And it tastes delicious



On a PATA drive, what does the “cable select” option mean?

A) The drive number is based on where it’s connected on the cable

B) Only one drive can be used on a single selected cable

C) The correct PATA cable will need to be selected in the BIOS on each startup

D) Any drives configured as cable select will be used as bootable drives on startup

E) A “cable select” drive has half the calories of a traditional drive


The answer: A) The drive number is based on where it’s connected on the cable

The PATA standard designates a storage device as Drive 0 or Drive 1 based on the position of the drive on the cable. Most storage devices can be manually configured as Drive 0 or Drive 1.

If the cable select jumper is configured on the drive, the drive will automatically determine where it is on the cable and will automatically configure itself with the correct drive number.

Want to know more? Watch “Understanding PATA.”

The Parallel ATA interface standard is one of the most common legacy hard drive connection types. In this video, you’ll learn how to configure and connect PATA drives to your motherboard.

Indeed.