Computer doesnt see cd rom drive

[dreamer62]

Hello,
I have a new disc drive, CDR/W, that I need to install. It's an IDE but I don't have an extra IDE slot to plug into so I got an IDE/SATA adapter. This is my second adapter I've bought.

I know the drive works as I unplugged my seconday (storage) hard drive and plugged the disc drive in - it worked fine.

However when I install it with the adapter and restart the computer doesn't "see" the drive. It might as well not be plugged in. Nothing shows in the device manager. The adapter didn't come with a disk so if a driver is needed I have no idea what to look for.

I've tried a new SATA cable and different configuration - tried the adapter on the hard drive too - but nothing seems to help.

Can someone please help me?!

 

[compulsivebuilder]

Why did you buy an IDE drive?

You should have bought a SATA drive - then you wouldn't have to buy an adapter. SATA DVD writers (which will happily read and write CDs, too) are now around $20 (from newegg) - I have trouble believing that you saved much by buying an IDE CD writer.

You should only buy IDE parts if you are plugging them into an old machine that only has IDE ports.

BTW: how many IDE drives do you have in this machine? Given that a single IDE port will support two drives, and you have used an IDE/SATA adapter already, that suggests this is the fourth IDE drive you have put into the machine - that's kinda excessive.

 

[dreamer62]

My motherboard supports both IDE and SATA; however, I wasn't aware at the time that the motherboard did not have 2 IDE ports or I would have gotten a SATA device. I have one IDE port and two hard drives. One for operating and one for storage. Plus the second CDROM drive. Three IDE devices.

"Given that a single IDE port will support two drives, and you have used an IDE/SATA adapter already, that suggests this is the fourth IDE drive you have put into the machine - that's kinda excessive." --- how do you figure 4 IDE devices?
When I said second adapter I bought that is what I meant - bought. Neither adapter seems to work - or else I'm missing something.

PS - the attitude isn't necessary. Should haves and shouldn't haves won't help me now. I have a new drive and there should be a way to use it.

 

[compulsivebuilder]

I did a spot of research on IDE/SATA adapters, and apparently they work on hard drives, but not on optical drives (which require ATAPI support).

I suggest you return the IDE optical drive and get a SATA one. Return the adapters at the same time - they don't do the job you bought them for, so you are entitled to return them.

You might be able to use the adapter on one of your hard drives, freeing up an IDE port for the optical drive, but that would be suboptimal - mixing hard drives and optical drives on one IDE port is best avoided.

Saying you bought a new drive and you should be able to use it is like saying that you bought DDR3 RAM for your DDR2 motherboard, but there should be a way to use it. Wishing doesn't make it so

 

[dreamer62]

Thank you for your suggestion.

I, too, did some lengthy research before buying the adapter.

Rosewill RC-204
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812206002

Type : IDE to SATA

Specifications :
IDE Device to Serial ATA Device.
ALL EIDE Type DVD / DVD-RAM / CD-ROM / CD-RW / HDD Become New Serial ATA Devices.
Attaches this Mini Dangle board to the back of all types of ATAPI, ATA/133, ATA/100, ATA/66, ATA/33, EIDE and IDE storage devices (such as Hard Disk, DVD, DVD-RAM, CD-ROM, CD-RW, MO) and make them become new Serial ATA Devices and meet SATA standard.
OS Support: 100% hardware bridge converter to support PC (Windows98/SE/ME/2000/XP/ Vista), MAC OS 8.6~9.0 and Linux environment.

Features :
Can Attaches to any type of ATAPI, ATA/133/100/66/33, EIDE and IDE storage devices (DVD, DVD-RAM, MO, CD-ROM, CD-RW, Hard Disk)

Mini Board size (59mm x 25mm), No space wasted
Compliant with Serial ATA 1.0a specifications and High transfer rate of 1.5Gbps
Supports Spread Spectrum in receiver
Compliant with ATA specifications
Compatible with Ultra ATA 133
Automatically decode the ATAPI command to know the UDMA direction.
100% hardware bridge converter board to support PC, MAC and Linux environment


According to this it should work with my CDROM, an H-L Data Storage - CD-R/RW Drive, Model# GCE 8486B.

Unless of course I missed something.
Also, as I stated in my first post, I did try using the adapter with other drives and regardless of which drive it's attached to the computer doesn't "see" it. That is how I know the CD Drive does work. AND since this is the second one that's done this - unless I'm really unlucky and getting bad parts every time, I began to wonder if I was missing something; i.e. a driver or firmware, or some other changes or things that need to be done to make the connection work. Hence, my post here.

Oh... just remembered. When I first got the drive I installed it in my old computer (for a temporary drive to install OS on new (old) hard drive) and that hardware was unable to see the drive even though it was connected as it should be to an IDE cable. This made me think the drive may be bad so I tried it in my new computer again hooking it up via the IDE cable and it worked fine. Another oddity that got me to thinking I was missing something.

Thank you.

 

[pjmelect]

you must make sure that the CDROM link is set to master. if it is set to cable select or slave it will not work.