Resolved PATA to SATA connection

I purchased a new system with only SATA hard drive connections. I have a PATA drive that I would like to install in the system. It's 500GB and full of files that I would like to have on my new system. What is the best way to get the drive into the new system? Install a card or is there a cable that would do that? I want the drive running at it's best in the new system. As this is new for me, good brand name suggestions would help. I am running Windows 7 on the new system. Thanks for any suggestions!

Mike

 

Thanks for the links and suggestion. In your opinion, do you think an adapter/converter would be better then a controller card like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124001
I'm just not sure what would be the best route for the best performance.

Mike

 

I think a controller card is your best bet. Next would be the adapter. And an external USB enclosure your last option and least favorable option. A look at any of these type forums will reveal huge numbers of people with problems accessing external drives via USB.

Another option is an Ethernet NAS enclosure for IDE (PATA) drives. These Network Attached Storage devices attach to a spare Ethernet port on your router (if you have one - and all broadband users should, IMO). In this way, all users on your network could access the device.

 

Thanks all. I appreciate the feedback. I will get a controller card and hope for the best. Have a great Thanksgiving.

Mike

 

ASUS or ABIT makes a small converter plug that works like a champ. I don't recall which company it is but if you want to PM me with an address, I'll be glad to send you one gratis. I used to get them bundled with motherboards and have quite a few. Come to think of it, they are ABIT adapters.

Regards,

 

Arie,

Thanks for marking the thread resolved. Sorry I forgot to do that.

Rockster2U,

Thanks for the offer. Unfortunately, I ordered the card last night. It was only $18. If for some reason it doesn't work good, I'll take you up on your generous offer. I should know by the weekend.

Mike

 

Okay, I got the card last night and installed this morning. No go. The card installs just fine, but once I hook up the drive, the new system won't see it. Heck, sometimes it won't let me into Windows. I check Device Manager and the card has a yellow ? by it. After installing the card, I checked DM and it saw the card with no warning or problems. I tried hooking the drive up to the other connection on the card and that didn't help. I also checked BIOS to see if there was a setting and I didn't see anything. I also uninstalled the card and started over.

Before buying, I contacted the card manufacture directly asking if it was compatible with windows 7 and they said yes and sent a link to the Windows 7 drivers. As suggested by them, I also bought the non-raid card.

Any thoughts on getting this going? I did contact the company, but I'm not sure how long it will take them to respond. Thanks.

Mike

 

Ok, a little update. I have the drive connected and when I go into Disk Management, I see it listed. the problem is that it is listed as "not initialized ". My question is, can I initialize this disk without losing the data on it? The drive is my slave drive form my XP system and it is going into my Windows 7 system. What's the best way to do this? I can't afford to lose the data on that drive. Thanks.

Mike

 

I finally backed up all the data on my drive that I am trying to initialize in Windows 7. I right click on the drive, in Disk Management, and select initialize. I then get a pop up saying that "The device is not ready ". The disk is seen in BIOS and Disk Management, so the system knows it's there. What can I do to get this to work in Windows 7? Or is it even worth trying to get it to work? maybe I need to scrap the whole controller card idea and get a new SATA drive. It really shouldn't be this hard to get it working, should it?

Mike

 

Pete,

I have the drivers for Windows 7 installed. I received them directly from the company. No errors in Device Manager. I will try the format later. I need to get another problem solved first. Windows 7 is driving me crazy.

Mike

 

Yea, I'll probably post or read through some threads first. I need to get the hard drive figured out first then move on to other "quirks ". The upgrade to XP seemed to give me less headaches.

 

Okay, I finally got some time to reformat the drive. I put it in my XP system and formatted the drive. I then installed in my Windows 7 system by connecting on the controller card. I went into Disk Management and the drive is seen as unallocated and not initialized. I right click on the drive and select initialize. I select MBR as the aprtition style and hit OK. I then get a pop up box that states, "The device is not ready." If it's seen by the system and the drive is blank, why is it not ready? Any thoughts of getting this drive to the point of getting it initialized? The drive is shown in Device Manager as a SCSI Disk Device and there are no errors/warnings on the drive or the controller card. Is it hammer time?

Mike

 

I feel for you Mike, that was a lot of trouble. I use 2 enclosures with a variety of drives from 4 to 80 Gb and it as been nothing but "plug and play ". I must admit however that when it comes to booting to an USB, it does not always work (depending on the image), not sure exactly why yet.

Try a more advance partition app like:

Easeus Partition Master Home Edition 4.1.1

btw: About the PCI card, I wonder if this would let you add 4 more drives for a total of 8, or still limited to 4? (Literature doesn't clearly specify.) I realize that in order to add more drives you would need an extra Power Supply. Just curious. Looking at the reviews is not encouraging. Did some more digging and the $40 card gets good reviews.

 

Offer still stands. If only you knew someone at the Post Office you could probably have this before Christmas - hehehe. Will need an address if you want to try an alternative.

 

JCinvan,

Thanks for the link. I will take a look at it.


Rockster2U,

I will have a PM to you in a few minutes. Thanks again for the offer.


As a side note, I read that formatting in Disk Management doesn't always work so good. I am going to try and format with WD's software. Has anyone heard of any problems with Windows DM?

Mike