More Drives?

sup2jzgte

New Member
Ok, I'm not sure if this should be in this forum or the Motherboard section, because I think it can go either way.

My Mobo has 2 IDE bays and says it can support up to 4 IDE devices, but what I want to know is, can I somehow put more than 4 IDE devices on? See I have 2 hard drives, 2 Cd Rom Drives (Dvd burner, and Cd-Rom). What I want to do is add another HD and a floppy drive, is there anyway I can do this beside using the USB ports?
 

PC eye

banned
You won't find those any more since those where the old 40 not 80 wire cables for the early ide systems like a typical IBM I486. Before ide drives used a small jumper cap on the rear of hard drives the position on the cable determined the priority whether master, slave, or cable select. Since hard drives have seen a rapid increase in size the systems since that time now only support two drives or device connected with SATA on more boards and the still available option of using a SCSI controller or RAID setup.
 

SirKenin

banned
To my knowledge (and I have been working on computers since before the very first IBM desktop in the 80's), there has never been an IDE controller that could support more than two devices per channel, and if you recall back then a 10 MB HDD was considered huge.
 

PC eye

banned
Belive me I would love to find some premade round ide cables for the atx case here. The only cables seeing that would probably those for server cases and not sold for desktops. Even retail stores and pc repair shops seem to lack having those around. Some place that custom makes cables for custom computers would be one thought there.

They are rare since most cables sold are used in standard cases and not full tower server cases. Businesses with networking would probably see this. Ask a tech that services updated main frames(telephone workers, cable tv systems, etc.).
 

PC eye

banned
To my knowledge (and I have been working on computers since before the very first IBM desktop in the 80's), there has never been an IDE controller that could support more than two devices per channel, and if you recall back then a 10 MB HDD was considered huge.

Extra Long Hard Drive Ribbon Cable

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Need an extra long Drive cable? We have it! 36 inches will reach almost anything!
dual EIDE UDMA IDE Hard Disk Drive cable, 3x40 pin socket 36 inches
24 inches and 11.75 inches between connectors.
[/FONT]
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/ide-11008-36.html

"3x40 pin socket" says otherwise. The IBM I386 desktop had three drive ide cables connected when buying that used those many years back. Besides adding drives by way of a SCSI controller card 5 1/4" floppy drives were often stacked inside a tower on wheels. I should know from working at DEC(Digital Equipment Corp.) long enough.
 

SirKenin

banned
I'm hoping to hell that you at some point are going to tell us exactly what that has to do with anything I said, or for that matter anything to do with the thread at all.
 

StrangleHold

Moderator
Staff member
Extra Long Hard Drive Ribbon Cable

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Need an extra long Drive cable? We have it! 36 inches will reach almost anything![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]dual EIDE UDMA IDE Hard Disk Drive cable, 3x40 pin socket 36 inches[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]24 inches and 11.75 inches between connectors.[/FONT]
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/ide-11008-36.html

"3x40 pin socket" says otherwise. The IBM I386 desktop had three drive ide cables connected when buying that used those many years back. Besides adding drives by way of a SCSI controller card 5 1/4" floppy drives were often stacked inside a tower on wheels. I should know from working at DEC(Digital Equipment Corp.) long enough.

I think PC eye that 3x40 means 40 wire and 3 connectors- one that goes to the board and two for your drives, think your a little mixed up!! If it meant what your saying it would be a 40x4
 

PC eye

banned
I think PC eye that 3x40 means 40 wire and 3 connectors- one that goes to the board and two for your drives, think your a little mixed up!! If it meant what your saying it would be a 40x4

You are the one way off there! :D The current ATA100 and 133 drives use 80wire not 40wire ide cables. The old systems used 40wire cables with three heavier connectors at the drive end. The old 20, 40, 200, 500mb drives didn't have jumpers to assign a drive as master, slave, or set to cable select. The center connector was the cable select position when three drives were installed. The end was master with the 3rd being the slave position. In those days the position on the cable is what made the difference.
 

SirKenin

banned
hahahahaha. That's priceless. How you ever fix anyone's computer is beyond me. rofl. Too funny.

A PATA controller is physically incapable of running more than two devices. Period. That's all she wrote. Your fantasy cables do not exist.

Many times on this forum I have asked you to provide evidence to support your claims and each time you have failed dismally. I would ask you to provide us a photo of this fantasy cable, but unless I miss my guess you'll wander off and start preaching to us about power supplies or something else completely unrelated in an attempt to make it sound like you know what you are talking about.

However, just to be safe I offer you this opportunity to provide us evidence that PATA controllers can support 3 devices per channel. I'm willing to bet you're thinking of SCSI cables, which are a whole different ball of wax.
 

ahajv4life

New Member
Wow SirKein!! With age comes an insane amount of arrogance as you demonstrate. You're 35, please grow up a bit, this is a recreational forum where people share knowledge/ideas!! If someone's wrong, they're wrong, no need to point at them and keep saying it.
 

SirKenin

banned
Sorry.. Maybe I got a little carried away.. Buuttt... You are supposed to share information. Correct information. However, the person in question fails to do this on a regular basis and sometimes it gets frustrating. I shouldn't have let it get to me. I apologize. Thank you for pointing it out.
 

StrangleHold

Moderator
Staff member
You are the one way off there! :D The current ATA100 and 133 drives use 80wire not 40wire ide cables. The old systems used 40wire cables with three heavier connectors at the drive end. The old 20, 40, 200, 500mb drives didn't have jumpers to assign a drive as master, slave, or set to cable select. The center connector was the cable select position when three drives were installed. The end was master with the 3rd being the slave position. In those days the position on the cable is what made the difference.

No I am not off there I have a box full of old 40 wire IDE cables, boxes of old socket 5 and 7 boards and in all the years I have done this have I never saw a 4 connector (IDE). And tell me about this chipset that can see more than 2 drives per IDE because its not the IDE port that counts its the chipset that can see more than 2 drives, Would like to know what chipset your talking about!!
 
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PC eye

banned
"A PATA controller is physically incapable of running more than two devices. Period. That's all she wrote. Your fantasy cables do not exist."

Then you explain that to the former USAF tech that sold me an IBM 386 desktop with the 200mb hard drive connected to the same cable as the two 5 1/4" floppy drives mounted in the two drive bays those many years back. The hard drive was at one end with the floppies at the other end with the 4th connector plugged into the board. I guess you never heard of "Y" cables often used on the old systems. :p !
 
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