Ribbon Connector Pin spot missing?

[jsalz]

I bought a 2.5-3.5" HDD Adapter kit so I could use a notebook hard drive I had. Problem is that on the adapter, there are 40 pins and on the spoare ribbon cable connector that came on my desktop, one of the spots is blanked out (39 pins)? Also, how can I be positive that I have the ribbon connector plugged in correctly. I don't see any identifying marks for pin 1 on the ribbon connector and it is not keyed on the adapter I bought.
Any ideas would be appreciated

 

[JAFrank]

Generally, when the cable is not keyed, it is installed with the red stripe toward pin 1. On the hard drive, pin 1 is typically the one closest to the power connector. I have never seen a drive that was NOT configured that way, but check your drive's documentation and /or website to verify.

The blanked pin on the hard drive connector is an alternate way of keying and should match up with a missing pin on the drive. If your adapter has 40 pins, then you will probably have to source another cable.

Hope that helps a little...

JAF

 

[jsalz]

Would you recommend removing the pin that lines up with the blank?

 

[JAFrank]

I wouldn't....I have been trying to remember why they blanked that one pin.....Memory's a little foggy today, but it seems like you see that on UltraATA 66 or 100 80 wire cables, but not on the older 40 wire ATA33 cables. YOu might just want to find one of those.

JAF

 

[mudskipper]

Heh heh... Commence the "everybody yell at mudskipper" portion of this thread!! LOL (& sorry for the long post--I hope it makes sense)

First off, your best bet is to get an IDE cable that does not have any pins blanked out.

You will find some ATA33 drives with the pin out. Although I suppose that I don't actually recommend this to anybody else, this is what I do. ;-)

I take a paperclip, bend it out so that it has a bit of a straight part. Now I hold a lighter under the end of the straight side. Wait until it is good and hot. Now burn out the plastic blank in the IDE cable. It may take a few stabs, but it goes away and everything works just dandy--never had a problem with it. I have ONLY done this on ATA 33 cables, by the way. My guess is that it is there strickly to make sure that your cable orientation is correct. Perhaps it was a redundant ground??

Any way, yeah--pin one has to be lined up correctly on your laptop IDE especially. If you get it backwards, then you will apply power where there shouldn't be any. Bad thing. USUALLY the adapters are built so that, when put on properly, the sides line up with the sides of the laptop hard drive. If your adapter hangs past the edge of the hard drive, then USUALLY the adapter is on wrong.

Now--as long as the laptop hard drive is hooked correctly to the adapter, don't worry too much about the IDE cable from the motherboard being oriented backwards on the adapter. The worst that happens there is that the drive doesn't access until you fix it.

Definitely don't take my word as gospel here--triple check it before powering on! Mudskipper
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Groucho said it best- "A four year-old child could understand this! Quick! Run out and find me a four year-old child: I can't make heads nor tails out of this!"

 

[mudskipper]

Excuse me You will find some ATA33 drives with the pin out... should read "...some ATA33 cables..." Mudskipper
___________________________________________________________________________________

Groucho said it best- "A four year-old child could understand this! Quick! Run out and find me a four year-old child: I can't make heads nor tails out of this!"

 

[jsalz]

Ok, I burnt a little hole so that the connector fits tight. This might be a question for another thread but here goes. Now, I can't see both drives at the same time. I can see one drive at a time if I disconnect the other. I popped open the case for the laptop HD and there is a jumper description for master and slave but I can't find the jumpers anywhere. Could I change my fixed HD to be the slave and just leave the Laptop HD as the master somehow? If so, do I need to reload W98 on the new master (laptop)?

Or maybe I should throw all this stuff in the garbage and just go buy a larger HD.

 

[mudskipper]

If you were to make your Laptop HDD master and the other hard drive slave, then you will be booting from the laptop hard drive. This means that you will either have to re-configure the current OS on the laptop drive for the new hardware--or you will have to install windows. If you don't want to boot to the laptop drive, then read below--

Your laptop drive is already configured for Master (or single). Make the laptop drive a master on the second IDE controller in your computer. If you already have a CDROM there, then make the CDROM drive slave. It will work fine.

...(and if burning the pin out of the cable doesn't work, don't mention my name ;-) )

Good luck!!
Mudskipper
___________________________________________________________________________________

Groucho said it best- "A four year-old child could understand this! Quick! Run out and find me a four year-old child: I can't make heads nor tails out of this!"