New Sata Drive, problems with hookups Options

[JDawg117]

The 160 GB hd on my computer is maxed out so I am ordering a new one. It has a SATA connection. The problem is there are only 2 sata ports on my motherboard. One has a cable that goes to the current hdd. the other goes to the dvd drive. on the old IDE drive cables there were two plugs - master and slave - one went to the primary drive that ad your OS the other went to a secondary backup drive. The sata cables in my computer each only have one connection so there is no place to plug in a second hdd. I need a sata cable that has 2 connections. There are also two IDE connections on my mobo. is there an adapter I can get? Any suggestions?

[CJLee89]

SATA can only have one connection per data cable. There is not master or secondary plugs with SATA.

You can try something like this IDE-to-SATA adaptor.

This post has been edited by CJLee89: Nov 30 2008, 06:14 PM

[RiceCake]

There are port multipliers that let you hook a couple of drives to 1 SATA port.
But, they're ridiculously expensive for what they are.

Cheapest fixes are to get an IDE-SATA adapter, or just buy a PCI addon card with SATA ports.
Shouldn't cost more than $25 bucks...

[JDawg117]

I ended up buying a new ide dvd drive (the old one was a piece of junk anyways) and using the sata cable for the new hard drive. Now I am having problems getting my computer to recognize the new drives.

The computer boots windows from the old 160 gb drive. when I go into "my computer" it lists the stock 160 hdd (wich is partitioned into 2 80gb drives) and a bunch of usb ports but it doesn't show the new dvd drive or the new hdd. I think I hooked up the power and data cables correctly. I know the dvd drive has power because I can open and close it but it won't read a disc. There is enogh power to support the drives (I just got a new 500watt thermaltake power source) What should I do?

I have:
Hitachi 1TB sata HDD model number: HDS721010KLA330
(I ordered the HDD from tigerdirect but I can't find the same model anymore.) I think this is the 750GB version of the drive)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...&CatId=2459
LG 22X DVD+-R DL IDE Model number GH22NP20
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductRevie...N82E16827136144

This post has been edited by JDawg117: Dec 6 2008, 06:42 AM

[hamwbone]

are they activated in in your disk management tree inside the computer management program - its in administrative tools

[JDawg117]

Thanks for the advice. I got the computer to detect the drive under disc management. It showed up as 931.51 GB unallocated space. I set the whole disc as 1 partition. Now it has to format - it looks like this may take several hours to do so unless it starts formatting a lot faster.

Now theres the DVD burner. It came with a software pacage - nero express, power dvd, ect. there were probably some drivers on there. When the computer finishes formatting the hdd I'll hook up the old dvd drive and see if there were any drivers on the cd.
Before I set up the new hdd in computer management, I checked cmos and the drive showed up under sata devices, it just hadn't been recognised by windows and formatted. When I checked under ide devices, the dvd burner didn't even show up at all. Is that driver problem where the bios won't even detect the drive? Or is there something else?

HDD
DVD

[CJLee89]

Thanks for the advice. I got the computer to detect the drive under disc management. It showed up as 931.51 GB unallocated space. I set the whole disc as 1 partition. Now it has to format - it looks like this may take several hours to do so unless it starts formatting a lot faster.

Now theres the DVD burner. It came with a software pacage - nero express, power dvd, ect. there were probably some drivers on there. When the computer finishes formatting the hdd I'll hook up the old dvd drive and see if there were any drivers on the cd.
Before I set up the new hdd in computer management, I checked cmos and the drive showed up under sata devices, it just hadn't been recognised by windows and formatted. When I checked under ide devices, the dvd burner didn't even show up at all. Is that driver problem where the bios won't even detect the drive? Or is there something else?

HDD
DVD

Make sure the jumper settings are correct on the DVD drive, if its PATA (IDE).

[JDawg117]

I triedall 3 settings - master, slave, and cable select - it stil wont detect it. I went into BIOS settings and found a menu called integrated prehiperals - it lists all 4 ide ports (primary master & slave, secondary master & slave) and it says you can change the operation mode - they are all listed as "auto" but you can click and select "auto", "mode0", "mode1", "mode2", "mode3", "mode4"
will any of these work?

[hamwbone]

might sound silly but did you try moving the drive to the other cable port and trying both master and slave parts of the ribbon?

This post has been edited by hamwbone: Dec 10 2008, 07:13 AM

[JDawg117]

there is only one ide cable port on my mobo. there is a smaller one for a floppy drive, but it won't fit the cable for the dvd drive. I tried both master and slave ports. I tried master and cable select jumpe settings on the master port. I tried slave on the slave port. I even tried a different cable. Nothing worked.

[ILLusions0fGrander]

shoulda just went with the PCI Sata controller card - good luck getting it sorted...

what kind of machine only has one IDE controller?

[JDawg117]

what kind of machine only has one IDE controller?

An Acer Aspire (definately not something I'd aspire to if I built computers) I bought it on black friday last year for $250 (The stupid monitor it came with is probably worth that much)
There are only 2 RAM ports and it came with a 250watt powersource and it only has 2 sata ports. It definately wasn't built with upgrading in mind.
I'd bet the guys at the factory probably figured they could cut costs by making it with a non-functional ide port because they figured nobody would bother upgrading their lousy system anyway.
I'll bet whoever it was is out there laughing at me right now.

Despite all that, I've turned it into a decent system
3.00Ghz PD dual core processor (came with the computer)
2GB OCZ RAM (tigerdirect)
500watt power source (tiger)
160GB hdd (came with system)
since the new LG dvd drive decided to be a gay pirate hooker, I have the original dvd drive hooked up and the 1TB hitachi disconected

Don't worry about the drive. It has a 30 day return policy for refund or store credit (doesn't matter, I'll buy an sata controller from them).

Unless anyone can offer any other suggstions.

Actually i just got a message from windows saying it wants to install Vista service pack 1 (it said something about supporting new hadware, so maybe it will work)

[lostboyz]

shoulda just went with the PCI Sata controller card - good luck getting it sorted...

what kind of machine only has one IDE controller?

my new gigabyte board did, but it has 4 sata ports. Other than optical drives no one really uses ide anymore

[JDawg117]

The drive still doesn't work. I tried an old dvd drive from a different computer and that didn't work either. I guess my computer has a broken IDE port. Thanks a lot, Acer.

Is there anyplace I can get cheap/ free hdd cloning software? Both of my drives are hitachi. My friend suggested I check wetern digital's website for a free download, but I didn't find anything. any suggestions?