Cutting up an 80-pin cable

[Ruahrc]

I know (or at least read) that you have to connect certain plugs on 80 pin cables to certain drives according to their master/slave status. I personally have not tried switching them to see if they worked but heard it didn't matter.

My Question is I bout some rounded 80 pinners, and only am going to hook up 1 drive on each cable. Is it safe to simply cut off the extra length of cable on the end so that it looks neater and creates less clutter?

Thanks

Ruahrc

[NDC]

I think you're referring the colors on the ends of 80-pin IDE cables, black, grey & blue. In manuals, it tells you to connect the black end to Master and Grey to slave, but I noticed it works however you connect it...


And yes, you can cut the unused cable end since you going to only connect one drive to each IDE cable...

[solo-pc-tech]

You can cut off the extra connector, but use a razor blade or Exacto knife because the conductors are very close together and a dull knife could leave a ragged cut that could cause shorting.

When I cut 80pin IDE cables I use a 5X hand lens to examine the cut just to be sure. I started doing this after I had one short out after being cut.

[Bovon]

Hey interesting subject guys...thanks. I have also read that the drive ends, grey and black are there for a reason, like master and slave...

Believe I read that at one of the mainboard web sites.

[Ruahrc]

Well what I don't understand about it is how does the cable know which drive is on which plug? After all all it is is just WIRE. But then I see no reason for anyone to state that you need to connect certain plugs to certain drives, there seems no logical reason.

Ruahrc

[BBA]

Well, with HP pc's, the 80 pin cables master and slave connectors must be connected correctly because there is an open wire to one of the connectors, making it a cable select cable.

As long as the cable is not the cable select type, it should not matter.