IDE Ribbon Cable
 

I want to add another hard drive to my machine but this would mean I'd
have to use an IDE Ribbon cable with two intermediate pin connectors.
I can't find one on the Internet (Maplin, Dabs), does anyone know
where I can get one?

Xav

xavier wrote:
I want to add another hard drive to my machine but this would mean I'd
have to use an IDE Ribbon cable with two intermediate pin connectors.
I can't find one on the Internet (Maplin, Dabs), does anyone know
where I can get one?

What do you mean by "two intermediate pin connectors"?

--
Grunff

"xavier" wrote in message
om...
I want to add another hard drive to my machine but this would mean I'd
have to use an IDE Ribbon cable with two intermediate pin connectors.
I can't find one on the Internet (Maplin, Dabs), does anyone know
where I can get one?

Xav

Are you trying to put three disks on the one cable?


Francis

I want to add another hard drive to my machine but this would mean I'd
have to use an IDE Ribbon cable with two intermediate pin connectors.
I can't find one on the Internet (Maplin, Dabs), does anyone know
where I can get one?

Each IDE interface can support 2 drives. Should you need to add another, you
need to use a different interface. The majority of motherboards have 2
interfaces integrated on the board, although it is possible to have up to 4,
including the new SATA style interfaces, which only well specified modern
machines will possess.

You need an additional cable and to find the IDE2 (or IDE1, if the first
slot is named IDE0) connector on the motherboard. It will almost certainly
be directly adjacent to the existing slot, but may already be connected to
your CD/DVD drive, with a spare connector dangling around somewhere.

Christian.

In message , Christian
McArdle writes
I want to add another hard drive to my machine but this would mean I'd
have to use an IDE Ribbon cable with two intermediate pin connectors.
I can't find one on the Internet (Maplin, Dabs), does anyone know
where I can get one?

Each IDE interface can support 2 drives. Should you need to add another, you
need to use a different interface. The majority of motherboards have 2
interfaces integrated on the board, although it is possible to have up to 4,
including the new SATA style interfaces, which only well specified modern
machines will possess.

Note that if both IDE interface has 2 drives on it - not usual, (though
I have it), and if it does you'd probably know what you are doing
anyway.

But you can fit an additional interface card into a spare PCI slot.
--
Chris French, Leeds

In article ,
xavier wrote:
I want to add another hard drive to my machine but this would mean I'd
have to use an IDE Ribbon cable with two intermediate pin connectors.
I can't find one on the Internet (Maplin, Dabs), does anyone know
where I can get one?

Buy two and add the connectors to one of them - they're insulation
piercing types and simple to do this.

--
*If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"xavier" wrote in message
om...
I want to add another hard drive to my machine but this would mean I'd
have to use an IDE Ribbon cable with two intermediate pin connectors.
I can't find one on the Internet (Maplin, Dabs), does anyone know
where I can get one?

Xav

I am not sure what you mean by "two intermediate connectors" - if you mean a
ribbon cable with a total of 3 connectors to enable the use of two IDE
drives on one channel, then you need something like this from ebuyer
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q27514139
Or, if you prefer a round cable (which improve the airflow in the case and
look nice) http://makeashorterlink.com/?O28522139

Dave

"Christian McArdle" wrote in message .net...
I want to add another hard drive to my machine but this would mean I'd
have to use an IDE Ribbon cable with two intermediate pin connectors.
I can't find one on the Internet (Maplin, Dabs), does anyone know
where I can get one?

Each IDE interface can support 2 drives. Should you need to add another, you
need to use a different interface. The majority of motherboards have 2
interfaces integrated on the board, although it is possible to have up to 4,
including the new SATA style interfaces, which only well specified modern
machines will possess.

You need an additional cable and to find the IDE2 (or IDE1, if the first
slot is named IDE0) connector on the motherboard. It will almost certainly
be directly adjacent to the existing slot, but may already be connected to
your CD/DVD drive, with a spare connector dangling around somewhere.

Christian.


Aye Christian lad, I think you're right!

I didn't know that when I posted but someone emailed me to correct my
ways.

I'll open it up and look for the other connection. I presume it's one
of those 40?pin things

Cheers

On Wed, 01 Sep 2004 11:47:03 -0700, xavier wrote:


Aye Christian lad, I think you're right!

I didn't know that when I posted but someone emailed me to correct my
ways.

I'll open it up and look for the other connection. I presume it's one of
those 40?pin things

Yes - there are usually two (sometimes four on posh mobos).

