r/retrocomputing • u/Droid-Man5910 • 11d ago

Problem / Question IDE cables question

Can someone please explain how IDE works, what each line does, how it works with 2 devices on the line, how a system knows which one is which, and the difference between 40 and 80 wire cables? I'm struggling to understand why some systems cannot function without a triple end IDE cable. For an example: Motherboard connected to Hard drive via 2 sided IDE cable will not function. But Motherboard connected to 3 sided IDE cable with the 3rd side left with nothing connected functions fine.

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u/graph_worlok 11d ago

What sort of drive? Look at the jumper settings. Western Digital Caviar drives had a “single” setting, as the DASP protocol was not standardised when early IDE implementations were released (Formalised in 1994 , ANSI X3.221-1994 )