I just bought a new PC that has a motherboard that has both IDE and SATA connections. The hard drive that came with the PC is SATA. I have an old IDE hard drive that I want to add to the computer. If I hook up the old hard drive with an IDE cable my computer recognizes it without any problems. However, I would rather plug it into the SATA port. So I bought an IDE/SATA converter, which I plugged into my old hard drive and then hooked it up to the SATA cable and my power source, but my PC won't recognize it. In fact, it keeps the PC from booting up properly, if at all (if it does boot I can't see the drive in Windows Explorer). But since the PC is having issues booting it must be recognizing it to some extent. Is there some reason my BIOS wouldn't recognize an addtional SATA connection, but didn't have any problems when I hooked it up with the IDE cable? From what I was reading online I thought hooking up to the SATA was suppose to be easier than using an IDE. It's all very confusing, any help would be appreciated.
Installing 2nd hard drive in my new PC, computer not recognizing it
- Thread starter karpata
- Start date
Jesusfrk611
Fully Optimized
- Messages
- 2,193
- Location
- US
A lot of those converters are junk made by off brands. Why do you not want to use IDE? Not like IDE is going to run any faster using a SATA converter. Your best bet is to toss the converter and use the IDE drive on the IDE controller or get a SATA drive. I've been working on lots of computers for awhile now and as long as you can set jumpers for multiple drives using an IDE controller, SATA is no easier or harder.
Chipeater
In Runtime
- Messages
- 364
You probably prefer the smaller SATA cable, I know that I do. In your situation I would fold the IDE cable in half length-wise, then fold each half over again. So that instead of a wide flat cable, the cable is folded into a W shape about the same size as a SATA cable. Use a tie wrap every several inches to hold it in place. The ends are still wide, but it does a lot to reduce the cable size and you don't need to use the added IDE/SATA adapter.
foothead
Omnicide now.
- Messages
- 10,027
- Location
- My own personal hell
Or buy a round IDE cable. I've several of them and they help tons with cable management.
Ditch the PATA>SATA converter and plug the PATA drive into the IDE port. If it worked this way before and doesn't with the converter then get rid of the converter.
If you don't like the flat ribbon PATA cables then get hold of the round PATA cables.
The BIOS obviously doesn't like the converter which is causing errors during POST.
If you don't like the flat ribbon PATA cables then get hold of the round PATA cables.
The BIOS obviously doesn't like the converter which is causing errors during POST.
There is no point is using the SATA cable in the first place when the HDD is being connected to the motherboard through and IDE controller, besides saving some very minimal room. Get rid of the SATA to IDE converter and buy a $9 round IDE cord that can be found here: Newegg.com - StarTech 18" Round ATA 100/133 IDE cable Model IDE100RND18 . They even have colored ones if the whole reason why your using the SATA cable is for looks...