IDE cable configuration?

[camj979]

HI All,
This might be a dumb question, but I have to ask. I have to Internal Burners both on the Secondry IDE. Now has most of you know the IDE cable has two connectors that go to each drive, the one in the middle of the cable and the one at the end of it (and of course the other end is in the motherboard). My question is, does it matter which connector goes to the Master drive and which one goes to the Slave drive??
The reason I ask is because when I burn with my drive that is set as the Master, the device buffer in IMGburn while burning varys between 97-100% through out the whole burn. The Slave though is always at 100% while burning. So I thought maybe the way I have the IDE cable going to each drive is wrong. Could this be the problem?
Thanks.

[katzdvd]

Connector on end of cable is Master, connector in the "middle" of the cable is slave...

[camj979]

Connector on end of cable is Master, connector in the "middle" of the cable is slave...

Ok, well based on that, I have it set up correctly.
So what would cause a drive's device buffer to fluxuate up and down, and bad IDE cable or power supply??
Thanks katz for the info BTW.

[soup]

I had that happen when something kicked me in to PIO mode. I never knew it had happened, went to burn & that is when the symptoms you mentioned showed up.

[Chewy]

the drive that's fluctuating may just be trying to do a better burn

what are the drives?

[camj979]

the drive that's fluctuating may just be trying to do a better burn

what are the drives?

The flucuating drive is Pioneer DVR-110D (set as Master)
The other is Lite_On SOHW (set as Slave). This one stays at 100% all the time.

@Soup...I thought about PIO also, but the DMA says Ultra DMA 2, so I'm good there.

[Chewy]

40 or 80 conductor cable?

[camj979]

40 or 80 conductor cable?

um..I'm not sure..I'm not home right now, and I don't know how to check that, but I think it's safe to say 40 for both.
Should I upgrade to 80?? How do I check what I have in there now?
Thanks.

[Chewy]

a 40 and 80 are easy to tell apart when they are side by side

a good general rule is new drive, new cable, especially in an older computer/2-3 yrs old or more

but then again if everything else is working just leave it alone

burn are good and timely? 15 min at 4x 8-9 min at 8x

[jm1647]

With all of the 80 wire/40 pin cables I have there are 3 different colored connectors on it. blue, grey and black. The blue one goes to the mobo. The old 40 wire/40 pin cables I have all the connectors are black.

[doctorhardware]

Also the 80 pin ribbon cable conductors are thinner than that of the 40 pin conductor ribbon cables.

[Kougg]

Hope this helps.
I got this information from PC Guide " http://www.pcguide.com/ "

Standard (40-Conductor) IDE/ATA Cables

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confSig-c.html

Ultra DMA (80-Conductor) IDE/ATA Cables

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confCable80-c.html

Kougg