IDE cables, which is master, which is slave?

[gingo]

I thought I knew....... but I was reading through a manual today (CDROM manual) and it showed a picture of an IDE cable (dual device) and the connector in the middle of the cable was labeled as "master". And the end of the cable was the "slave".

I always thought the end (opposite of were it connects to mobo) was for the master and the middle connector was for the slave. Was I misinformed this whole time!??!

 

[JudgeDredd]

Strange... I always thought that it really didn't matter, so long as you have the DIP switches set right on the device. Maybe since having two devices on a cable slows down performance, that putting the master on the first one ensures it better performance than the slave? :/

 

[Illah]

I don't think it really really matters, but the one closest to the mobo is supposed to be the master.

--Illah

 

[Rich_T]

If you set your jumper to cable select then the middle ide connector becomes master and the other becomes slave, if thats the way you want to set-up your comp thats fine, if not you need to set the jumpers appropriately.

Rich_T

 

[WildArmSX]

the cable has nothing to do weather a device is master or slave. The device themself have jumpers on them that make them a master or slave.

 

[Rich_T]

Yes it does, if a device is set to cable select the device becomes master or slave (the first connector on the ide cable becomes master and the second becomes slave).

Obviously you can change this by not setting the jumper to cable select.

Rich_T

 

[su root]

back in the old days, you needed to put the slave on the end of the cable, and the master "in the middle" of the cable.

Nowadays, I set them that way just because of habbit, (to my knowledge) all new BIOSes and IDE controllers are smarter and will allow masters to be anywhere on the cable.

 

[mbentley]

i usually put the master on the end of the cable and the slave in the middle. that is just how i learned to do it, but you're right, the bios today can do all sorts of stuff. you can even change through the bios which drive you wish to boot from, even if it's a slave. i don't care that much, as long as it works! hehe