Motherbord and a ATA cable

Ok this is a quick question about a DELL 4500

When ever i plug in the hd to the upper ATA Cable the one for the Cd Rom drive it works fine but if i go to plug the HD into the bottom ATA cable it will not even read the HD so do any one no what is up with that.I think the dell 4500 is all most five years old.

If any one could help answer this question.:confused

Please DO.

It took me all most three week to figure this out.
WAS DRIVEING ME CRAZYroflmao

 

Hi X,

There is no IDE connector dedicated to CD. Convention is to use IDE #1 for the HD and the rest for anything you want. You can have two IDE devices on each connector as long as the drives are plugged correctly. If you are plugging the HD as Master or CS and have the appropriate cable it should work in either connnector. Are you setting up the BIOS SETUP to accept the HD on the second connector? If there is a CD on the second plug it for Slave and the HD for Master. Or if the cable is CS (Cable Select) plug both CS. If using CS the Master will always be the end and the slave will be the center connector. If Master/Slave the plugging will determine which is Master and which is Slave. If it still does not work there is something wrong with the second connector. There is confusion because some MS/CS cables have the connectors labeled Master and Slave. That only applies if you use CS. Hope this helps a little.

Good Luck, Jim