Source for DVD-R PATA Drives ?? where to get??

[nerys]

We have 8 machines with an array of dvd-r drives in them. we had a couple of failures so I went to trusty newegg to order some more and to my surprise not one single PATA drive except a slim laptop drive.

ALL SATA.

tigerdirect same thing. it appears they pretty much don't exist anymore.

SO question #1 where can I get some (cheap $20 to $30)

and #2 how do I use SATA. everyone seems to tell me you can't use sata cards for dvd drives. clearly this is incorrect since there are sata dvd drives.

what is a "cheap" sata card I can add to my machines (regular PCI please) That is reliable for optical drives and burning.

also what would I use to add say 8 sata drives to one machine.

thanks!

[aedipuss]

there are still a few ide/pata burners around. but since they're scarce they sell for $80-100.

you could try these sata->pata adapters, most reviewers seem to find they work.

http://www.amazon.com/Converter-Adapter-Covert-Interface-Motherboard/dp/B009SO7R0U/ref...words=pata+dvd

if you want 8 burners in a single machine look for disc duplicators.

[nerys]

can't use a duper as each drive will do something "different" I am ripping iso images to 8gb flash drives.

I also found those pata sata adapters. ordered 2 from amazon to get them fast then 6 more from china for $3 a pop.

ordered sata drives for $15 a pop from newegg.

[aedipuss]

it would be a rather large case to have 8 external 5.25 bays plus some internals for hard drives. i don't think i've ever seen one.
there are add in sata controllers that work with cd/dvd drives. this is an older one with 4 ports, but what you need depends on the motherboard slots available.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815280003

[nerys]

yep I know. 4 bay cases are pretty common and I used to have a mega tower with 8 drive bays (external 5.25) but if I have to put 4 internal and just lay 4 on top of the machines with sata cables snaking inside that is perfectly ok with me

even if 3 pata 4 sata and 1 usb would work. speed is not relevant just being able to hit "go" on 8 and walk away would be nice.

that one is a bit expensive but now "too" bad. (also seeking good sata cards so I can upgrade the existing systems) there is no logical reason to upgrade the computers to newer systems since 1.8 to 2.4 ghz single core machines are simply more than enough for what we are doing (ripping burning duplicating iso's)

we rip the dvd's and encode to auto play and auto repeat so we can just load the dvd drives and walk away.

now we are switching to digital (wd tv boxes) so simply rip the disc no compression to an iso on an 8gb flash drive. done. much faster this way no real "processing" is needed (99% of the films are not even encrypted)

if I could do 8 on a machine I would only need 5 machines to do "all" the films at once. even if it took a couple hours thats ok since we could just walk away at that point and let it "do its thing"

[aedipuss]

why not rip to a central nas(network attached storage)? then the files would be available anywhere on the network and safely stored.

[nic2k4]

also seeking good sata cards so I can upgrade the existing systems...

Any card with a SIL3114 chipset should do. Here's one

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=16-132-013&Tpk=N82E16816132013

[nerys]

ohh thats nice 6 ports. combined with the built in pata that would let me do 8 easily enough. ahh its 4 only. enabling the 2 ext esata ports disables 2 of the internal. still ok though.

as for a central nas. I WOULD LOVE TOO I even have most of what I would need to make this function. I have already tested and confirmed I can use an old 2ghz machine and conduct 10 simultaneous streams over base 100 network NO problem.

alas the most critical parts makes it unusable. How would the customers "interface" with this system? I have not figured that out yet. I was thinking maybe I could use WD.TV it would handle some of the interface issues but then I have to "give" the customers remotes which they will keep lose or destroy over time. Grrr

I had a prototype system going 10 years ago but the UI is what prevents it from being usable.

I was thinking a WEB based interface on a local intranet but there is simply no elegant way to switch between the web interface clicking to load a video and back to the interface again.

so for now we are stuck with the dedicated machines to perform this function. man a central nas would be great I instead of changing 39 films a week I could just "ADD" films anytime I wanted and eventually they could access thousands of films !

ALTHOUGH now that there are ANDROID based devices similar to WDTV functionality I may have to revisit this option. if I can find someone to write software for the UI.

[aedipuss]

not sure what you mean about the nas web interface. the ones i use come with it built in as a media server. like this, clicking one of the files opens a media player.

[nerys]

for a HOME interface sure that works great. especially if you have a clue how to actually interface with your computer.

NOW put that in a public space with nitwits accessing it and "see how well" it works out hehehe bet it won't last 10 minutes.

[zoobie]

I ordered a lens hood from china saying a 2 week delivery. It arrived 3 1/2 months later. Never again...

[nerys]

I order from china ALL the time. well well worth the savings. shipping is usually 3-5 weeks. 3.5 MONTHS means something got lost or went wrong. period. I have never had anything take that long unless it became lost.

if its critical then you don't order from china. you pay the premium price to get it more locally.

its why I ordered 2 from amazon at $4 a pop and 6 from china at 75 cents a pop or something like that. big big savings but you have to wait for it.

