IDE Ribbon Cable help

**Buffalo** · 03-08-2006, 05:13 PM

Advice please,

I run two hard drives on my PC, but would like more "4 max"
is it just a matter a replacing the double IDE cable?

I've had a look on google but only came with IDE Dual Device Cables,
but that would only hold 3.

pehaps a external caddy would be a solution

Any advice appreciated

**Virtualbody1234** · 03-08-2006, 05:26 PM

You can only connect 2 drives to IDE cable (Master and slave).

Most motherboards have 2 IDE connectors so 2 cables can support up to 4 devices. The problem is that optical drives also use them.

If you motherboard has SATA then you can use that.

You can also use a USB2 external housing.

Lastly, you can add a PCI card that can add more expansion capabilities to your system.

What motherboard do you have?

**Darth Sushi** · 03-08-2006, 05:26 PM

Most MB have 2 IDE connectors (each connector can handle 2 devices each for a total of 4 devices). Your are NOT going to find an IDE cable with 3 or 4 connections because there is no such animal.

Other solutions:
SATA Drives
USB external drives (you can daisy chain these up to 128 times)

_____________________________
Damn VB, you're too fast for me! Or I'm too slow.

**Barbarossa** · 03-08-2006, 05:29 PM

Each IDE connector can have 2 devices. A master and a slave. Most mobo's have 2 ide channels, so you can have 4 hard-drives, so long as you don't want any optical drives.

You might want to consider a SATA drive, or connecting an external drive via USB.

**Buffalo** · 03-08-2006, 05:58 PM

Thanks for the info

I've got a KM2MCOMBO-L ~ a bit outdated now

I like the sound of the PCI card for expansion, did not know they did one.
ebuyer have a caddy @ £3.99, looks okIDE Caddy With 2 Fan
I'm sure they would work on the PCI expansion

I'm a bit unsure about USB2 for an external drive, compared to the PCI card idea, Will see if I can get some details on transfer speeds first.

SATA Drives: don't know if that would work on my PC, unknown if I could convert, I've seen the New Maxline Pro 500GB with 16 MB Cache, good reports.

Much appreciated

**Buffalo** · 03-08-2006, 06:24 PM

External Serial ATA 1+1 Port PCI Adapter - ebuyer @ £12.04 PCI Adapter

This would be a great upgrade for my PC at a low cost,
and would work well I hope with the Ebuyer Caddy + sata drive for each bay in the PC, and would be handy so I can hot swap if need.

Ask a question, get an answer, problem sorted, Nice one!