Is it necessary to "glue" the cable to anything

Not in my experience... I've had my drives without glue for more than 2 years now - since last round of drive upgrades - without any problem. Only IDE problems I've had were a poor solder connection on the IDE header on the motherboard and a poor crimp on the first drive connector (middle connector on the cable) - both fairly easy to fix (latter moreso than the first) and well documented in the FAQ.

Edit: late again