Ata cables, controllers, backwards compatibility

[p4p]

i have a new Ata/133 ( maxtor d740x )drive which I am trying to get working on a MSI bora pro board ( ata/33 support onboard IDE controller) the bios is not picking the new drive up on autodetect, I figure I could need an 80 wire DMA cable, but I currently have a ATA/100 drive running on a standard 40 pin cable no probs, I think however that the cabling is the route of my problems. Are the drives backwards compatible or have I got an excuse to upgrade my mainboard ? Is it the cable before I spend an hours round trip getting one.

 

[Snickle]

You have a legitimate excuse to upgrade. I take advantage of every excuse I can find.

You may have to run the Maxtor diagnostic and reset the UDMA to 33. The newer cable is needed for full UDMA66/100/133 speed but will work with 33.

 

[wolluf]

Drives should be backward compatible (ie, run on older m/b with 40 pin cables - but only at older supported speeds - 33 in your case).

 

[p4p]

I first tried with the cylinder limiter on the drive and it recognised it as a 30meg approx. at least this told me the drive was ok. I then bit the bullet and went for a bios upgrade ( my first). This has worked. I have heard that if you get it wrong you can fry the board, how easy is it to recover should you get it wrong