Trying To Get IDE to SATA Adapter Working :(

[Zobbie]

hi, first time poster here. hope i've posted this in the correct Forum section......

i am trying to get an IDE to SATA Adapter up and running. My mainboard is a very basic Albatron PM915-478 socket with one IDE interface connector and 2 red SATA ports.

my device setup at present is bootable XP hdd as master on the IDE cable and CD_ROM as slave on that cable. no problems.

i have a spare IDE hdd which i am trying to hook to the system, but with no more available IDE connectors on the mainbaord, i bought an IDE to SATA adapter and connected the SATA cable from the adapter to one of the red SATA ports on the mainboard. Booted up and the BIOS doesn't detect the IDE hdd with adapter attached and cable connected to the SATA port.

i have tried all diff jumper settings on the hdd, but no nothing. the little light on the adapter comes on when i power up so i assume the adapter is working. AND i haven't forgotten to attach a 4 pin molex connector to the hdd also to give IT power.

is there something i have to do/enable in BIOS to get this thing up and running ?? i have no idea on SATA related things (only IDE).

i am now thinking of ditching the adapter and getting an IDE PCI Controller Card for the spare PCI slot on the mainboard. But before doing that, anyone any ideas as to what i have to do to get the adapter setup working ?

thanks.

 

[DarthTengil]

Have you plugged in the big 12V white power connector into the front of the adapter? Think you have to do that and then somewhat plug the adapter to the IDE disc. Can be wrong but look if there is a slot for a 12V connector. It´s clear that your moderboard have contakt between the red SATA port and the drive but that no or wrong type of power cable is connected. In DOS; Hold down Delete when you reboot and dont stop holding down that buttom until a text messege like "Preparing setup to run before Windows load" is shown in the lower part of the screen. If that dont work just keep hitting Delete as a machinegun when reboot until the text is showing. When Setup BIOS have loaded up you have 2 columns of choises on the screen. Choose the seckond or third choise, integrated xxx or advanced settings. There you should find details of which IDE slot your system disc and CD-ROM is connected to and also other discs like SATA/IDE. Dont remember exactly but in there you maybe have to activate your SATA slots and configurate them, look for choises like SATA to IDE settings. In those menyes you also can choose which disc you whant for system disc, and you can also change the order booting shall have (ex. 1:FLOPPY 2:CDROM 3:HDD). Hope you can find it out! Do you have important backup files on that extra IDE disc like media files etc? If not, buy a new SATA 2 HDD insted! You can get a good 1TB disc for around $80-100 dollars that will work much faster than your old IDE HDD. An old IDE works in 100-133 MHz and does not transfer more than a few hundred Mb/s if a remember correctly, a SATA2 transfers 3Gb/s! Hope I dont messed this up for you with maybe wrong numbers with the IDE. Anyway: IDE is a caterpillar, SATA2 is a dragster!

/DT

 

[Zobbie]

thanks for your reply,
yes i have correctly physically installed the adapter to the hard drive >>>>>>> adapter onto hard drive, SATA cable onto adapter and then to mainboard SATA port, power lead to adapter connected, AND power lead to hard drive connected.

2 screens of my BIOS are shown in the pictures below. My bootable XP IDE hdd and IDE DVD drive on the IDE flat wide ribbon cable are shown in the first picture as IDE Channel 0 Master and IDE Channel 0 Slave. The other hard drive with the adapter attached is not shown as being detected.........

maybe i should just get a PCI Controller Card instead and attach the spare IDE hard drive to that........

cheers



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[roonj]

Looking at your bios screens you've posted on the last item of the last page displayed (ON-chip Serial ATA Enhanced mode). Is this just for determining Sata version 1 or Sata version 2? I'm wondering if you don't need to enter that setting and configure for Sata in Ide mode and version 1 or just not usng enhanced mode as well. I don't have one of those converters to tell you but that's where I would be looking.
Also I'm alittle confused by the little light, I thought the interface was was little more that a pinout reassignment with a small IC chip.
Most of the units I've heard about requiring this additional power hook up ran through the USB port.
What brand is the unit you mention if possible.

 

[pat]

SATAII(enhenced mode) don't work with adaptor. I've tried a few and I always had to set the to IDE (compatible, PATA,..) mode.