PATA to SATA

retrosi

Solid State Member
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Location
England
I have an old 500 gb PATA hd, :- model # WD5000AAKB
I would like to use this on my ASUS MOBO P8Z77-V LX as a backup drive.
I have seen many adaptors to allow me to connect this, however, I have also read that some of these connectors/adaptors have a 160 gb limit although I read some mixed reviews on some of these various adaptors none mentioned if this limit actually 'cut in' or what capacity hd's they used.
Also it seems that these adaptors need the hd to be the 'master'.
I am not 100% sure but does that mean it has to be the boot drive?
If so then this idea is a non starter as I have a 2tb hd with a very stable OS & programmes I use.
And if all these cards have a 160gb limit then that too means this exercise would be pointless. I have seen various versions of these adaptors, any pointers would be great, cheers Simon.
 
Master is just an additional configuration for parallel/IDE drives. There is a jumper on the back with 4 columns of two pins, two have a jacket over them. Somewhere on the drive it will show you where the jacket has to be to jump the drive as Master. This was the old Master/Slave configuration option for IDE. Master/Slave still exists with SATA but it tends to just go unnoticed.

Jumper the drive as Master, connect it to the SATA adapter and connect the SATA adapter to the motherboard. Some additional drivers may be required so check installation instructions of the particular adapter you buy. There should be some adapters out there for 160GB and up, just dont buy one that specifies a specific size limit.

Though, depending on how much the adapter is going to cost you, compared to how much a new 500GB hard drive is; might just be cheaper and easier in the long run to just buy a new SATA drive!

Hope this helps.
 
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