IDE cable? What goes where?

[Rick67]

I've got a CD ROM, CD/RW, Internal ZIP Drive, and a Internal Hard Drive. I'm not sure what gets plugged in where? Does it matter if the Master Device is plugged into the first plug or the last? I want to set the Hard Drive as the master on IDE 1 and the ZIP as the slave. I also want the CD ROM as the master on IDE 2 and the CD/RW as the slave. Does the slave have to be plugged into the connector at the end of the IDE cable or can it be plugged into the one in the middle? BTW, this is not the PC listed in my sig. It's an old P2 333. Thanks,

 

[Shooters]

Contrary to what some people believe, it does not matter which connector you plug the device into as long as you have all the jumpers set correctly. I've tried it both ways, and it works. The only time that it matters is if you use the cable select option.

 

[Rick67]

That's what I was thinking but wanted to make sure before I touched anything. Thanks for the help!

 

[cholley]

it will matter depending on your bios setup
and if you slave anything to the hard drive, that bus will run at the speed of it's slowest device

 

[AndyHui]

No.

All current chipsets support independent IDE device timing. Each drive on the cable will run at its own maximum speed without affecting the speed of the other drive.