When should Cable Select be used?

[TechnoPro]

I've always used Master/Slave configurations with IDE devices. When does one use the Cable Select option?

 

[fredtam]

Never. Always use master/slave configurations. It is rarely recognized properly.

 

[WobbleWobble]

Sometimes if you use a removable HDD rack, you may need to.

But I normally refrain from using it.

 

[TechnoPro]

Originally posted by: WobbleWobble
Sometimes if you use a removable HDD rack, you may need to.

But I normally refrain from using it.

Forgive my ignorance, but where are removable HDD racks used? Do they use SCSI HDDs exclusively?

 

[WobbleWobble]

No, there are IDE racks.

They just fit in the CD-ROM bays in your PC and you can pull out a HDD enclosed in a casing to transport.

 

[Ikonomi]

I ALWAYS use cable select on 80-pin cables with two hard drives, and I've never had a problem. On 40-pin cables, or in situations where I have a hard drive and an optical drive in the same chain, I always use master/slave.

 

[drag]

I always try the cable select route first. If that doesn't work then I set the jumpers.

I have no real reason for doing that, though. Other then it's convient, and I loose the jumpers sometimes if I take them out and drop them on the floor (messy).

 

[blazerazor]

correct me if im wrong,... but cable select means the HD used to boot depends on ide cable placement, ie the one on the end will be master automatically?

And whats the 4 jumper used for. Most HDs are Master,Slave,Cable,and???. Whats the last one?

 

[nowayout99]

My Seagate has 5 options. The other two are "Master with non-ATA compatible slave" and "Limit drive capacity to 32 Gbytes."

 

[lenjack]

Ive used cable select on several machines for a year with not a hint of a problem. Just keep in mind that the drive at the end will be master. you can still configure bios to boot from the slave.

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

I always use Cable Select.

Never had a problem with it yet.

 

[tennesota]

I've only noticed the 'cable select' setting on workstations using 'single device' IDE cables[certainly not scientific, just a personal observation].

 

[Ionizer86]

I've always used Master/Slave until this Maxtor 160GB would keep detecting as like 39GB or something. Setting it to cable select solved the problem.

 

[WobbleWobble]

I had a problem with CS where the Windows XP setup would freeze before it got to the partition screen.

Master/Slave helped that.

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: JustAnAverageGuy
I always use Cable Select.

Never had a problem with it yet.

same here no problems ever.

of course you have to know that Blue end goes to mobo,Grey goes to slave & black goes to master.

 

[TechnoPro]

Originally posted by: Budman

Originally posted by: JustAnAverageGuy
I always use Cable Select.

Never had a problem with it yet.

same here no problems ever.

of course you have to know that Blue end goes to mobo,Grey goes to slave & black goes to master.

Interesting that you mention this. I was working on a system a while back, where the bootable (and only hard drive) was set to the middle gray connector and the optical drive was the black. Both devices were set to CS and the PC was running okay - not great. A techie once mentioned that newer systems can be less picky about precise settings...

 

[modedepe]

Originally posted by: JustAnAverageGuy
I always use Cable Select.

Never had a problem with it yet.