Extra info: If your motherboard is newish (say last 2 years) and your disk
is newish (ditto) then you might need a different type of cable.

The key thing is - if the disk is ATA100 or ATA133 capable (100MHz or
133MHz wire speed) *and* the motherboard can support this - then you must
use 80 core cable.

It still has 40 pin plugs though. To get the higher speed, every second
core is a ground wire and are bonded to a common bus in the "special" plug.

You can use 40 core cable but either the drive won't negotiate full bus
speed or if it does it will be unreliable.

BTW - such cable must be installed the right way round (correct end to
motherboard) and hang the disk off the far end, not the middle connector -
leaving a free end can get weird problems due to signal reflections.

HTH

Timbo

"Christian McArdle" wrote in message .net...
I want to add another hard drive to my machine but this would mean I'd
have to use an IDE Ribbon cable with two intermediate pin connectors.
I can't find one on the Internet (Maplin, Dabs), does anyone know
where I can get one?

Each IDE interface can support 2 drives. Should you need to add another, you
need to use a different interface. The majority of motherboards have 2
interfaces integrated on the board, although it is possible to have up to 4,
including the new SATA style interfaces, which only well specified modern
machines will possess.

You need an additional cable and to find the IDE2 (or IDE1, if the first
slot is named IDE0) connector on the motherboard. It will almost certainly
be directly adjacent to the existing slot, but may already be connected to
your CD/DVD drive, with a spare connector dangling around somewhere.

This reminds me - is it possible to obtain what would esssentially be
an *extension* IDE cable (ie one with a 'socket' on one end rather
than the usual plug)?

I have more than once found myself juggling HDs on different PC's
while trying to repair them and/or persuade them to boot up and/or
transfer data from one HD to another in the absence of networking
capability, and it would be useful to be able to temporarily hook up a
PC to an HD which is still sitting inside another's case (with a mini
case it's not always a trivial matter to physically remove an HD from
the case).

David

On Wed, 01 Sep 2004 15:12:17 -0700, Lobster wrote:


This reminds me - is it possible to obtain what would esssentially be an
*extension* IDE cable (ie one with a 'socket' on one end rather than the
usual plug)?

Not come across these - but you can get extra long cables.

Timbo

"Lobster" wrote in message
om...


This reminds me - is it possible to obtain what would esssentially be
an *extension* IDE cable (ie one with a 'socket' on one end rather
than the usual plug)?


I've not seen one of these but you can probably get the male 40 way IDC
connector from somewhere like Maplin. You could at this to an existing
cable. I'd worry about cable length but it is worth a try.
--
Brian Reay
www.g8osn.org.uk
www.amateurradiotraining.org.uk
FP#898

In message , xavier
writes
I want to add another hard drive to my machine but this would mean I'd
have to use an IDE Ribbon cable with two intermediate pin connectors.
I can't find one on the Internet (Maplin, Dabs), does anyone know
where I can get one?

I'm assuming this isn't a troll, so ...

You can only have two devices on one IDE port

I assume you have two IDE ports on your MBD, so you can have a maximum
of 4 devices.

If you want more you need a car to give you extra IDE ports, which are
available from most computer suppliers

e.g. RLSupplies (who are who I use)

--
geoff

In message , xavier
writes
"Christian McArdle" wrote in
message .net...
I want to add another hard drive to my machine but this would mean I'd
have to use an IDE Ribbon cable with two intermediate pin connectors.
I can't find one on the Internet (Maplin, Dabs), does anyone know
where I can get one?

Each IDE interface can support 2 drives. Should you need to add another, you
need to use a different interface. The majority of motherboards have 2
interfaces integrated on the board, although it is possible to have up to 4,
including the new SATA style interfaces, which only well specified modern
machines will possess.

You need an additional cable and to find the IDE2 (or IDE1, if the first
slot is named IDE0) connector on the motherboard. It will almost certainly
be directly adjacent to the existing slot, but may already be connected to
your CD/DVD drive, with a spare connector dangling around somewhere.

Christian.


Aye Christian lad, I think you're right!

I didn't know that when I posted but someone emailed me to correct my
ways.

I'll open it up and look for the other connection. I presume it's one
of those 40?pin things

Not a troll then

There are some controller cards here

http://www.rlsupplies.co.uk/Products...DepartmentID=2
56


Cheers

--
geoff

In message , Lobster
writes
"Christian McArdle" wrote in
message .net...
This reminds me - is it possible to obtain what would esssentially be
an *extension* IDE cable (ie one with a 'socket' on one end rather
than the usual plug)?

I have more than once found myself juggling HDs on different PC's
while trying to repair them and/or persuade them to boot up and/or
transfer data from one HD to another in the absence of networking
capability, and it would be useful to be able to temporarily hook up a
PC to an HD which is still sitting inside another's case (with a mini
case it's not always a trivial matter to physically remove an HD from
the case).

There is a length limit, although I forget what it is.

Surely, you can buy plugs rather than sockets and the ribbon cable and
build your own

--
geoff

In message , logized
writes

"xavier" wrote in message
. com...
I want to add another hard drive to my machine but this would mean I'd
have to use an IDE Ribbon cable with two intermediate pin connectors.
I can't find one on the Internet (Maplin, Dabs), does anyone know
where I can get one?

Xav

I am not sure what you mean by "two intermediate connectors" - if you mean a
ribbon cable with a total of 3 connectors to enable the use of two IDE
drives on one channel, then you need something like this from ebuyer
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q27514139
Or, if you prefer a round cable (which improve the airflow in the case and
look nice) http://makeashorterlink.com/?O28522139

But I want a yellow one ...

--
geoff

raden wrote:

If you want more you need a car to give you extra IDE ports, which are
available from most computer suppliers

None of my cars have/had ide ports - what am I missing? What make of car
do you have?

;-)

--
Grunff

"raden" wrote in message
...
In message , logized
writes

"xavier" wrote in message
. com...
I want to add another hard drive to my machine but this would mean I'd
have to use an IDE Ribbon cable with two intermediate pin connectors.
I can't find one on the Internet (Maplin, Dabs), does anyone know
where I can get one?

Xav

I am not sure what you mean by "two intermediate connectors" - if you
mean a
ribbon cable with a total of 3 connectors to enable the use of two IDE
drives on one channel, then you need something like this from ebuyer
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q27514139
Or, if you prefer a round cable (which improve the airflow in the case
and
look nice) http://makeashorterlink.com/?O28522139

But I want a yellow one ...

--
geoff

Oh, OK then.. http://makeashorterlink.com/?F69016239
Strange, the yellow ones get a better customer review than the blue ones.

Dave

In message , Tim S
writes
On Wed, 01 Sep 2004 15:12:17 -0700, Lobster wrote:


This reminds me - is it possible to obtain what would esssentially be an
*extension* IDE cable (ie one with a 'socket' on one end rather than the
usual plug)?

Not come across these - but you can get extra long cables.

Yellow card there - DIY !

--
geoff

In message , logized
writes
I am not sure what you mean by "two intermediate connectors" - if you
mean a
ribbon cable with a total of 3 connectors to enable the use of two IDE
drives on one channel, then you need something like this from ebuyer
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q27514139
Or, if you prefer a round cable (which improve the airflow in the case
and
look nice) http://makeashorterlink.com/?O28522139

But I want a yellow one ...

--
geoff

Oh, OK then.. http://makeashorterlink.com/?F69016239
Strange, the yellow ones get a better customer review than the blue ones.

Yeah - just bought 10 of them

--
geoff

In message , Grunff
writes
raden wrote:

If you want more you need a car to give you extra IDE ports, which
are available from most computer suppliers

None of my cars have/had ide ports - what am I missing?

You obviously haven't got the right drivers

--
geoff

raden wrote:

There is a length limit, although I forget what it is.

about 19" in theory. You can push it further on slower devices, but may
well run into problems on ATA100 and faster (running mode 4 or above)



--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On Wed, 01 Sep 2004 23:46:08 +0000, raden wrote:

In message , Tim S
writes
On Wed, 01 Sep 2004 15:12:17 -0700, Lobster wrote:


This reminds me - is it possible to obtain what would esssentially be an
*extension* IDE cable (ie one with a 'socket' on one end rather than the
usual plug)?

Not come across these - but you can get extra long cables.

Yellow card there - DIY !

Ha! Yes...

OK - in that case you can get 40 way IDC on a drum and a bag of
connectors. Keep the length under 18" though - I think that's about the
recommended maximum. Some people do sell 24" cable but it's risky.

Timbo

"raden" wrote
| If you want more you need a car to give you extra IDE ports,
| None of my cars have/had ide ports - what am I missing?
| You obviously haven't got the right drivers

And the right kind of driver depends on what sort of bus you have.

