SATA HDD with IDE motherboard :-S

[Gyongyi]

Hi all,


Could please somebody help me?

I have a Gigabyte GA7N400L motherboard and my old HDD was too small for me: 60 GB. I bought a 500 GB SATA HDD (Western Digital Caviar Blue) with a dual SATA-IDE adaptor. And here starts my problem.

I had to remove the IDE cable for the old hard drive from the motherboard to place the adaptor, then I connected the new hard drive to this adaptor, and the SATA power to the new hard disk.

Turned the computer on ... and the computer would not recognize the hard drive! OK, there is another SATA-port on the adaptor, let's try that one! Nothing.

Then, a friend of mine told me I should reflash the BIOS for the motherboard... but the newest BIOS available from Gigabyte dates back to 2005, not for SATA drives.


So, how can I make it work? Is there a BIOS somewhere that works for SATA drives? Or any other option?

Thanks!


Gyöngyi

[Bjs]

Are you certain you got the right adapter?

You might have the one which converts ide drive to sata motherboard connection instead.

http://www.cooldrives.com/sata-drive-to-ide-converter-mini.html

[redwudz]

IDE>SATA adapters seem to have a lot of problems. I'm assuming the type of adapter you have plugs into the IDE socket on the MB and converts that to SATA?

If so, why not just use a PCI slot SATA adapter card? It would be a lot more dependable. And most you should be able to boot from. Those type of cards have their own BIOS and you don't have to do anything with the MB BIOS.

But have you checked the MB BIOS to see if the drive is recognized there? If not, then you have a problem. If you do see it, then the OS isn't recognizing it. You would have to format it before it's recognized. You can do that in 'Control Panels>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Storage>Disk Management.'

And it might help to give the name of the adapter you are using or a link to where you purchased it.

And since this is a computer question, moving you to our Computer Forum.

[Gyongyi]

Hi,


Bjs: it is a dual adapter, one of the SATA pins converts SATA ->IDe, the other one IDE -> SATA.
I have tried both pins, none of them did work.

Redwudz: unfortunately, it is not seen in the BIOS. That's why I thought I would really need a BIOS upgrade.
I have bought these at Pixmania.com, the adaptor was in a package with the HDD, so I thought they should work together fine. Was I too naive?
It's name is Advance Converter IDE <-> SATA
I knew I should have formatted it, but I cannot even access it yet.


Gyöngyi

[Gyongyi]

And yes, you are right, the adaptor is connected to the IDE plug in the motherboard

[jagabo]

it is not seen in the BIOS. That's why I thought I would really need a BIOS upgrade.

The point of using the adapter is to make the drive look like an IDE drive. You don't need an BIOS update for that. You might need a BIOS update to use the full capacity of the drive but the drive would still show up in the BIOS drive scan.

[redwudz]

I don't know if you have this card available from Pixmania in your country, this is from GB: http://www.pixmania.com/si/uk/625113/art/advance/pci-st101-pci-controller.html Something like this may work better if you have a free PCI slot. Most of those cards have their own internal BIOS and don't depend on the motherboard for control.

For your IDE>SATA converter, it may just be your motherboard doesn't recognize it as a adapter. I'm assuming it is working correctly and all your cables are good. You should make sure the SATA drive is spinning up also. Unplug the power connector to the drive, then plug it back in about a minute later and you should hear the drive spin up. Outside of contacting the seller or the manufacturer, I'm not sure what you may be able to do for that adapter.

Maybe another member has some suggestions. I've only tried those type of IDE>SATA adapters a couple of times and they didn't work for me either.

Another option for more storage space would be a USB connected HDD, but I don't recall if that motherboard has USB 2.0, and USB 1.1 would be too slow.

[TBoneit]

If it is the one I'm thinking of it works very poorly if at all. We sent them all back to the vendor for credit.

Get a PCI SATA card instead. Keeping in mind that it will require you to use the F6 when you install windows or the installer will most likely not see a hard drive.

To be honest in your case I would have bought a IDE drive.

[Bjs]

Remember pci has data bandwidth limited so maximum performance may not be gained from having a sata drive located this way.

I have seen adapters which require 2 power sources

1: Connects to sata adapter.
2: Sata power connector from psu directly to sata drive.

Rather odd design.

Can you supply a picture of the device from online source so we may identify the fault .

[johns0]

Why not buy a 500gb hdd with eide interface?Much easier to use than having a sata interface converted to eide and have all sorts of problems.Motherboard is usb 2.0,i had that one 7 years ago.

[Gyongyi]

Hi all,


Here is the picture (it's in Hungarian, but the picture does not speak ) http://www.pixmania.hu/hu/hu/1741837/art/advance/ketiranyu-ide-sata-adapte.html

It was my intention not to buy an IDE hard drive as if my motherboard fails (about 7 years old ...) it would be even more difficult to get an IDE MB than an IDE HDD!!!


