Master or cable select

[frankiee]

I have only a single hard drive.
Can I allways use the master setting on the hard drive?
What is the "cable select" used for?

 

[leetkyle]

Yes, you can always use the master setting on the hard drive.

I have no idea what you mean by cable select though, sorry..

 

[tlarkin]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_select

They are just jumper settings

 

[pdc76]

cable select makes your drives master and slave depending on where they are on the ribbon cable.

 

[Bobo]

Yes, you can always use the master setting on the hard drive.

No you can't! Only if you have one drive on that cable....

It really doesn't matter what you set, as long as 2 drives aren't both set to master or slave.

 

[jjsevdt]

I always just put them on CS because it's just too much thought in figuring out which is which

 

[pdc76]

I always just put them on CS because it's just too much thought in figuring out which is which

trying to figure which is which if they're both set the same is even worse. i'd put one a master and one a slave. then, at a glance, you can see which one is which. if that's too hard, then get sata drives.

 

[jjsevdt]

I will when I can, trust me

 

[tlarkin]

some drives have to be set as master/single if there is no slave device, and when using CS, not all cables support that function. Almost any cable you buy today will have the notch in it to support CS, but not every company does that.

Also, never put an optical drive and a hard drive on the same chain. It slows down your hard drive.