Registered: Feb 2002
Location: Danbury, CT
Posts: 1308

Is there anything special I need to look for in an IDE cable for my SVR3000. I am in the process of adding a 120GB samsung drive. I noticed the original cable in the Tivo had one blue end as did the one in my computer. I rumaged around in my parts box and found one with three black connectors. Does the blue signify ATA66?

Jeff

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Registered: Jul 2002
Location: Cambridgeshire, UK
Posts: 9266

TiVo doesn't need anything special from its IDE cable. A standard 40-way cable is fine.

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Registered: May 2001
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 3155

You basically need one that's long enough to fit both drives. I haven't seen one with three black connectors, but presumably that should work. The blue end is usually the motherboard end, the gray middle connector is for the slave drive (if there is a middle ocnnector) and the black end one is for the master drive.

Michael

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Registered: Feb 2002
Location: Danbury, CT
Posts: 1308

The copy is going now, I guess we will know in about 5hrs if everything went ok.

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: USA
Posts: 148

They need to be ATA66/100 and not just IDE, right?

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Blonde!

Sony SVR3000 Series 2 - 200something hours

Last edited by Blonde on 05-01-2003 at 06:21 AM

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Registered: Feb 2002
Location: Danbury, CT
Posts: 1308

It appears that I have answered my own question her

The lack of a blue end indicates ATA33, which won't work with Series 2 Tivos. You need an ATA66 which has the one blue end.

Jeff

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Registered: Apr 2002
Location: Long Island, NY
Posts: 1997

I can tell you that my 60 Hour TiVo worked just fine with a standard (3 black connector) IDE cable.

I will be upgrading my Sony this weekend so I will try both the same cable used in the 60, and a 80 pin that I have as a spare.

My understanding is that any new drive will run fine with the older cable, just at the lower speed. For TiVo this is not an issue since they do not support anything faster than ATA33.

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TiVo | SERlES2 - 302 Hrs
TiVo | SONY SVR3000 - 273 Hrs

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Registered: Nov 2002
Location: eastern PA
Posts: 234

I had the same experience as rsnaider - using an old 40-wire cable for my upgraded S2 units works fine. Yes, they both came with a short 80-wire cable, but Tivo's hdd controller still only uses ATA33.

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Registered: Oct 2002
Location:
Posts: 40

Does it matter if the ATA66 IDE cable is reversed? I mean if the blue end is attached to the hard drive(s) and the black end to the motherboard? I've just recently finished an upgrade from one drive to two and found myself hard pressed to dig up an IDE cable with the proper distance between the two end (master/slave) connections. I finally found one but reversing the cable would have easily resolved the problem in the first place without having to search further.

Answers

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: USA
Posts: 148

So there is no advantage for using ATA66 cable?

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Blonde!

Sony SVR3000 Series 2 - 200something hours

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Registered: Mar 2003
Location: Garland, TX
Posts: 455

The 80pin cable allows the Drive Select jumper setting to work. One end goes to the motherboard, the middle connector goes to the slave and the end cable goes to the master.

Of course, if you set the master/slave jumpers if doesn't matter which one goes where.

It's an attempt to simplify IDE by making the cable position determine drive address (just like floppy drives have been since 1981!)

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Registered: Feb 2002
Location: Danbury, CT
Posts: 1308

I guess this is another case of YMMV, I used a ATA33 cable and Tivo wouldn't boot. Did another copy with an ATA66 cable and everything is good. The Hinsdale Howto does indicate that ATA66 cable is required for Series 2. I am running an SVR3000 if that makes any difference.

Jeff

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