24" Device Cable

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fibroptikl

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Mar 9, 2000
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I'm in the process of building a file server - however the RAID card and an 18" device cable won't reach the drives - regardless of place.

I could use a 24", but I know this is not a spec - so how much am I risking?
 
[thread=761272]Corruption 101[/thread]

Running out of spec ATA cables is a no-no. Some people do it, and say it works 'fine' but complain about bizarre errors like corrupt data, write failures, drives that don't detect, etc. This problem is especially acute on a paralell bus such as PATA. It certainly doesn't help that ATA cables are typically uinshielded and always unterminated. Crosstalk, attenuation, etc all come into play on long PATA cable runs. Post #2 in Corruption 101 goes into more detail on this.

If you can, use SATA. As a serial interface, crosstalk is not a problem, and supported cable lengths are much longer.

If you do use the 24" PATA cable, and the controller allows it, It may pay to drop the UDMA mode to 66(4) from 100(5) or 133(6).
 
Unfortunaley the cable is about 1 - 2 inches short and won't reach the drives.

All the drives I have are IDE unfortunatley.
 
Well, I have no other option but to use the 24" cable for two of the drives. The first connector can make it, but the second one is about 2 inches short. I can't push the drive cage back any further or move the motherboard any closer.

I do have the data on LTO 2 tapes, and on 2 400GB drives that are offline, and only powered up for putting the latest data on.

Would rounded cables help?
 
Are these drives in question optical drives? If they are hard drives, you may be able to use SATA to PATA adapters to take advantage of SATA's longer cable lengths and better signal integrity measures while still keeping your PATA drives. Obviously, this would require investment in at least two SATA ports for the system if they are not already available.
 
fibroptikl said:
Well, I have no other option but to use the 24" cable for two of the drives. The first connector can make it, but the second one is about 2 inches short. I can't push the drive cage back any further or move the motherboard any closer.
Click to expand...
Can you move the second connector further up the wire (or make a custom cable)?
 
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