How do you connect two SATA hard drives but not as Raid?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
T

tajv2005

Distinguished
Feb 4, 2011
11
0
18,510
I am totally confused:
I tried (and returned) a two-way SATA/EIDE adapter.
Set on my EIDE boot drive, it seemed to make the PC much faster in ordinary internet browsing/surfing. But I like to use two hard drives: one for the system disc and one for storage.
I oculd not get the second drive to be recognized by the PC.
ASUS M2N58-AM PLUS Motherboard with only one EIDE connection and 5 SATA connections.
AMD Sempron 300+ CPU socket AM2 1.6 gigs.
Windows X Pro SP3.
So, the question remains: how do I use SATA and EIDE together without raid because raid-0 puts 1/2 of the file on each HDD and raid-1 is for mirroring.
The only value I see in mirroring for me is that I could put the OS and all my programs, like anti-virus, CD/DVD burning, etc. on two hard drives thus protecting myself from having to lose all of that if I get a problem.

And can I use two SATA hard drives the same way I use two EIDE hard drives?
Thank you!
 
Solution
deerhound
The stock jumper position, probably set for cable select, or set to master on the PATA drive should work out OK. You will still need to set in the bios, which drive you want to use as a boot drive. The MB bios should detect both drives and list them, probably on the first page.

Dale
Sort by date Sort by votes
jaquith

jaquith

Glorious
Feb 8, 2009
14,235
27
49,290
Welcome to Tom's Forums! :)

After reading I am a little confused on what you are asking by "how do I use SATA and EIDE together without raid"? You can use back-up software to periodically back-up the IDE HDD -> SATA HDD. You cannot RAID across controller types anyway.

I am not familiar with your MOBO, do you mean ASUS M2N68-AM PLUS? ref http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=N9gfnjYUinlROPLf only the SATA ports support RAID.

To answer your second question, yes you can use two matching SATA drives the same as IDE + SATA, but better: faster, more reliable, and in RAID.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
T

tajv2005

Distinguished
Feb 4, 2011
11
0
18,510
Thank you for responding. Yes I made a typo. It is asus m2n68-am plus like you said.
I am asking can I use two SATA HDD's without using raid. I do not see any value for me in using RAID. In my computer, with two EIDE HDD's, one hard drive is for the OS; the other is for my data I want to save. I back that up with CD's or DVD's.

I see how my question is unclear:
Last week I tried an adapter that allowed me to connect my EIDE hard drive to a SATA port on the MOBO. But I could not get the PC to recognise the other hard drive which was connected to the EIDE port on the MOBO. Is it possible or not to have this configuration?
Thank you.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
T

tajv2005

Distinguished
Feb 4, 2011
11
0
18,510
Maybe it is still not clear. I like having two hard drives and I am familiar with the EIDE jumpers and master/slave configuration and do not want to lose that. But with SATA becoming the standard, someday I won't be able to have EIDE hard drives and I want to know If I can still have the same system in SATA and without using a RAID configuration because I do not see any value for me in using RAID.
And the adapter I used was returned to the store. It was an experiment.
Maybe I did not know how to set the BIOS and I used every jumper configuration I know of. Nothing made the second hard drive in EIDE show up.
Thank you
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
deerhound

deerhound

Distinguished
Jan 12, 2009
44
0
18,560
No problem. When you have 2 or more SATA drives just connect them to the SATA ports on your board. Your machine will recognize 2 separate drives, unless you set your bios to raid and go into the raid bios and set up a raid. It's easier than EIDE, because there are no jumpers or slaves or masters. You pick which SATA drive you wish to boot from in the bios.

Dale
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
T

tajv2005

Distinguished
Feb 4, 2011
11
0
18,510
deerhound:
Beautiful! Just what I wanted to know about using SATA drives.
But what about onePATA and one SATA?
Will the BIOS recognize both? Do I have to use a jumper for the EIDE drive? Do I have to change something in the BIOS in order to get it to see both drives?
Thank you!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
deerhound

deerhound

Distinguished
Jan 12, 2009
44
0
18,560
The stock jumper position, probably set for cable select, or set to master on the PATA drive should work out OK. You will still need to set in the bios, which drive you want to use as a boot drive. The MB bios should detect both drives and list them, probably on the first page.

Dale
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
jaquith

jaquith

Glorious
Feb 8, 2009
14,235
27
49,290
For some reason I didn't get notified of a response?

To add to this a little, the Master/Slave jumpers only pertain if there are 2 or more IDE HDD or ODD, and in a (1) SATA & (1) IDE leave the IDE as Master. If having (2) IDE then (1)IDE = Master and the (2)IDE = Slave -- jumpers. SATA this does not apply.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
T

tajv2005

Distinguished
Feb 4, 2011
11
0
18,510
Ok thank you both. I went and got the same adapter I tried last week and returned. Now the PC is working fine, recognizing both hard drives and booting quickly and probably surfing the internet more quickly.
I followed your instructions about jumpers and everything is fine. Thank you both !
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
jaquith

jaquith

Glorious
Feb 8, 2009
14,235
27
49,290
I've see a ton of posts with people using those type 'adapters' and none of them seem to work properly. So spending $20~25$ on an OLD HDD makes little sense to me.

Yeah, I read the info -> http://www.sybausa.com/productInfo.php?iid=373 but at best I would only trust it enough to pull my data over to a new HDD; best option is to connected the old->new PC and transfer the data. I recall the capacity limitations {~250GB cap; off the top of my head}.

The IDE PCI Card is the better option... link-> http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&Description=ide%20pci%20card&bop=And&Order=RATING&PageSize=100
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
T

tajv2005

Distinguished
Feb 4, 2011
11
0
18,510
Ok thanks. I have a friend who runs a computer store and she says the same kind of thing:"we've had bad luck with those...get a PCI type". I can return it. I also asked SYBA about the one I have this weekend.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

SmartKid_01

Honorable
Nov 25, 2012
5
0
10,510
Hello, Im using two hard drives i connected the other one recently and when i switch on the pc it takes about 20 mins to switch on and about 5 mins to open any process what may be the problem.
ps: the second hard drive m using it for storing my documents and all the hard drives are sata
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

SmartKid_01

Honorable
Nov 25, 2012
5
0
10,510
Hello, Im using two hard drives i connected the other one recently and when i switch on the pc it takes about 20 mins to switch on and about 5 mins to open any process what may be the problem.
ps: the second hard drive m using it for storing my documents and all the hard drives are sata
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

SmartKid_01

Honorable
Nov 25, 2012
5
0
10,510
Hello, Im using two hard drives i connected the other one recently and when i switch on the pc it takes about 20 mins to switch on and about 5 mins to open any process what may be the problem.
ps: the second hard drive m using it for storing my documents and all the hard drives are sata
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom