IDE cable length question

[Insomniator]

I have to put my hard drive and cd rom on the same IDE channel (mobo only has 1) but the distance between the two non motherboard connections is too short. It doesnt look like that part gets longer as the cables get longer however; just the part from the motherboard to the first device gets longer.

Is this true or are pictures just misleading? Also, does this cause the system to be much slower? Is there anyway around this problem.. like a PCI IDE card or something?

thanks

 

[bob4432]

i have seen some cables that are longe than the ones that come with the m/bs. don't remember the exact length but they were pretty long. the distance between the 2 drive connectors was longer, but not by a lot.

as far as speed there is nothig wrong with running a hdd an optical drive on the same channel, set hdd to master and optical to slave and you will be fine, just make sure you use the 80wire cable.

 

[eplebnista]

You could also use a pair of these adapter brackets to mount the hard drive right above or beneath your optical drive.

 

[jackschmittusa]

The brackets are the easiest solution, and I have used them myself before in a situation like yours. There is no cooling for the hd though. I added one of those cheap bay coolers with 2 40mm fans. Some companies will make you a custom cable. A couple of years ago, there used to be a small outfit at local computer shows that regularly sold long ide cables they made that had 5 drive connectors on it. You could use only 2, but they sure were handy for having hookup options.

 

[Blain]

PATA cable length standard is 18".
Beyond that you run a greater chance (even if it's a slightly greater chance), of data corruption.
* Many people use 24"-26" cables and never have any problems.
* People running longer cables may be experiencing data corruption and not realize it stems from the longer length cables...
blaming their problems on their HD, PS, viruses, worms, etc.

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: Blain
PATA cable length standard is 18".
Beyond that you run a greater chance (even if it's a slightly greater chance), of data corruption.
* Many people use 24"-26" cables and never have any problems.
* People running longer cables may be experiencing data corruption and not realize it stems from the longer length cables...
blaming their problems on their HD, PS, viruses, worms, etc.

QFT. I was going nuts a couple of years ago when I was using a 32" IDE cable and my HD would always give write errors whenever I tried to hibernate. Turns out the data was not going fast enough because of the long cable.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Oyeve

Originally posted by: Blain
PATA cable length standard is 18".
Beyond that you run a greater chance (even if it's a slightly greater chance), of data corruption.
* Many people use 24"-26" cables and never have any problems.
* People running longer cables may be experiencing data corruption and not realize it stems from the longer length cables...
blaming their problems on their HD, PS, viruses, worms, etc.

QFT. I was going nuts a couple of years ago when I was using a 32" IDE cable and my HD would always give write errors whenever I tried to hibernate. Turns out the data was not going fast enough because of the long cable.

probably "not fast enough" is incorrect since electricity travels almost at the speed of light, but losing its power since the A or V on the line would drop, plus possible interference.

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: Oyeve

Originally posted by: Blain
PATA cable length standard is 18".
Beyond that you run a greater chance (even if it's a slightly greater chance), of data corruption.
* Many people use 24"-26" cables and never have any problems.
* People running longer cables may be experiencing data corruption and not realize it stems from the longer length cables...
blaming their problems on their HD, PS, viruses, worms, etc.

QFT. I was going nuts a couple of years ago when I was using a 32" IDE cable and my HD would always give write errors whenever I tried to hibernate. Turns out the data was not going fast enough because of the long cable.

probably "not fast enough" is incorrect since electricity travels almost at the speed of light, but losing its power since the A or V on the line would drop, plus possible interference.

Whether its from interference or the A or V line, it still results in "not fast enough" regardless of the cause.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Whatever you do though, don't just flip the cable around and plug the blue end in the optical drive, the gray in the HD, and the black in the mobo 😉 It'll work yes but the speed will be locked down to ATA33 (pathetic)

With an 80 wire IDE cable the master is always to be on the end of the cable. Always. If you set a drive to master and plug it into the middle of the cable you are bound to have problems, whether it be speed or just simply not detecting the drive.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Oyeve

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: Oyeve

Originally posted by: Blain
PATA cable length standard is 18".
Beyond that you run a greater chance (even if it's a slightly greater chance), of data corruption.
* Many people use 24"-26" cables and never have any problems.
* People running longer cables may be experiencing data corruption and not realize it stems from the longer length cables...
blaming their problems on their HD, PS, viruses, worms, etc.

QFT. I was going nuts a couple of years ago when I was using a 32" IDE cable and my HD would always give write errors whenever I tried to hibernate. Turns out the data was not going fast enough because of the long cable.

probably "not fast enough" is incorrect since electricity travels almost at the speed of light, but losing its power since the A or V on the line would drop, plus possible interference.

Whether its from interference or the A or V line, it still results in "not fast enough" regardless of the cause.

that would not have anything to do with the speed at which it travels, just the fact that it doesn't have enough juice. interference would be because the cable was built out of spec. if something is traveling at the speed of light and you add 10" do you really think it makes a difference in the how fast it got there?

speed is totatlly different than intensity of the signal or interference.😕

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: SparkyJJO
With an 80 wire IDE cable the master is always to be on the end of the cable. Always. If you set a drive to master and plug it into the middle of the cable you are bound to have problems, whether it be speed or just simply not detecting the drive.

no true, you can put the hdd on either connector, just set the hdd to master and optical to slave. have been doing it for years on many machine and never have an issue, in fact current rig is the same way. still read the hdd as dma5 and the optical as dma2 even though the optical is on the last connector. lot of misinformation people....