Hard Drive

Dear /tech/
This is my first time installing a second hard drive (Don't shoot me),
my motherboard is an old model, the ribbon cable that is connected to my current hard drive (IDE) only has one connector, but I have another ribbon cable connecting my DVD burner, and my CD burner.

My question is, can I take out my CD burner and attach my new hard drive in its place if I set it to slave, or are they two totally different cables?

Thanks! and sorry for being newb.

It's a bad idea to have a CD/DVD-ROM and hard drive on the same ribbon. It will work but you will have a reduced throughput due to the CD drive and disk drive speaking different protocols.

I'd be a better idea to get a $2 ribbon cable to put both hard drives on the same IDE channel.