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mitchsc · Feb 26, 2011, 10:07 AM

I have an old Dell Optiplex GX200.

It has 3 IDE connectors on the Mobo. 2 are gray and one is white.

The 3 separate connectors are ribbon cabled to 1) HDD, 2) CD Drive, 3) Floppy Drive.

Each ribbon cable has 2-3 IDE connectors on it. Only one one is being used on each cable.

Questions:

Are there differences between the 3 IDE connectors on the Mobo?

I'd like to add an IDE to Sata adapter to one of the IDE ports on the Mobo, and want to know if I can put the Floppy and the CD Drive on the same cable, or some other combination on same cable?

Note, The floppy IDE connector on the Mobo is the white one. The HDD and CD Drive connectors on the Mobo are both gray.

Thanks...

ITstudent2006 · Feb 26, 2011, 11:03 AM

Since I am not hardware proficient, I researched it.

"You can master/slave any combination of two IDE/ATA/ATAPI hard or optical drives to a single IDE.

To assure both are detected OK they must be appropriately jumpered as master or slave or as cable select. The master-to-slave arrangement is only an identification thing and doesn't make one more important than the other." - Paul Komski

Again, this is a suggestion. You can always test it. Put your current HDD and CDROM on the same and see if they are both recognized.

salibaba · Feb 26, 2011, 04:27 PM

You can't connect the cd and floppy to the same connector, they are not compatible and the connectors have different amounts of pins so you wouldn't be able to anyway. So once you hook in your adapter you will still need one grey cable for the cd drive and the white one for the floppy.

mitchsc · Feb 28, 2011, 06:56 AM

Thank you both.

One clarification. Can you connect a hard drive and a CD drive to the same IDE cable?

I know you can master/slave jumper a HDD, but as far as I know, there is no such setting on a CD drive.

ITstudent2006 · Feb 28, 2011, 07:26 AM

Check the BIOS. I think if you do this it will go off the slower device (your CD-ROM) do it might show adverse affects to your HDD.

mitchsc · Feb 28, 2011, 10:03 AM

Thanks IT...

ITstudent2006 · Feb 28, 2011, 10:19 AM

Answered above