What is the "cable select" jumper setting on an IDE device used for?

[rnmcd]

What is the "cable select" jumper setting on an IDE device used for?

I was told to put my two hard drives as master and slave on my primary IDE then install my CD-RW with the cable select jumper setting on my secondary IDE.

I initially wanted a hard drive and the CD-RW on the primary (master and slave, respectively) then put the second hard drive on the secondary IDE cable as master.

What on earth should I do?

Thanks,rnmcd

 

[John]

cable select - means that depending on what connector on the IDE chain (cable) you connect the device to it will grab a master/slave setting.

In your case, set the 2 HDD's you have as master/slave on IDE1, and the CDRW as master on IDE2. If you have a CDROM set it as slave on IDE2 as well.

 

[mpitts]

As far as I am aware, you need to use a Cable Select IDE cable as well.. One connector being for master, one for slave.

 

[tom3]

It's probably better to just "hard jump" each device to either master or slave. I was under the impression that if you set devices to use cable select, the one connected to the farther connector from the mb becomes the master, while the one connected to the middle connector becomes the slave. I have never tested this and mpitts may very well be right that you might need special cables to do that.

Just jump each device to master or slave, then it wouldnt matter which connector gets connected to what.

 

[SUOrangeman]

To me, cable select takes me back to the days of Compaq. *shudder*

-SUO