Bit of an odd problem here, but to make my life easier, i'd like to connect one of the internal IDE ports externally. current setup: primary IDE - master - 80GB drive primary IDE - slave - empty secondary IDE - master - 160GB drive secondary IDE - slave - empty firewire/USB 2.0 port - DVD-RW+- external drive ( non-bootable ) as my CD drive enclosure is non-bootable it makes installing an OS a real pain (ie 6x boot floppies to install XP for instance) Now in my shuttle XPC, i have absolutely no use for the parralell port, so the parralell port cutout on the back is free. parralell = 24 pins (if i counted right) IDE = 44 pins (40+ 4 power) how many of these pins are strictly nessesary? it'd only be for connecting an old CD drive that is bootable, signal quality being degraded by reduced amount of ground lines would be no problem. Or alternatively, are there any connectors of around 40 connectors that are a simalar size? i'm having trouble finding anything myself. not a huge problem, but it'd be much neater than having a IDE cable and molex connector poking out the back of the PC like it is at the moment
For proformance reasons. Deepends on cable, the 80 wire ones thats true, but the 40 wire ones are different
IDE pinout Dont think you can trim that down to 25 pins Does the motherboard support booting from USB or is it the enclosure that wont do it?
If u did away with a floppy drive im sure u could cram 2 hard disks and a cd-rom inside their no problem. A friend of mine has done fine and then uses a usb floppy drive if needs be.
nope doesn't look lit you'll be able to cut it down to 25 pins - see IDE pinout below: Pin Description Source Acronym 1 Reset Host RESET- 2 n/a Ground 3 Data bus bit 7 Host/Device DD7 4 Data bus bit 8 Host/Device DD8 5 Data bus bit 6 Host/Device DD6 6 Data bus bit 9 Host/Device DD9 7 Data bus bit 5 Host/Device DD5 8 Data bus bit 10 Host/Device DD10 9 Data bus bit 4 Host/Device DD4 10 Data bus bit 11 Host/Device DD11 11 Data bus bit 3 Host/Device DD3 12 Data bus bit 12 Host/Device DD12 13 Data bus bit 2 Host/Device DD2 14 Data bus bit 13 Host/Device DD13 15 Data bus bit 1 Host/Device DD1 16 Data bus bit 14 Host/Device DD14 17 Data bus bit 0 Host/Device DD0 18 Data bus bit 15 Host/Device DD15 19 Ground n/a Ground 20 (keypin) n/a Reserved 21 DMA Request Device DMARQ 22 Ground n/a Ground 23 I/O Write Host DIOW- 24 Ground n/a Ground 25 I/O Read Host DIOR- 26 Ground n/a Ground 27 I/O Ready Device IORDY 28 Spindle Sync or Cable Select (note 1) SPSYNC:CSEL 29 DMA Acknowledge Host DMACK- 30 Ground n/a Ground 31 Interrupt Request Device INTRQ 32 16 Bit I/O Device IOCS16- 33 Device Address Bit 1 Host DA1 34 PASSED DIAGNOSTICS (note 1) PDIAG- 35 Device Address Bit 0 Host DAO 36 Device Address Bit 2 Host DA2 37 Chip Select 0 Host CS0- 38 Chip Select 1 Host CS1- 39 Device Active or Slave (Device 1) Present (note 1) DASP- 40 Ground n/a Ground
Go to an electronics store and buy a long ribbon cable and 3 40-pin female connectors. They are quite easy to put on the cable; they come in 2 parts that pinch the cable between them onto sharpened connectors. Mount one for the motherboard, then measure how long it needs to go to get to the first hard drive. Clip the second connector on there. Get the polarity right, there is a red or striped wire on one side of the cable to show polarity. Figure out how long the cable needs to be to the third connector and put it on there. The distance between the second and third connector should be long enough to go outside the case. Between the second and third connector, cut in-between every 5th or 10th wire and pull the wires apart so you will have a bundle of lots of thinner ribbon cables. Use cable ties and braiding to clean it up and then rout the 3rd connecter out through a hole in the case. When the wire is not in use, you can bundle it up inside or behind the case. When you need to use it, plug the cd rom into the ide cable and use a Molex extension to get power to the cd drive. Another thing that you could try is buying 2 male 40-pin ide connectors and soldering them directly together. Cut a hole in the back of the case and glue the 2 plugs into the hole. So you have an ide plug on the inside and on the outside. Do the same with a male Molex plug. plug the 3rd connector on you current ide cable onto the inside half and when you need to use the cd drive, just get a Molex extension and short ide cable to plug in a cd drive.