[nic2k4]

I order from china all the time as well, if things are late get in touch with them and they'll fix it. Once I ordered some power supplies with USB and 1 was defective, I told the guy and he sent me a replacement no quibble. The only times I got screwed was when I ordered from a guy in Virginia and another in Montana.

[[_chef_]]

I ordered a lens hood from china saying a 2 week delivery. It arrived 3 1/2 months later. Never again...

And its your own fault, simply said.

In most of all cases you can choose the shipment type, and that counts for shipping time, customs, insurance and shipping costs.

[nerys]

perfect example. all the pata sata adapters from china came in yesterday. that was pretty fast actually. so later this week will try em out and see what happens.

[bevills1]

The link to adapter in reply #7 shows it's discontinued, but there's 1 with same SIL3114 chipset that's in stock at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124020. FYI not all sata adapters work correctly with optical drives, but ones with SIL shipset do. Also I've read a number of posts that say the sata/pata adapters that connect directly to the drive seem to work only 1 way, i.e. they seem to work for connecting a PATA drive to a SATA motherboard but don't work to connect a SATA drive to a PATA motherboard.

[nerys]

ohhhh boy. I hope I got the right ones I need to use sata drives on systems that do NOT HAVE sata ports

[[_chef_]]

If you can trace for adapter cards which are not RAID featured.

[bevills1]

Some RAID cards can be flashed to IDE mode like the 1 in my reply #16 which I got and flashed to IDE mode. I went to the Silicon Image site and downloaded required flash including instructions to flash. There's a useful discussion of this including links on how to flash at http://club.myce.com/f7/silicon-image-based-sata-ide-controllers-flashable-not-252721/.

[nerys]

I finally got around to trying the SATA TO PATA adaptors. they DO work with optical drives but one big problem.

ONLY WITH ONE optical drive. soon as I connect a second drive neither shows up in windows at all as if they are not their at all.

idea's? EITHER one works alone but neither works together. I have a HUNCH its a master/slave issue ?? (no jumpers on the adapters)

suggestions?

[nic2k4]

Are you using an ATA100 (80 wire) cable?

[nerys]

I honestly don't know.

how do I know if its an 80 wire ? two pata drives worked fine on this cable if that helps.

[jagabo]

how do I know if its an 80 wire ?

Count the wires across the ribbon. There are only two types 40 and 80.

Scroll to nearly the bottom of the page and click on the image with both cable types side by side:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/printpage/Everything-you-Need-to-Know-About-ATA-66-ATA-...-Hard-Disks/45

Or:
http://showstopp3r.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_archive.html


Don't count at the connector -- both have 40 pins there.

[bevills1]

The PCI SATA card at the link in reply #16 should solve the problem if you don't resolve the issue with the adapters you have, and that card has 4 SATA ports.

[nerys]

agreed and I will go that route if I need too but I have a lot of PATA machines (9) and this would require 9x$25 cards PLUS the cables to attach the drives and the power adapters to convert the power connectors to the sata connection.

very very very expensive. in fact approaching the cost of just buying used sata computers! ouch. these adaptors are $2.50 a pop. $5 to convert each machine to accept sata drives. SO I want to try and go that route first

will pull the machine later on and check the cable for 40/80 wire.

[jagabo]

I finally got around to trying the SATA TO PATA adaptors. they DO work with optical drives but one big problem.

ONLY WITH ONE optical drive. soon as I connect a second drive neither shows up in windows at all as if they are not their at all.

If there's no switch on the adapter to set master or slave they're both trying to be the master drive.

[nerys]

First thing I checked. No. no switches dips or anything else alterable in anyway. (jagabo this is my assumption as well) is there anyway to make the motorboard treat it as cable select?

ie any other way to "set" master slave relationship?

[jagabo]

Maybe the adapter is set up for cable select but you're not using a cable select cable?

[nerys]

ohhhh good point! I think both ends of the cable were black and not the typical "blue black grey" of a CS cable.

OK checked. its definitely an 80wire ribbon.

but all 3 40pin connectors are BLACK. does this matte? are there difference 80wire cables some CS some not? how do I tell?

OK this cable is actually blue blakc grey (the TOPS of the cable is black and I did not look closely at the other side)

either way I found another cable 80wire blue black grey actually marked mainboard master slave



No joy nothing when I boot up. no detection nothing. Plug in just one and it works fine.

Here is the adapter

[nic2k4]

That would have been too easy, so the adapters are not cable select capable. Looking at your pictures, I believe the two holes marked LMS is where the master/slave jumper should have been. If you short them it should set the adapter as slave. The best way to do that would be to solder a short piece of wire to both holes or as a quick test, tie a strand of bare wire around the holes and make sure it doesn't touch anything else.