correctly on the second drive, so you have to figure all that when you are figuring out what size to get. If in doubt between the 18in and the 24in, it wont do any hard to get the 24in, or try the 18in and it its too small, bring it back and get the 24in. Only use 30in or above if you absolutely have to, like in a full tower maybe, but for a standard tower 18in to 24in will do fine.
On the package it should state eith ide or ata (same cable, just different words), and also it should state the length of the cable.

The one you have, if there is a package it came in, it likely says "scsi" on it somewhere? But if it wont fit on a hard drive or cdrom drive, then its likely a scsi or even a floppy drive cable. Some floppy drive cables can be very long.

 

[wblue]

here is the cable of which I speak.

http://www.yourcomputersource.com/jandr_detail.php?ProdID=CBU FLT-1650-48

 

[garebo]

your link doesnt work

maybe just type it in?
Or try again.

 

[garebo]

link worked this time.

 

[garebo]

ok, someone made a mistake in the description, that cable is a standard ide cable and it will accept 2 ide drives, not 4 of anything.
Whoever did that meant to say this cable will help install 2 ide drives and you can have 4 ide drives in your computer, that is, before you have to install another controller card. I have 7 ide drives in my computer, 5 hard drives, a dvd burner, and a dvdrom, but i also have a controller running 3 of the ide drives and those 3 are hard drives, total of 7, but with a controller card, otherwise you are limited to 4 in total, 2 on each cable maximum. The third connection on that cable in your picture goes to the motherboard.

So someone entered the text wrong.

Getting back to your problem, you would have to add a controller to your computer. This would be an ide controller that goes in a pci slot. There are different types but you may likely want an ide 66 or 100 controller.
Promise company makes one called promise ultra 66 and maxtor has one too, its the same controller.

 

[SESaskDFC]

Looks like a normal 2 connector cable to me..

Murray

 

[micker377]

Could possibly ba a special cable for a propriatary add-in board (note the 48 conductors). I have an old floppy cable with four conductors and a toggle switch built in! It is for "A" - "B" - and a tape drive. The switch is to toggle between the "A" drive and the tape backup. It actually worked quite well.

 

[garebo]

Its obviously a standard double ide connector with the wrong description written for it.