Shortening HDD & FDD IDE Cables

[Lycan]

I cant remember but is shortening the IDE cables from my Motherboard to the HDD and FDD going to cause any problems?

I know increasing the length can but I'm not to sure when doing the reverse.

Cheers
Lycan

[Erap!]

I dont think it would matter. As you know, IDE / FDD cables come in different sizes! There is a limit though to the length but to the shortness I dont think you'd have any problems!

[BFlurie]

Technically, shorter cables are better, but practically it makes little difference.

[Szech]

You're not going to cut them yourself, are you? Otherwise, it makes no difference.

[crockett]

Szech I just had to laugh at that one..lmao but i guess you never know http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[Lycan]

I wasnt talking about cutting the middle out and soldering the two ends back together http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/biggrin.gif

What I wanted to do was shorten my FDD cable to have only two connectors rather than the three (I'll never own 2 FDD's).

Just makes my case look heaps tidier.

Works sweet btw.

[dkozloski]

Cutting the twist out of a floppy drive cable canges the drive designations from drive A to drive B. In the early days of PC's IBM decided to ship all floppy drives jumpered to the B position and to twist a couple of wires in the cable so the machine would know the B from the A in a dual floppy system. The drive out on the end of the twist is A and the drive with no twist is B.

[alondra]

point well taken, the didtance between drive connectors is minimal, they make the cables in several lengths. also watch out for shorts at the cut end.

[Erap!]

Hehehe that was funny! But worst comes to worst, if i cut it, Id tape all 40 little wires back together again 1 by 1 hehehe!

[seti]

I chopped my fdd ribbon too. Easy as pie...though, I never understood that expression.

Just use something sharp so the wires don't get pulled.

The ribbon is about 6 inches now, and rounded. Much cleaner.