just finished 15 foot ide cable for front cdrom

**el bob** · 03-22-2004, 01:44 AM

I attempted to create this cable because people on this board said they had made them and that they worked.

I just finished making mine and it works a little bit. The BIOS picks up the CDROM drive, Windows picks up the CDROM drive, and I can copy files from a CD in the CDROM drive. However, the files seem to get a bit corrupted when I transfer them from the CDROM to the computer hard drive.

For example, when I copied .mp3 files from a CD to the computer's hard drive and then listened to them through the speakers, there were noticeable bleeps and weird noises interspersed at audible levels through the songs.

I extended a 40 pin IDE cable using 5x 15' strands of Cat 5 cable. This is how most others are doing it correct?

For those who have already done this, do you experience similar problems?

I can post pics if needed.

-el bob

**anaxagoras** · 03-22-2004, 05:18 AM

I have no experience with this, but are you using an 80 or 40 wire (not pin) cable? if your using a 40 i'd suggest trying an 80wire cable as it has a ground wire for each pin and might help with cleaning up the signal. I cna say this too, IDE was never meant for such extended runs, i think the offical maximum lenght is like 18". I'm sure others have gotten it to work, but yeah.

**Magpie** · 03-22-2004, 05:26 AM

An interesting post. I am in the same process in creating long cables although I don't yet have the drive to link to. Would it not make more sense to buy a USB2 or Firewire based drive where long cables are more common place? or would we have the same issue with long cables? This would also allow for a separate power supply to feed the drive rather than loading the OPUS.

**anaxagoras** · 03-22-2004, 05:36 AM

yeah, personally for a 15 foot run, i'd get ahold of a usb2 or firewire bridge and use that.

**el bob** · 03-22-2004, 07:03 PM

Where are all of the people who said they had done this successfully?

**chance_11** · 03-22-2004, 07:37 PM

24 Inches is the maximum length for IDE. That's why you don't see longer cables for sale. If you do want something longer buy bulk ribbon cable like this:

http://www.mycableshop.com/sku/CZIDE66--100.htm

Then just remove connectors off an 80 pin cable and put them on this cable at the desired link. Again, probably won't work. Your much better off with a USB based device. USB can go 16 feet without a hub. You can buy extension cables that take it longer. Do a

search for active usb extension 2.0 and you will find something like this:

http://www.sewelldirect.com/USB2Exte...SB_2_Extension

I have several of these, and they work great. They show up as nested hubs in windows.

**fluffy2097** · 03-22-2004, 08:59 PM

This curruption is the reason that IDE cables are only 24" long. You can make it longer, but you start getting errors.

If you want to use an IDE cable, you should try an 80 conductor cable. This will help reduce crosstalk and errors. You might also see if you can force your CD-rom to work in PIO mode

**MerlinDaHapyPig** · 03-22-2004, 09:06 PM

I've been using a 5 meter USB cable for USB2 drive bay, with a DVD ROM. No Problems playing DVD's or copying files. That's what i would recommend rather than extending an IDE cable. It would be hard to get IDE extension working as the length of each wire effects the time it takes for signal propogation, so if one wire is slightly longer than another, then the signal gets out-of-whack. Also they only carry a small amount of current, some of which is lost through magnetic field around cable, so the signal at other end can be too weak or corrupted

**none** · 03-23-2004, 01:13 AM

Those that have had success in the past have done as chance_11 suggested and simply made longer versions of a standard cable out of longer pieces of ribbon cable - no splicing, that is where you are getting your corruption. Surprisingly, some have reported better results with 40 conductor cable than 80 conductor cable - I would expect the opposite. There is alot of information about this on this forum, and there are even some people here who used to sell custom length IDE cables.

It is fully possible, but I personally would recommend USB2.0 or firewire.

**gospeed.racer** · 03-23-2004, 01:36 AM

I think the "only" concern with using the usb or firewire convertors was that you may not be able to boot from the cd rom, although the last thing I want to be doing on my way to work is installing XP again! lol. Most newer motherboards support usb/firewire boot so it isnt really even that big of a deal.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...3&category=162