Connecting SATA hard drive in IDE PC

[alegator]

Hi, I have a PC that only admits IDE hard drives. I want to be able to use SATA drives in my PC. I searched and found this SATA to IDE adapter:
http://www.satacables.com/html/sata_to_ide_adapter.html

Does anyone have experience doing this? Is it safe/reliable? Thanks for any feedback.

[redwudz]

Those work fine most of the time, but not always. I personally wouldn't recommend one.

If you have a free PCI slot, you would be much better off with a PCI SATA adapter card. I would also recommend one with a Silicon Image chipset.

[jagabo]

That type of converter usually works without problems with hard drives. CD/DVD drives are more of a problem though.

[budz]

better to use a PCI SATA CONTROLLER card.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=CL-SL3114&cat=CCD

[alegator]

Thanks everyone for their replies.

better to use a PCI SATA CONTROLLER card.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=CL-SL3114&cat=CCD

In the system specs it says: "

• Compliant with Serial ATA 1.0 specifications
• Up to 1.5Gb/s data transfer rate"

Does that mean it only accepts SATA 1 hard drives, or can I also use SATA 2 or 3 hard drives? Also, Im not sure how that works. The PCI card provides SATA data ports, what about SATA power ports?
By the way, I found this one which also provides an external eSATA port:
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16816132007

[jagabo]

The PCI card provides SATA data ports, what about SATA power ports?

http://www.amazon.com/DN733A-SATA-Power-Adapter-Cable/dp/B0001HCNIE

[MJA]

main thing is be sure it's compatible with your motherboard and HD

[TBoneit]

Thanks everyone for their replies.

better to use a PCI SATA CONTROLLER card.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=CL-SL3114&cat=CCD

In the system specs it says: "

• Compliant with Serial ATA 1.0 specifications
• Up to 1.5Gb/s data transfer rate"

Does that mean it only accepts SATA 1 hard drives, or can I also use SATA 2 or 3 hard drives? Also, Im not sure how that works. The PCI card provides SATA data ports, what about SATA power ports?
By the way, I found this one which also provides an external eSATA port:
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16816132007

A SATA controller card will give you better speed. Anything that converts IDE to SATA will be slower due to the IDE speed. IE ATA100 or ATA133

[jagabo]

A SATA controller card will give you better speed. Anything that converts IDE to SATA will be slower due to the IDE speed. IE ATA100 or ATA133

Of course, the PCI bus is limited to about 133 MB/s so it's hardly any better. And in most cases the drive itself will be the limiting factor.

[redwudz]

SATA 2 and SATA 3 are backwards compatible with the SATA 1 specification, so any of the SATA drives should work. There isn't much difference between SATA 1 and SATA 2 on most systems, especially older ones that don't have SATA on the motherboard.

I've used a couple of the Rosewill RC-210's and they work fine with my systems.

eSATA uses a different cable, or you can get a eSATA to SATA cable adapter if you use a bare drive. You just need a power source for external drives.

[alegator]

Thanks for the replies. One more thing. If I use the SATA internal hard drive as 2nd hard drive, with the IDE hard drive being the main OS boot drive, how should the main drive jumpers be set? I currently use cable select for both IDE drives, but knowing that SATA drives don't have jumpers, then that leaves only the main IDE drive to be configured.

[DB83]

Thanks for the replies. One more thing. If I use the SATA internal hard drive as 2nd hard drive, with the IDE hard drive being the main OS boot drive, how should the main drive jumpers be set? I currently use cable select for both IDE drives, but knowing that SATA drives don't have jumpers, then that leaves only the main IDE drive to be configured.

The documentation for this adapter clearly states that any drive connected to it must be considered as a 'Master'. And, as you rightly say, a SATA drive does not have any jumpers so any SATA drive is it's own master.

If you plan to try and use both drives of one cable then the other IDE will have to be 'jumpered' as a slave. But I suspect that this will not work as, again, the documentation says 'One drive'

To use the other IDE drive you will have to connect that to the second IDE port on your mainboard and if that already has two IDE drives(CD/DVD) connected to it then you are fooked.

As has already been said, the best option to use SATA drives in a non-sata system is a PCI adapter.

The other option is an external hard-drive.

[alegator]

Thanks for the replies. One more thing. If I use the SATA internal hard drive as 2nd hard drive, with the IDE hard drive being the main OS boot drive, how should the main drive jumpers be set? I currently use cable select for both IDE drives, but knowing that SATA drives don't have jumpers, then that leaves only the main IDE drive to be configured.

The documentation for this adapter clearly states that any drive connected to it must be considered as a 'Master'. And, as you rightly say, a SATA drive does not have any jumpers so any SATA drive is it's own master.

