How long can an IDE cable be?

The maximum length is actually 18 inches from the IDE device to the IDE controller. You can have a 36 inch cable, as long as the IDC connector at the 18 inch mark is connected to the IDE controller.

What are the two types of IDE cables?

The two most common types of IDE ribbon cables are the 34-pin cable used for floppy drives and the 40-pin cable for hard drives and optical drives.

What is a IDE cable?

An IDE interface is an industry-standard adapter for connecting IDE devices and enabling them to communicate with each other. At one time, most computers included at least one IDE interface built into the motherboard. The interface provided a 40-pin connector for attaching an IDE hard disk drive (HDD) to the computer.

How do you connect IDE cables?

If using the 80-wire cable, attach the blue end connector to the system board or host controller, the gray middle connector to the Slave, and the black end connector to the Master. All newer IDE/EIDE hard drives can be jumpered as Cable Select (CS or CSEL).

What is difference between IDE data cable and floppy data cable?

Floppy drive cables look a lot like IDE cables except that they are a little narrower, have only 34 conductors, and have a twist at the end of the cable that attaches to the drives.

How many wires does an IDE cable have?

IDE ribbon cables have either 40 or 80 wires. There is a connector at each end of the cable and another one about two-thirds of the distance from the motherboard connector.

What does an IDE connector look like?

IDE consists of a 40-pin connector attached to a ribbon cable. 80-pin connectors were also introduced later. The connectors are black in a 40-pin connector while in an 80-pin connector, they come in 3 colors: blue – controller, gray – slave drive, and black – master drive.

What is SATA and IDE cable?

IDE and SATA are different types of interfaces to connect storage devices (like hard drives) to a computer’s system bus. SATA stands for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (or Serial ATA) and IDE is also called Parallel ATA or PATA. SATA is the newer standard and SATA drives are faster than PATA (IDE) drives.