My motherboard only has one IDE slot on it and I need to run a hard drive and 2 CD drives. Where can I find an IDE cable with four "plugs"? I need one plug for the motherboard end and 3 for the one hard drive and two CD drives.
2007-01-08 08:33:03 · 6 answers · asked by Rizzy 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Other - Hardware
Good luck finding one... as far as I know, they don't make them. An IDE cable has three plugs to allow one for the connection to the motherboard, one for a primary drive, and one for a secondary drive. Four plugs wouldn't fit into this picture well.
As an alternative, I'd suggest one of three things:
(1) Get an IDE-to-SATA connector if your motherboard has SATA connections. Then, you could plug your HDD in separate from the 2 CD drives.
(2) Only plug in one CD Drive and the HDD.
(3) Get a new motherboard.
Really, it's a toss up as to which solution (IDE-to-SATA connector or PCI IDE controller) would be slowest... you're going to see a performance drop with either one. Since the IDE-to-SATA connector won't have to use the PCI bus, though, it should operate faster on I/O operations.
2007-01-08 08:38:52 · answer #1 · answered by Not a punk like you 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They make many IDE Controllers.
They fit in a PCI slot inside your computer.
But each 'channel' only controls 2 IDE devices.
You will need an IDE cable for each 2 devices.
Most CD drives and HDDs come with a cable.
Your onboard IDE will handle a HDD and a CD, you can attach one or both CDs to one of the controller card channels.
On older motherboards, they may not recognize the card at bootup as an IDE controller, but rather as a SCSI device.
So if you're trying to boot from a HDD attached to the controller, set your BIOS to include SCSI in the boot sequence.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?cat=508&keywords=IDE%20Controller
2007-01-08 16:41:24 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can only have 2 drives per IDE Channel. You can place your HDD on IDE 1, and place the two CD drives on IDE 2-> one set as Master, one set as Slave.
2007-01-08 23:09:09 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You will need to purchase an IDE PCI card....
IDE controllers each can control up to 2 devices.... So in your case, you have 1 connector and thus 1 controllers.... You can plug in only 2 devices (A master and a slave)...
2007-01-08 16:37:28 · answer #4 · answered by JohnS 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Like the others have said, not possible since an IDE channel can only have two devices, a master and a slave. You will need to purchase one of these cards:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816132005 to get more IDE channels.
2007-01-08 16:44:14 · answer #5 · answered by mysticman44 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What you are going to need to buy is a PCI PATA controller. You can pick one of these up at any local computer store such as CompUSA.
2007-01-08 16:36:22 · answer #6 · answered by ncpropes 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