> > Actually, the "Master" drive should be at the end of the IDE cable, > > and the "Slave" in the middle. At least, that's how it is in the dark > > recesses of the PeeCee world. Perhaps Mac controllers aren't as > > fussy. ;-) > > That's weird, I thought that in PCs the master was in the middle and > the slave at the end, because it was the opposite of what seemed > logical for me. Though maybe back then I thought it'd be logical to > have the master to be the closest to the motherboard and the slave at > the far end and it was the reverse of *that*... > > Come to think of it, I can't exactly remember how my two IDE drives are > stacked in this machine. Either way, in a G3, one connector's grey and > the other's black...
The spec calls for the master to be at the end, the slave in the middle. With ATA66, and 80 conductor cables, the spec gets more stringent. The blue end of teh cable MUST plug into the controller/motherboard. The black connector on the end is for the master device, the gray for the slave device. The reason being, is like scsi, ATA66 cables use terminators on the end of the line. In this case the cable and terminator are bundled into one package. (Thats what the extra 40 lines are for, ground wires between each of the 40 standard signal lines.) Flipping this arrangement around (which usually won't work as the connectors are supposed to also be keyed by blanks in certain pin holes such that the black connector won't plug into a controller port.) can result in data corruption or the setup flat out not working. Also note, that if the drives are following the spec properly, you can set them to Cable Select mode, and not worry about master/slave, as the posistion on the cable will determine that setting correctly. You CAN do things differently than the spec calls for, ie slave devices at the end of the cable, etc, but it's not advised and with ATA66 and up, introduces a real risk of problems. Joshua Coombs -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- We have Apple Refurbished Monitors in stock! | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-List list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