Owain

John Rumm wrote:
raden wrote:

There is a length limit, although I forget what it is.


about 19" in theory. You can push it further on slower devices, but may
well run into problems on ATA100 and faster (running mode 4 or above)


You can sometimes get away with slightly longer cables if they are
shielded. Haven't seen anything in the ATA specs about shielded cables,
but I am using a round 28" ide cable with two ATA133 drives with no
apparent problems (very large case and the drives are in an awkward
position) - this cable is nicely constructed though with the data lines
in shielded cable with an overall grounded shield.
The mobo also recognises it as a 80 conductor cable, ISTR that it cost a
stupid amount of money though... ;)

Lee
--
Email address is valid, but is unlikely to be read.

Lee wrote:

You can sometimes get away with slightly longer cables if they are
shielded. Haven't seen anything in the ATA specs about shielded cables,
but I am using a round 28" ide cable with two ATA133 drives with no
apparent problems (very large case and the drives are in an awkward

I think I have used 34" in the past - but that was probably only ATA66.
As with most of these things, what happens in reality will vary on many
factors so you may as well try it and see what gives!

position) - this cable is nicely constructed though with the data lines
in shielded cable with an overall grounded shield.
The mobo also recognises it as a 80 conductor cable, ISTR that it cost a
stupid amount of money though... ;)

The mobo or the cable? The round cables can be had for relatively little
these days.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Owain wrote:

"raden" wrote
| If you want more you need a car to give you extra IDE ports,
| None of my cars have/had ide ports - what am I missing?
| You obviously haven't got the right drivers

And the right kind of driver depends on what sort of bus you have.

And how many conductors in the bus...


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

In article ,
raden writes:
There is a length limit, although I forget what it is.

Original ATA spec is 46cm. I believe it got shorter with the
higher speed modes but I don't have those specs.

[Parallel] ATA is very rapidly giving way to SATA now. I saw
some figures for two months ago with SATA drive sales almost up
to ATA ones, and they will have overtaken by now unless there
was a dramatic change in direction of the straight line on
the graph. ATA drive sales look like they'll drop to almost
zero in less than a year. Was browsing around a computer store
in the US two weeks ago, and SATA drives were actually cheaper
than equivalent ATA ones (not sure that's true here quite yet).

--
Andrew Gabriel

In article ,
John Rumm writes:
Owain wrote:

"raden" wrote
| If you want more you need a car to give you extra IDE ports,
| None of my cars have/had ide ports - what am I missing?
| You obviously haven't got the right drivers

And the right kind of driver depends on what sort of bus you have.

And how many conductors in the bus...

and what charge they can get out of you...

--
Andrew Gabriel

Lobster wrote:
snip
This reminds me - is it possible to obtain what would esssentially be
an *extension* IDE cable (ie one with a 'socket' on one end rather
than the usual plug)?

That's the wrong way to do it, as others have mentioned.
http://www.ebuyer.com/ (other vendors of computer equipment are available)
have a USB2 - IDE connector.
Comes with a little "brick" power supply that you plug into any 5.25" or
3.5" device (CD/HDD/...), plug in to disk or whatever, and then plug
into USB2 port (slower on 1.1, but works)

raden wrote in message ...
In message , xavier
writes
I want to add another hard drive to my machine but this would mean I'd
have to use an IDE Ribbon cable with two intermediate pin connectors.
I can't find one on the Internet (Maplin, Dabs), does anyone know
where I can get one?

I'm assuming this isn't a troll, so ...

snip

That's a bit unkind isn't it? Just because I'm electronically
challenged doesn't mean to say I'm Norwegian. Bet I could give you
the run around on Paxillus Panuoides or Donkioporia expansa. Be a
little more trusting brother...

:))

xav

In message , John
Rumm writes
Lee wrote:

You can sometimes get away with slightly longer cables if they are
shielded. Haven't seen anything in the ATA specs about shielded
cables, but I am using a round 28" ide cable with two ATA133 drives
with no apparent problems (very large case and the drives are in an
awkward

I think I have used 34" in the past - but that was probably only ATA66.
As with most of these things, what happens in reality will vary on many
factors so you may as well try it and see what gives!

position) - this cable is nicely constructed though with the data
lines in shielded cable with an overall grounded shield.
The mobo also recognises it as a 80 conductor cable, ISTR that it
cost a stupid amount of money though... ;)

The mobo or the cable? The round cables can be had for relatively
little these days.

About £1.50 each the last time I bought some

--
geoff

In message , Andrew Gabriel
writes
In article ,
raden writes:
There is a length limit, although I forget what it is.

Original ATA spec is 46cm. I believe it got shorter with the
higher speed modes but I don't have those specs.

