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using eide hard disc in sata computer

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by brian

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I have an EIDE HD from an old computer that I want to use in my new computer that has an SATA drive. is there a simple cable i can use or can i plug it into one of the free 40 pin coming off of the other cd drive?
thanks!

5 replies

by dedlbug

You can always use the one that the Cd-rom is attached to. The 40-pin is an older (slower) cable. Maybe you have an 80-pin lying around. You can swap the 40-pin cable out and use the 80-pin for the cd-rom and Hard drive.

Just check the jumpers on the cd-drive and Hard drive. Cable Select on both should work.

by oh smeg

That the IDE Drive on all M'Boards will become the Default Drive and the system will no longer boot as the necessary files will not be present on the IDE Drive.

You can perform a Repair Install after fitting the IDE Drive to make the system work again but this will lose you all of the Service Packs & Patches that have been applied since your OS was originally installed.

Generally Speaking it's easier to use the IDE Drive in a USB Caddy but remember that these are not an [b]Always On[/b] thing and should only be run as required.

The other thing is that the IDE Lead is either a 40 or 80 way Cable not Pins as both the IDE interfaces only have 40 pins or more likely 39 Pins.

Col

by dedlbug

I had no idea that the IDE would be the default drive if both a SATA and IDE were installed together. There is no way to change that in the BIOS? Is there some technical reason to this or maybe motherboard manufacturers will be able to add the ability to decide if SATA is primary over IDE?

Good clarification too on the 40 or 80 way cables. I knew that, but some reason I didn't think of it in that way. (does that make sense?) Thanks.

by oh smeg

Currently there is no way around the issue of having the IDE Drive as the default drive and to be quite honest with the cheap SATA Drives available now I can not see any reason why the M'Board makers would need to change this either. Particularly as Seagate is dropping out of the IDE Drive market by the end of the year or there abouts.

Cheers

Col

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