If you plan to try and use both drives of one cable then the other IDE will have to be 'jumpered' as a slave. But I suspect that this will not work as, again, the documentation says 'One drive'

To use the other IDE drive you will have to connect that to the second IDE port on your mainboard and if that already has two IDE drives(CD/DVD) connected to it then you are fooked.

As has already been said, the best option to use SATA drives in a non-sata system is a PCI adapter.

The other option is an external hard-drive.

If I understand what you say, then it means that:
1) I can only use the SATA drive as the main boot (master) drive, which means I will have to somehow clone my current IDE OS drive to the SATA drive to avoid having to reinstall WinXP+Programs+data in the new SATA drive.
2) To use an IDE drive as 2nd drive I will have to connect it to the 2nd IDE port (there's one available, as I only have one CD drive connected), but this is not recommendable (it slows the IDE drive to the DVD drive speed).
3) Only one SATA internal drive can be installed (one single SATA port).
CONCLUSION: The limitations above described make this solution undesirable. My idea was to be able to expand the capabilities of my PC to be able to use SATA drives IN ADDITION to my current IDE drives, for the main reason that IDE drives are becoming extinct. But I see that this card does not allow for this.

[budz]

you can always go into the mobo bios and set the IDE drive to boot up first....thus the SATA hard drive will not boot up first....yes you could clone the ide hd you have now to the new sata hd...by using free software.

[redwudz]

alegator, not sure what you mean. A SATA PCI card will operate independently of your PATA (IDE) drives. All SATA drives are masters, but that doesn't have anything to do with IDE drives. I have several computers with PATA boot drives and a PCI SATA card and there are no conflicts. One PC has a PATA boot drive and two SATA PCI cards and four SATA drives and it works fine.

If you were to use a IDE>SATA hard drive adapter, then not sure, though it may have to be set as master. Another reason not to mess with one.

The only problem you may run into with a SATA PCI card is using it for a SATA boot drive. Some OSs need to have a driver installed first to be able to boot from a PCI card SATA drive. But using it for regular data drives should not give you any problems and no drivers are needed most times.

[bevills1]

I got the PCI adapter at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124020&cm_re=syba_pci_sata-_-...-020-_-Product which has 4 internal SATA connections and works well on an old Dell 4550 desktop WinXP system. I did have to install drivers to be able to boot to SATA drive using this adapter as redwudz suggests might be necessary.

[TaranScorp]

Just out of curiosity, what would the max burst speed be with a Sata-3 HD on a
Sata pci card. 33mhz pci bus.

[alegator]

you can always go into the mobo bios and set the IDE drive to boot up first....thus the SATA hard drive will not boot up first....yes you could clone the ide hd you have now to the new sata hd...by using free software.

Unfortunately my BIOS does not offer the option to select which hard drive to boot from, it only gives the option to boot from either the main master drive or the CD/DVD drive.

alegator, not sure what you mean. A SATA PCI card will operate independently of your PATA (IDE) drives. All SATA drives are masters, but that doesn't have anything to do with IDE drives. I have several computers with PATA boot drives and a PCI SATA card and there are no conflicts. One PC has a PATA boot drive and two SATA PCI cards and four SATA drives and it works fine.

If you were to use a IDE>SATA hard drive adapter, then not sure, though it may have to be set as master. Another reason not to mess with one.

The only problem you may run into with a SATA PCI card is using it for a SATA boot drive. Some OSs need to have a driver installed first to be able to boot from a PCI card SATA drive. But using it for regular data drives should not give you any problems and no drivers are needed most times.

redwudz, I understood from DB83's post that since the SATA drive would behave as MASTER then the IDE drive would be treated as SLAVE and therefore the PC would boot from the SATA drive, not the IDE drive, but you seem to say that this is not the case, that you can have both the IDE and SATA drive connected and have the PC boot from the IDE drive.
So here goes the question and lets see if we can clarify this:
- The OS IDE drive is connected to the primary IDE controller on the mobo.
- The SATA drive is connected to the PCI SATA adapter card.
With the above configuration, if I power on the PC, will the PC boot from the IDE drive, treating the SATA drive as 2nd internal drive (data drive)?

I got the PCI adapter at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124020&cm_re=syba_pci_sata-_-...-020-_-Product which has 4 internal SATA connections and works well on an old Dell 4550 desktop WinXP system. I did have to install drivers to be able to boot to SATA drive using this adapter as redwudz suggests might be necessary.

Cool that the card enables using more than one SATA drive. It'd would be even better a card like that with an additional eSATA connector for external drives, as the one I posted earlier in the thread.I'd also think that using 4 drives would mean having to upgrade the PSU to a higher wattage one.