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Installing and Replacing Desktop Board Components
35
Connecting the IDE Cable
The IDE cable can connect two drives to the desktop board. The cable supports the ATA-133
transfer protocol. Figure 16 shows the correct installation of the cable.
NOTES
ATA-133 compatible cables are backward compatible with drives using slower IDE transfer
protocols. If an ATA-133 disk drive and a disk drive using any other IDE transfer protocol are
attached to the same cable, the maximum transfer rate between the drives may be reduced to that of
the slowest drive.
Do not connect an ATA device as a slave on the same IDE cable as an ATAPI master device. For
example, do not connect an ATA hard drive as a slave to an ATAPI CD-ROM drive.
For correct function of the cable:
• Observe the precautions in "Before You Begin" on page 23.
• Attach the cable end with the single connector (blue) to the Intel desktop board (Figure 16).
• Attach the cable end with the two closely spaced connectors (gray and black) to the drives.
OM18215
Figure 16. Connecting the IDE Cable