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OT- More computer horror..mixing hard drive types ?

Milacron

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Dec 15, 2000
Location
SC, USA
Got a new computer and was going to try and install my old troublesome hard drive in the new computer and transfer it's files to the new drive.

As it turns out the new computer has a new type (as of 2003) of hard drive that is a "serial" ATA drive. So instead of the usual 40 pin ribbon cable, it has a 7 "pin" (plug is similar to USB) cable. Plenty of extra connectors on the motherboard for more serial ATA drives, but nothing on there to receive an older drive like my parallel 40 pin type.....unless the IDE connector the DVD and CD are plugged to will work. Any ideas ? :confused:

For info on hard drive types-

www.cbacorp.com/index.htm#techtechidedrives.htm
 
You should be able to put the old hard drive on the IDE cable with one of the optical drives. The driver will revert to a speed which the slowest device supports. As long as it is for transferring files or spare storage, it probably won't be too much of a problem ... unless you're a speed demon :eek:
Den
 
As you suspect, you can borrow the IDE connector from the DVD or CD to temporarily connect your drive. Depending on how old the drive is you might have to set Master/Slave/CableSelect jumper. Easiest to just disconnect both the CD and DVD and hook up only the old drive on that IDE channel so you can ignore the drive jumper.
 
The drive will work on the channel being used for the CD. I suggest completely unplugging the CDs and just running the drive by itself. You may need to make a setting in the BIOS to ensure that serial ATA drive is the first boot device. If you do manage to get the old drive up and running do NOT turn the computer off or restart until you have saved as much as possible from the failing drive. The best bet is one I have used in the past. Connect the drive to an IDE channel together with a CD burner. Then set the computer to boot from CD. Then boot into Linux using a Knoppix boot CD. Knoppix has the ability to read any file system and also knows how to burn CDs. I once saved over 3 gigabytes of music for a local musician that way (his own work).
 
Don,

As the others suggested you should be able to plug in on one of the other IDE cables running your CD drive. If there's an extra connector along the cable plug in there, alternatively, you might need to disconnect your CD whilst unloading data from your old to new hard drive.
You may need to change jumper setting on your old hard drive to get it to run.
When starting the PC, you should be able to hit delete to enter the BIOS setup. Make sure the drive appears there.
If you're old drive is failing, you may still have some problems transfering the data. I had a similar problem and spend a long time transfering files one by one, as the system kept getting read errors when transfer whole directories.
In my big PC I'm currently running 8 hard drives- 4 SCSI drives, 2 IDE drives and 2 SATA drives. I'm also running a DVD burner off of the other IDE cable. Took some serious cable origami to fit everything in there.

Mike
 
If you want to use the drive in your new computer in addition to the CD and/or DVD drive, you can buy a ATI card for pretty cheap! I have one that I paid $10 for on Ebay that allows me to add 4 additional drives (2 IDE controllers). Doing this will allow you to use the CD and DVD drives but requires a little setup (BIOS).
One more note, if you find the drive doesn't work in the new machine, try looking for the same drive on Ebay then swap the controller board. Companies specializing in data recovery usually try this first. I recovered a Maxor drive by buying the same online and swaping the controller. Many times it's the op-amps for the drive motor or a temperature sensitive contact, etc that causes the failure. Good luck!
 








 
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