36 Inches IDE Cable, problems ?

[rainz]

Hi guys,

Can a 36 inches IDE cable really gives you any kind of trouble ? i know it's over the maximum recommended spec (18in i think?) Using one right now (36in) and i dont have any problems so far (well i think) but one game i installed wierdly crashed and i'm wondering if it could be related. Any thoughts.

thanks

 

[Rainbow Man]

Uh, YEAH it can possibly cause problems..it's twice the allowed length (of 18") after all. And ribbon cables are kind of dodgy from a reliability standpoint I believe.

If it actually DOES is another matter though. I believe IDE interfaces of today use CRC protection for the data sent across so most broken bits should be caught I think depending on how reliable the error detection mechanism is.

If it's just a one-time freak occurrence that your game crashed then it was probably just a freak one-time occurrence.

Was it during a level load or such?

You could try creating large dummy zip archives, just fill them up with random files from your harddrive, then run the test function of your archiving program (I personally recommend 7Zip).

This way you could probably find out if there actually are problems with the cable in a relatively safe manner. Of course if there's an error when the file system structure is updated then you could be screwed.. But this is unavoidable.

Perhaps you should backup sensitive unreplaceable data first before experimneting too mcuh.
Peace.

 

[rainz]

Was it during a level load or such?

During the installation of the game..

 

[rainz]

But maybe i was asking just too much..

On the same cable at the same time

E: = installing the game
F: = watching Stargate SG1

Boom the installation crashed .. and i have 2 original copy of the same game (me & my gf) and tried both CD2 ... none worked (BF2 Special Forces)

 

[Rainbow Man]

Does it happen every time you try to install the game?

Why do you need such a long cable? 36" is hella long! Try installing with another cable (shorter one).

Can you remove one of the drives in case you run 2 on the same cable? Maybe force a lower transmission rate. It makes hardly any difference anyway as far as performance is concerned say the knowledgeable people.


Peace.

 

[Davros]

they seem to be on sale everywhere so you should be all right

 

[swaaye]

They are a little finnicky. DVDROMs don't seem to mind them, but I bet there are still errors occuring. I did have some issues with a hard disk on one once.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

But maybe i was asking just too much..

On the same cable at the same time

E: = installing the game
F: = watching Stargate SG1

Boom the installation crashed .. and i have 2 original copy of the same game (me & my gf) and tried both CD2 ... none worked (BF2 Special Forces)

"But maybe i was asking just too much..
On the same cable at the same time"

 

[CI]

If it actually DOES is another matter though. I believe IDE interfaces of today use CRC protection for the data sent across so most broken bits should be caught I think depending on how reliable the error detection mechanism is.

IIRC, error checking is done only for data bits not command bits.