A method and system for detecting a state of a disc drive. A cable select signal is input from a host and is gated to determine the state of the disc drive when a jumper is set to indicate that the disc drive is in a cable select state or when the jumper is missing. The cable select signal is prevented from determining the state of the disc drive when the jumper is present and is set to indicate that the disc drive is in the master state or the slave state. Additionally, the cable select signal dictates the state of the disc drive when the jumper is present and is set to indicate that the disc drive is in the cable select state.