Secondary channel
Updated: 04/26/2017 by Computer Hope
Communication channel that carries diagnostic information and is a lower priority than data being passed over the primary channel. With an IDE/ATA hard drive, the secondary channel is the data channel for the third and fourth drives, as shown in the picture. If the connections are color-coded, the secondary channel is usually black, and the primary is blue. If the connectors are not color-coded, they are labeled as "IDE0" and "IDE1," IDE1 (IDE<one>) is the secondary channel.
