While connecting IDE devices on to the computer it is important and necessary to remember that the Master and Slave devices are different for 80-wire cables and 40-wire cables. The 80 wire cable is always given to the Primary connection. Mostly the 40-wire cable is connected on other Secondary connections. This is usually where the lesser used devices like CD ROMs, CDROM Burners and Tape Disks are connected .
The latest 80-wire cable has very small wires running from one connector to another. Conversely, the 40-wire cable has larger wires. The reason for this being the newer standard needs the addition and separation of the wires in order to achieve faster speeds.