[Parallel] ATA is very rapidly giving way to SATA now. I saw
some figures for two months ago with SATA drive sales almost up
to ATA ones, and they will have overtaken by now unless there
was a dramatic change in direction of the straight line on
the graph. ATA drive sales look like they'll drop to almost
zero in less than a year. Was browsing around a computer store
in the US two weeks ago, and SATA drives were actually cheaper
than equivalent ATA ones (not sure that's true here quite yet).

BTW, beware of Maxtor drives ATM, in a discussion elsewhere, quite a few
people are getting failures within the warranty period

--
geoff

In message , Owain
writes
"raden" wrote
| If you want more you need a car to give you extra IDE ports,
| None of my cars have/had ide ports - what am I missing?
| You obviously haven't got the right drivers

And the right kind of driver depends on what sort of bus you have.

Yellow ones which clog up the data highway

--
geoff

In message , Andrew Gabriel
writes
In article ,
John Rumm writes:
Owain wrote:

"raden" wrote
| If you want more you need a car to give you extra IDE ports,
| None of my cars have/had ide ports - what am I missing?
| You obviously haven't got the right drivers

And the right kind of driver depends on what sort of bus you have.

And how many conductors in the bus...

and what charge they can get out of you...


That's the ticket

--
geoff

In message , xavier
writes
raden wrote in message
...
In message , xavier
writes
I want to add another hard drive to my machine but this would mean I'd
have to use an IDE Ribbon cable with two intermediate pin connectors.
I can't find one on the Internet (Maplin, Dabs), does anyone know
where I can get one?

I'm assuming this isn't a troll, so ...

snip

That's a bit unkind isn't it? Just because I'm electronically
challenged doesn't mean to say I'm Norwegian. Bet I could give you
the run around on Paxillus Panuoides or Donkioporia expansa. Be a
little more trusting brother...


I do apologise, but we do get trolling like this IYSWIM from time to
time.

.... and I did say I'm assuming this ISN'T a troll

.... and I did answer your question, didn't I ?


--
geoff

In article , Lee
wrote:

You can sometimes get away with slightly longer cables if they are
shielded.

The shielding may not be the problem. With any parallel data, long line
lengths can give rise to "data skew" where some bits of the byte arrive out
of sequence. I don't know how long the cable needs to be to see the effect,
but it happens.


--
AJL Electronics (G6FGO) Ltd : Satellite and TV aerial systems
http://www.classicmicrocars.co.uk : http://www.ajlelectronics.co.uk

raden wrote in message ...
In message , xavier
writes
I want to add another hard drive to my machine but this would mean I'd
have to use an IDE Ribbon cable with two intermediate pin connectors.
I can't find one on the Internet (Maplin, Dabs), does anyone know
where I can get one?

I'm assuming this isn't a troll, so ...

You can only have two devices on one IDE port

I assume you have two IDE ports on your MBD, so you can have a maximum
of 4 devices.

If you want more you need a car to give you extra IDE ports, which are
available from most computer suppliers

e.g. RLSupplies (who are who I use)

Doing a minor hijack on this thread - and that has nothing to do with
cars (!) - I've had a continuing computer crash problem that I've
cured by moving my hard drive from IDE 0 to IDE 1, having done things
like change the cable, etc without success. Any idea why this should
clear the problem?

Rob

John Rumm wrote:

The mobo or the cable? The round cables can be had for relatively little
these days.

The cable ;) It's about as thick as a quality scart lead :)

I know that round IDE leads can be had cheap these days, but I don't
like the quality of the very cheap ones. They don't seem to like being
handled much and I've had to replace a few that have failed.


Lee
--
Email address is valid, but is unlikely to be read.

Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics) wrote:

In article , Lee
wrote:


You can sometimes get away with slightly longer cables if they are
shielded.


The shielding may not be the problem. With any parallel data, long line
lengths can give rise to "data skew" where some bits of the byte arrive out
of sequence. I don't know how long the cable needs to be to see the effect,
but it happens.

Interesting, I realised the shielding was only effective against noise,
but I didn't realise that data skew was such a problem on ide cables.

Doing a bit of searching on this topic, it seems there are reports of
data skew problems even in some "standard" length cables.
Also, given the error correction used in modern systems, this sort of
problem may not be obvious.

I have noticed a slight difference in benchmarked speed using different
length/quality cables, but I've always put it down to coincidence.
Maybe there is something more to it...

Lee
--
Email address is valid, but is unlikely to be read.