"TE Cheah" wrote:
"Using the middle connector and leaving the end connector unattached
..... leaves part of the cable "dangling". This is called a stub and creates
much worse electrical characteristics on the cable, due to reflections
from the unterminated ends of the cable wires. It is not recommended."


This is true - that it's not recommended - and for the reason given.
An open circuit at the end and a short circuit at the end of a cable
are equally reflective of signals. And that is why the cable length and
the connector spacing is specified for IDE cables - to minimize the
effects of signal reflections that do occur. BUT... some circuit designs
are more tolerant of signal reflections than others, and *sometimes*
you can get away with the end connector empty. In my PC with a SIIG
PCI IDE controller and Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 hard drives, an
empty end connector seems not to matter - bootups and disk cloning
seem to take the same amount of time when the destination disk is on
the middle connectore or on the end connector of channel 1. But I
wouldn't count on that being the case for all hard drives and for all
IDE controllers, and I don't even do that in my PC in normal procedure.

If your question derives from a desire to keep down the amount
of ribbon cable in the PC's interior, try "round" cables. They come in
various lengths in both single connector and dual connector forms,
and some models have aluminum or copper braid shielding.
They do "flout the ATA specs" as one poster would complain, but
I've had no problems with them, and they do clean up some
"impossibly crowded" case interiors. Check 'em out:
http://svc.com/cables-ata-100-133-round-cables.html

*TimDaniels*