Deskpro EN & CDRW

I have a Deskpro EN with a standard Compaq 32x CDROM installed running
W98SE.

I wanted to add a CDRW. Expecting to find inside an IDE cable with two
connectors, one connected to the existing drive and a spare. Oh no. A single
connector cable from the CDROM to the 2nd IDE channel. The hard drive also
has a single connector cable to the primary IDE channel.

Has anyone successfully swapped the existing CDROM for a CDRW and maintained
all functionality, ie boot from CD etc? Can the ide cable be replaced with a
dual port version so that I can have the existing CDROM and a CDRW as the
slave? I have a part number of 278296-001 but can't seem to confirm if this
is a dual port version of the cable.

Any help appreciated,

Thanks, Keith.

Yes, you can replace the cable and it will support two IDE devices on each
channel. Pretty much the de facto standard on all mother boards. Even on
machines that lack the space to install any additional drives.

KC

"Keith Abbott" wrote in message
...
I have a Deskpro EN with a standard Compaq 32x CDROM installed running
W98SE.

I wanted to add a CDRW. Expecting to find inside an IDE cable with two
connectors, one connected to the existing drive and a spare. Oh no. A
single
connector cable from the CDROM to the 2nd IDE channel. The hard drive also
has a single connector cable to the primary IDE channel.

Has anyone successfully swapped the existing CDROM for a CDRW and
maintained
all functionality, ie boot from CD etc? Can the ide cable be replaced with
a
dual port version so that I can have the existing CDROM and a CDRW as the
slave? I have a part number of 278296-001 but can't seem to confirm if
this
is a dual port version of the cable.

Any help appreciated,

Thanks, Keith.

Thanks. I assume that I will have to have a cable that supports "cable
select". Is it a Compaq special or will any CS cable do the job?

Keith.

"Kevin Childers" wrote in message
...
Yes, you can replace the cable and it will support two IDE devices on each
channel. Pretty much the de facto standard on all mother boards. Even on
machines that lack the space to install any additional drives.

KC

"Keith Abbott" wrote in message
...
I have a Deskpro EN with a standard Compaq 32x CDROM installed running
W98SE.

I wanted to add a CDRW. Expecting to find inside an IDE cable with two
connectors, one connected to the existing drive and a spare. Oh no. A
single
connector cable from the CDROM to the 2nd IDE channel. The hard drive also
has a single connector cable to the primary IDE channel.

Has anyone successfully swapped the existing CDROM for a CDRW and
maintained
all functionality, ie boot from CD etc? Can the ide cable be replaced with
a
dual port version so that I can have the existing CDROM and a CDRW as the
slave? I have a part number of 278296-001 but can't seem to confirm if
this
is a dual port version of the cable.

Any help appreciated,

Thanks, Keith.

To best of my knowledge cable is standard, device controller and the
drive are the items that must support CS.

If anyone else knows anything different on this, please don't hesitate
to speak up.

KC

"Keith Abbott" wrote in message
...
Thanks. I assume that I will have to have a cable that supports "cable
select". Is it a Compaq special or will any CS cable do the job?

Keith.

"Kevin Childers" wrote in message
...
Yes, you can replace the cable and it will support two IDE devices on each
channel. Pretty much the de facto standard on all mother boards. Even on
machines that lack the space to install any additional drives.

KC

"Keith Abbott" wrote in message
...
I have a Deskpro EN with a standard Compaq 32x CDROM installed running
W98SE.

I wanted to add a CDRW. Expecting to find inside an IDE cable with two
connectors, one connected to the existing drive and a spare. Oh no. A
single
connector cable from the CDROM to the 2nd IDE channel. The hard drive
also
has a single connector cable to the primary IDE channel.

Has anyone successfully swapped the existing CDROM for a CDRW and
maintained
all functionality, ie boot from CD etc? Can the ide cable be replaced
with
a
dual port version so that I can have the existing CDROM and a CDRW as
the
slave? I have a part number of 278296-001 but can't seem to confirm if
this
is a dual port version of the cable.

Any help appreciated,

Thanks, Keith.

Thanks guys,

Have found a source for a Compaq Deskpro Dual Device cable, so will put CDRW
in as additional drive if I have problems.



"Malcolm Ball" wrote in message
...
In article , Keith
Abbott writes
[snip]
Has anyone successfully swapped the existing CDROM for a CDRW and
maintained
all functionality, ie boot from CD etc? Can the ide cable be replaced with
a

SFF 733 machine, Yes, but used all existing cables as no space to add
extra drives.

--
Malcolm Ball
replace delete with newsB for valid repy-to