40 pin to 34 pin EIDE Cable adapter available?

[SimMike]

Every normal IDE connector has 40 pins. Floppy connections are 34 pin. I
just looked at an ancient ISA controller card that had IDE and it was the
standard 40 pin, just like modern computers. Perhaps you are mistaking the
34 pin floppy connector for an EIDE connection.

Mike

Edward Welling <ewel...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:s84s5md...@corp.supernews.com...
> My second computer is a Compaq Presario CDS 954 (1995 model) with a
> 486DX4/100, and a 535 MB Hard Drive. I would like to install Red Hat
> Linux 6.1, but the hard drive is too small to be useful.
>
> The existing hard drive has an IDE ribbon cable with what appears to be a
> 34 pin, 34 conductor connector. The ribbon cable from the existing hard
> drive is also connected to a separate board (call it board A) at the
> bottom of the chassis. Board A also has expansion slots. The mother
> board is also plugged into Board A.
>
> I would like to replace the old hard drive with a new Western Digital 13.6
> GB, 7200 RPM Hard Drive. The new Western Digital Hard Drive has a 40 pin,
> 80 conductor IDE interface cable. There appears to be no slot on the
> motherboard (or on Board A) to plug in the 40 pin connector.
>
> Is there an adapter I can purchase to plug in my new hard drive? I'm
> aware that there is a BIOS issue I may have to address, but first I want
> to get plugged in.
>
> Thank You,
> Edward Welling
>
>
> --
> Posted via CNET Help.com
> http://www.help.com/

[Andrew Rossmann]

Edward Welling wrote:

> My second computer is a Compaq Presario CDS 954 (1995 model) with a
> 486DX4/100, and a 535 MB Hard Drive. I would like to install Red Hat
> Linux 6.1, but the hard drive is too small to be useful.
>
> The existing hard drive has an IDE ribbon cable with what appears to be a
> 34 pin, 34 conductor connector. The ribbon cable from the existing hard
> drive is also connected to a separate board (call it board A) at the
> bottom of the chassis. Board A also has expansion slots. The mother
> board is also plugged into Board A.
>
> I would like to replace the old hard drive with a new Western Digital 13.6
> GB, 7200 RPM Hard Drive. The new Western Digital Hard Drive has a 40 pin,
> 80 conductor IDE interface cable. There appears to be no slot on the
> motherboard (or on Board A) to plug in the 40 pin connector.
>
> Is there an adapter I can purchase to plug in my new hard drive? I'm
> aware that there is a BIOS issue I may have to address, but first I want
> to get plugged in.

As far as I know, the only 34-pin IDE was for a PC (non-AT) IDE format that
was rare, if any drives were even made for it.

Otherwise, 34-pin drives would either be MFM/RLL/ESDI, or you are mistaking
the floppy cable. Or, more likely, Compaq is using a custom oddball drive and
controller.

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[Edward Welling]

My second computer is a Compaq Presario CDS 954 (1995 model) with a
486DX4/100, and a 535 MB Hard Drive. I would like to install Red Hat
Linux 6.1, but the hard drive is too small to be useful.

The existing hard drive has an IDE ribbon cable with what appears to be a
34 pin, 34 conductor connector. The ribbon cable from the existing hard
drive is also connected to a separate board (call it board A) at the
bottom of the chassis. Board A also has expansion slots. The mother
board is also plugged into Board A.

I would like to replace the old hard drive with a new Western Digital 13.6
GB, 7200 RPM Hard Drive. The new Western Digital Hard Drive has a 40 pin,
80 conductor IDE interface cable. There appears to be no slot on the
motherboard (or on Board A) to plug in the 40 pin connector.

Is there an adapter I can purchase to plug in my new hard drive? I'm
aware that there is a BIOS issue I may have to address, but first I want
to get plugged in.

Thank You,

[Edward Welling]

Andrew Rossmann wrote:

> As far as I know, the only 34-pin IDE was for a PC (non-AT) IDE format
that
> was rare, if any drives were even made for it.
>
> Otherwise, 34-pin drives would either be MFM/RLL/ESDI, or you are
mistaking
> the floppy cable. Or, more likely, Compaq is using a custom oddball
drive and
> controller.
>
> --
> If there is a no_junk in my address, please REMOVE it before replying!
> All junk mail senders will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the
law!!
> http://www.ntsource.com/~andyross

[Edward Welling]

You are correct of course, and thank you for motivating me to count more
carefully. I feel better now about my situation, at least for the time
being. The floppy is the only one with the 34 pin cable, with the Hard
Drive and CD-ROM having the 40 pin IDE. The floppy is connected to what I
will call (I'm sure the terminology is incorrect) the system bus board
(which has the motherboard and expansion slots), where an extra 34 pin
cable is piggybacked to it at the board connection. This extra 34 pin
cable is the only one which has extra connectors available (2).

The 40 pin IDE has no extra connectors available, to attach an extra hard
drive, but I'm thinking of at least (2) possibilities:

1. Find a connector to piggyback the new EIDE 40 pin cable to the old
cable for my new hard drive at the system board connection, if such a
thing exists.

2. Find an expansion card to plug into the system bus board, to which I
can then plug in the new EIDE 40 pin cable.

I'm thinking of calling Computer Renaissance, who I hear specialize in
selling old computers and parts.

Thank You very much to take the time to respond.

Edward Welling

[David Stinson]

Please note that IDE/EIDE/UltraDMA is a 2 drive per cable interface.
You might want to check for an additional 40 pin header on the motherboard
near the one where your present cable connects. Most motherboards have 2
separate IDE interfaces (a primary and a secondary) allowing you to have up
to 4 IDE drives.

ewel...@worldnet.att.net (Edward Welling) wrote in
<s8cenf4...@corp.supernews.com>:

[Dan]

That poor 7200 RPM drive will be twiddling it's thumbs waiting for the
slow EIDE adapter, but here's my advice, for what it's worth:

Completely pull the old drive, and only use the new 13 Gig. Make sure
it's not on the same IDE port as the CD-ROM, because that (and the old
disk drive) will slow down the 13 Gig. I'm assuming, of course, that
you have a primary and secondary IDE port, but it's entirely possible
you don't.

If your system has PCI slots, I'd recommend getting a UDMA 66 (or 33)
IDE adapter and disabling (or removing if it's a card) the onboard IDE.
Connect the 13 gig to the primary port and the CD-ROM to secondary one.

Unfortunately, it's also possible that a system that old doesn't have
BIOS support for the 13 gig either, but it's still worth a shot.

You may end up having to go with a Pentium class machine to support the
13 gig, or look for a used 1 or 2 gig to stuff into the old 486. I'm
sure Linux will be quite happy with a gig or two.

Good luck!

Dan

In article <s8cenf4...@corp.supernews.com>,

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