Abit AN7, User Manual

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Hardware Setup 2-15
(12). IDE Connectors
This motherboard provides two IDE ports to connect up to four IDE drives at Ultra DMA mode by Ultra
ATA/66 ribbon cables. Each cable has 40-pin 80-conductor and three connectors, providing two hard
drives connection with motherboard. Connect the single end (blue connector) at the longer length of
ribbon cable to the IDE port on motherboard, and the other two ends (gray and black connector) at the
shorter length of the ribbon cable to the connectors on hard drives.
If you want to connect two hard drives together through one IDE channel, you must configure the second
drive to Slave mode after the first Master drive. Please refer to the drives’ documentation for jumper
settings. The first drive connected to IDE1 is usually referred to as “Primary Master”, and the second
drive as “Primary Slave”. The first drive connected to IDE2 is referred to as “Secondary Master” and the
second drive as “Secondary Slave”.
Keep away from connecting one legacy slow speed drive, like CD-ROM, together with another hard drive
on the same IDE channel; this will drop your integral system performance.
User’s Manual