I've modified ribbon cables before when I only had 1 master drive to hookup on an IDE channel, by using a razor blade to cut the wire ribbon off clean on the Master side of the Slave connector, then inspecting with a magnifying glass to make sure all wires are clean cut with no metal particles left behind to short out neighboring wires.
I've cut many of them and never had any problems after the modification, if thats what you may be considering.
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