New RW CD drive

I bought above for NT machine. I opened case and noted that all the cable plug-ins are being used (HD, Zip, Floppy). I also noted that the floppy cable has a number (3) of connectors along its length.

Can I plug the cable for the new RW CD drive into one of these connectors, instead of disconnecting the zip or floppy?

If so, where do I find the appropriate interface connector that will permit it?

Thanks!

 

Wtg

what you need to do is connect the CD-Rom and CD-RW to 1 IDE cable, if the one you have can only connect 1x to the motherboard you will have to get double IDE cable. 2nd make the CD-Rom = Master and the CD-RW Slave (you will find jumper switch and plugs at back of the drives and instrutions.

Good luck

 

Yes, IDE ribbon cables (the broader ones for HDDs and optical drives) usually have two connectors, so that you could connect, say, 4 HDDs. Some machines (eg workstation machines) may only have one connector on each ribbon cable OR your ZIP and HDD are on one cable and the other ribbon cable is missing.

You cannot connect any other types of drive to a floppy cable (unless someone can shock me )

Suggest you get the motherboard manual. That should explain all. (Everest in my signature should be able to ID the mobo).

Matt

 

So, if I switch cables around

by moving the floppy and HDD around, so the HDD has the multi socket cable, I can then hook the RWCD drive into it?

 

No. Take a closer look, and you'll see that each type of connector is a different size. Just like you don't bash square pegs into round holes, don't try connecting dissimilar connectors. Unless of course you want a rather large and ugly beige doorstop.

There is one (slightly unusual) situation I can think of where the floppy plugs into an IDE cable, and that's if you have a "Superfloppy ", a technology that fell by the wayside a few years ago because it wasn't very popular. The size of the connector and the width of the cable is one giveaway (IDE cables are wider than traditional floppy cables). Another is that traditional floppy cables have a "twisted section" in the cable.

 

So I noted.

Sorry, I just got back home. I wanted to get up to the thread and preclude responses on stuff I learned in last couple hoursl

I went to friend who reworks computers as community service in our community - AMVETS.

I noted that life is not so simple and that floppy cables differ greatly from cd data cables, 40 pin etc. I did pick up a cd data cable that has connector that enables the Cd to be installled as a slave. So am going along that road, I think.

I appreciate your help and am learning a lot about hardware.