On Apr 5 2005, 16:19, Phil Spanner wrote: need to be configured (usually by type) but my drives seem to need 2 cables??? the drives at all. Well, up to a point. The 34-way cable carries the control signals, such as the drive selects, head selects, step, write-enable, etc, and status signals such as ready, track zero, etc. The 20-way cable carries only the differential read and write data signals. Without that, of course, the controller will never see data from the drive. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York