So, I can trash this adapter?



Gyongyi

[Bjs]

I think according to that device your fault is your psu must have sata power connectors and this is why its possibly not working.

The device appears to only handle the data connection conversion and not power.

You can either upgrade your current psu or purchase another adapter for the power conversion... costs a couple of dollars.

[jagabo]

Looks to me like it gets power from a floppy power cable.

[Gyongyi]

It has a power cable that can be connected to a "normal" power slot from the psu. I have used that one.

[Bjs]

So ... you have the following 4 items

1: 1 x Sata to ide converter card
2: 1 x Sata data cable (colored)
2: 1 x Power molex required for the same card (circuit power)
3: 1 x Power standard molex adapted for connecting to sata hard drives power (connected to spare power molex from psu)

From gigabyte > Bios config notes on scsi

You need to enter the bios and set first bootable device as SCSI and change mode ATA.

I recommend also after saving bios change that when it goes to restart that you shut it down then power it up and see if the drive shows in bios ... sometimes motherboards need this ... they often fall asleep on the job with these settings.

If it works you may still need to load sata device drivers during the install routine.

[jollyjohn]

Why doesn't anybody have mentioned SATA drivers or RAID drivers. If the OS is WXP it is not wquiped with SATA drivers and therefore the SATA drive cannot be recognized by the OS.

I had the same problem, more or less.

I would go for the IDE HDD instead, it's cheaper and easier to replace than a MB.

[jagabo]

The point of using the adapter is to convert the drive's SATA interface into an IDE interface. The drive is now an IDE drive. There is no need for a SATA driver.

[jollyjohn]

The point of using the adapter is to convert the drive's SATA interface into an IDE interface. The drive is now an IDE drive. There is no need for a SATA driver.

Does it work for you?
It did not work for me. I tried adapter and tried PDI card. I can only use the SATA drive as storage and its too slow when retrieving data from it to another drive. It won't load windows no mater what.

[jagabo]

I don't have the particular adapater the OP is refering to but I have used such adapters in the past. No BIOS changes were necessary.

There are other possible issues though: Older computers may have problems with bigger drives, requiring a change in LBA settings or a BIOS update. Some motherboards no longer have a standard IDE port, only an IDE RAID port. Those may need to be configured properly in the BIOS, may require special drivers, and may not be bootable.

[Wile_E]

You have the wrong adapter. This adapter is made to plug into an IDE hard drive, not the motherboard. You need the opposite. So that it plugs into your new SATA hard drive, and converts it to IDE so you can plug it into your IDE ports on the motherboard.

You need something like this, that plugs into back of SATA hard drive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119257

[jagabo]

You have the wrong adapter. This adapter is made to plug into an IDE hard drive, not the motherboard.

That's what I thought at first. But looking at the picture (can't read the Hungarian text) it looks like it might be bi-directional (the sticker on it says both "SATA to IDE" and "IDE to SATA"). Although, I've never heard of a bidirectional SATA/IDE converter and I would have expected one to have a switch or jumper block to configure it.

[Nelson37]

Can't quite make out the text at the very bottom, but I do see numbers there, I'm thinking that of the two SATA ports, one is Incoming and the other is Outgoing? Have you tried both ports, from power off reboot?

I have used adapters like this, no BIOS issue but size might be a factor as mentioned. I also avoid these things whenever possible.

[jagabo]

From a FAQ:

when you use it as an IDE to SATA converter, like you want to, then you must use the SATA 1.0 connector, and if you want to connect the other way (SATA to IDE Drive), you use the SATA 2.0 connector

http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/16398908/Universal_SATA_to_IDE_converter_Elan_EC_618_FR..._SHIPPING.html

[Gyongyi]

Jagabo, you are right, at least it was sold as a dual adapter.

I think I'm gonna send it back to Pixmania together with the HDD.


Thanks for all your help!

[Gyongyi]

Nelson37, yes, I have tried both ports. None of them did work.

[jollyjohn]

Guys, I found this very interesting site. There are two short videos too.

http://www.cooldrives.com/sahadradtoid.html

This is the product I needed.

Thank you all for the knowledge.

John

[Gyongyi]

Hi All,


Now I MADE IT WORK!!!!

However, my success is not yet full as in BIOS it is reported as a 500 GB HDD, but WIndows can see only 128 GB.



Do I need a driver? I used Driverguide's scanning software, but it did not identify problems with the hdd.



Gyongyi

[jagabo]

SwissKnife: http://www.compuapps.com/Download/swissknife/swissknife.htm

So, what got it working?

[Gyongyi]

Hi Jagabo,


THank for the link!

I must admit it was my fault: I am quite bad at hardware, so I did not adjust the adapter properly in the IDE slot for the first try...

[jagabo]

I must admit it was my fault: I am quite bad at hardware, so I did not adjust the adapter properly in the IDE slot for the first try... :(

We all make mistakes. As long as we learn from them...