Whcih drive is which on IDE cable?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gordon
  • Start date Start date
G

Gordon

I have 2 identical (same make, model and size) hard disk drives on my
primary IDE channel - one master and one slave. I think I have worked
out that the C:drive is Disk 0 and the D:drive is disk 1. I want to
replace the D: drive but when I come to open the PC case, how do I
tell which is the D:drive?

I suppose I could determine this by trial and error (50:50 chance) but
I thought there must be a way of getting this right first time.

Thanks

Gordon
 
....unless of course Cable Select is in use and there is a twist in the
ribbon :-)

regards, Richard
 
RJK said:
...unless of course Cable Select is in use and there is a twist in the
ribbon :-)
Click to expand...

There would be no twist in the cable ribbon. The only cable ribbons that
use a twist are for floppy drives.


Malke
 
Gordon said:
I have 2 identical (same make, model and size) hard disk drives on my
primary IDE channel - one master and one slave. I think I have worked
out that the C:drive is Disk 0 and the D:drive is disk 1. I want to
replace the D: drive but when I come to open the PC case, how do I
tell which is the D:drive?

I suppose I could determine this by trial and error (50:50 chance) but
I thought there must be a way of getting this right first time.

Thanks

Gordon
Click to expand...


Gordon:
It's a virtual certainty that the Slave-connected HDD will be connected to
the middle - not the end - connector of its IDE data (ribbon) cable. The
Primary Master HDD - your boot drive - will be connected to the end
connector on that ribbon cable.

I assume the Slave-connected HDD has been connected as a secondary HDD for
storage/backup purposes, i.e., it's not a bootable HDD. So if you
inadvertently did uninstall the "wrong" HDD, the system wouldn't boot. A
good clue, no? No great harm in either event.
Anna
 
The master is at the end of the cable, and the slave is in the middle.
When replacing the slave, be sure the jumper on the new slave drive is
set to slave. After all, you cannot serve two masters.
 
Hey,

Thank you all for chipping in. Glad I didn't rush into this! I'll go
for the C: (bootable) drive being the one on the end of the cable and
the non-bootable D: drive being on the middle connector.

Thanks

Gordon
 
IDE drives on the same ribbon cable jumpered as Master/Slave can be attached to
either of the connectors on the cable. Simply look at the jumpers on the back of the
drive and remove the one that's jumpered as the Slave, unless you would happen to
have the OS installed on it, which then you would remove the Master.
If they were to be jumpered as Cable Select then they would each need to be
connected to the proper connector of a Cable Select cable. Cable Select uses a
special cable that uses a CSEL signal by grounding pin 28 to the IDE controller on
the motherboard and the wire for pin 28 only goes to the middle connector.
When a drive is connected to the middle connector on the CSEL cable, it identifies
the CSEL grounded signal ( 0 value ) and configures the drive as the Master. A drive
connected to the end connector of the CSEL cable does not have the grounded pin 28
wire in the connector so it doesn't receive the CSEL signal, the drive identifies it
as a non-connection and configures it as the Slave drive.
If you swap the drives between the connectors on the CSEL cable, the drives
Master/Slave configuration will swap on the drives as well. With CSEL cable the
middle is always the Master and the End is always the Slave, doesn't matter or care
if only one drive or two drives are connected.

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
 
Run Belarc to determine the correspondence of drive number and drive
serial number.
Run Disk Management to determine the correspondence of the drive
number and drive letter.
 
Brian A. said:
IDE drives on the same ribbon cable jumpered as Master/Slave can be
attached to either of the connectors on the cable. Simply look at the
jumpers on the back of the drive and remove the one that's jumpered as the
Slave, unless you would happen to have the OS installed on it, which then
you would remove the Master.
If they were to be jumpered as Cable Select then they would each need to
be connected to the proper connector of a Cable Select cable. Cable
Select uses a special cable that uses a CSEL signal by grounding pin 28 to
the IDE controller on the motherboard and the wire for pin 28 only goes to
the middle connector.
When a drive is connected to the middle connector on the CSEL cable, it
identifies the CSEL grounded signal ( 0 value ) and configures the drive
as the Master. A drive connected to the end connector of the CSEL cable
does not have the grounded pin 28 wire in the connector so it doesn't
receive the CSEL signal, the drive identifies it as a non-connection and
configures it as the Slave drive.
If you swap the drives between the connectors on the CSEL cable, the
drives Master/Slave configuration will swap on the drives as well. With
CSEL cable the middle is always the Master and the End is always the
Slave, doesn't matter or care if only one drive or two drives are
connected.

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
Click to expand...

Way too much information and incorrect also. If the drives are jumpered for
Cable Select and the Op is using an 80 conductor cable then the drive at the
end of the cable is Master and the one in the middle is Slave.
 
Jerry said:
Way too much information and incorrect also. If the drives are jumpered for Cable
Select and the Op is using an 80 conductor cable then the drive at the end of the
cable is Master and the one in the middle is Slave.
Click to expand...

It's quite correct and obviously not enough information. If a 40 wire/40 pin cable
is used, which to date is still in use on many systems, either you purchase the
proper cable or snip pin wire 28 between the host connector and the middle connector
on the cable. It all depends on the age of the PC or if a user purchased a newer
drive which included the 80 wire/40 pin cable.

With an 80 wire/40 pin cable it's not a fact that the Master is the end connector
since the CSEL is implemented in both connectors, either connector can be used. The
purpose it's stated by manufacturers that the Master gets connected to the end
connector, is if only one drive is installed and it's connected to the middle
connector it can lead to signal pass-through/degradation and possible data
loss/corruption.

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
 
Brian said:
It's quite correct and obviously not enough information. If a 40
wire/40 pin cable is used, which to date is still in use on many
systems, either you purchase the proper cable or snip pin wire 28
between the host connector and the middle connector on the cable. It
all depends on the age of the PC or if a user purchased a newer drive
which included the 80 wire/40 pin cable.

With an 80 wire/40 pin cable it's not a fact that the Master is the end
connector since the CSEL is implemented in both connectors, either
connector can be used. The purpose it's stated by manufacturers that
the Master gets connected to the end connector, is if only one drive is
installed and it's connected to the middle connector it can lead to
signal pass-through/degradation and possible data loss/corruption.
Click to expand...

Try my favorite guide:

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/conf_CS.htm

"However, when the 80-conductor Ultra DMA cable was introduced, the
cable select feature was much improved, changing the potential of
this feature. The two key changes were:

* Drive Position: Unlike the old cables, with the 80-conductor cable,
the master connector is at the end of the cable, and the slave is
in the middle. As I explained above, this is a much more sensible
arrangement, since a single drive placed at the end of the cable
will be a master, and a second drive added in the middle a slave."

The connector at the end of the 80 wire cable is filled first, for signal
integrity reasons. The second drive is added to the middle connector.
Having master on the end makes good sense, given this signal integrity
reality.

HTH,
Paul
 
Paul said:
Try my favorite guide:

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/conf_CS.htm

"However, when the 80-conductor Ultra DMA cable was introduced, the
cable select feature was much improved, changing the potential of
this feature. The two key changes were:

* Drive Position: Unlike the old cables, with the 80-conductor cable,
the master connector is at the end of the cable, and the slave is
in the middle. As I explained above, this is a much more sensible
arrangement, since a single drive placed at the end of the cable
will be a master, and a second drive added in the middle a slave."

The connector at the end of the 80 wire cable is filled first, for signal
integrity reasons. The second drive is added to the middle connector.
Having master on the end makes good sense, given this signal integrity
reality.
Click to expand...

That echos my last response.


--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
 
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