On Wed, 2006-02-22 at 18:48 -0500, bobgoodwin wrote: > Does it matter which forty pin connector plugs into the master and slave > drives? Probably... If you're using cable-select (because you've jumpered your drives to do so), then yes - each connector needs to go to the right place. But if you're not, and it's a 40-wire cable, you can use it in any orientation. If you're using an 80-wire cable, then at least one plug has to go into the right place, the others depend on whether you're using cable-select (which is *completely* optional). If you're using cable-select, then you need to plug the drives into the right plugs; but if you're not, it doesn't matter. In general, the motherboard connector is the one plug that is furthest from the other two plugs, it's often blue. In general, the master drive plug is on the other end of the cable. In general, the slave drive plug is near the middle but closer to one end (the master). e.g. HOST --------------------------------- SLAVE ------ MASTER This technique of working out which plug is which seems more reliable than colours, and can be done by feel when you can't see colours very well. Sometimes you can also see a cut in the cable around the middle connector, but some cable-select cables break the connection in the plugs. Cable-select is COMPLETELY optional. You don't have to use it. I've *never* seen any case where it was required. And the only time where you might be forced to use it is would be with broken hardware, but consider that if you've got one thing broken, what else is there going to be to give you grief? > I have come to the realization after struggling with some problems that > there are a lot more wires in the ribbon cable than there are connector > pins. Yes, as already said, they're ground wires, connected only at the motherboard plug, and they need to be connected at the motherboard side. > I now see that Maxtor designates the connector at the end of the cable > as the "master" and the one just below it as the "slave." I presently > have only one drive jumpered as master with FC4 running on it and it > ;doesn't seem to care which data cable connector is attached to it, but > when I put in the second drive, jumpered as "slave" the computer won't > boot. I decided the drive was bad but now I'm wondering? It may be the > wrong connectors plugged into the drives. If you jumper one drive as slave, the other as master, and have at least the motherboard end of an 80-wire cable plugged into the motherboard, it won't matter which connector you plug into which drive. Does this other drive work when connected alone? Does the BIOS recognise it as a drive with the right sizes, even if nothing further happens (this test should work, even on an empty drive). If not, it might be too big for your BIOS to recognise. You could have a broken cable, or a duff drive, too. Some combinations of drives don't work together, though I've not seen that happen in a long time. -- Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored. I read messages from the public lists.
