SATA not compatible with IDE Mobo

[mike9]

In my frustration from putting up with a semi-crashed hard drive (system will freeze every few minutes for several minutes at a time - virus check and similar software cannot read from disk - otherwise everything else works fine) I hastily bought an SATA HD, but opened my system and found it's only IDE compatible. I'm wondering if it's cheaper, and a better idea, to buy an adapter to connect the drive to the mobo or if I should just return the drive and get a PATA drive.

Now when I said my mobo is only IDE compatible I mean that my current HD is hooked up with an IDE cable. I have no idea if the mobo could actually support SATA with an adapter. I'm just assuming it isn't based on the plug-ends.

Any and all help is appreciated as I very well may have shot myself in the foot with this one...

 

[rvnguy]

mike9,

Can you provide some detail:

MOBO mfg, mdl
OS type ver & patches

If your problem is a failing HD or some type of intrusion i.e. virus, adware, worm or otherwise, the type of dirve in this case SATA will not prevent this from occuring again.

If your mobo does not have SATA capability on board there will be some additional cost to obtain a card to support SATA.

If possible, an exchange for a PATA(IDE) drive might be your most economical solution.

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[mike9]

Hey, thanks for the quick reply.

Intel P4 2Ghz 256 MB RAM
Windows XP SP2
IBM Rev 1.2 Motherboard

I doubt the problem is software or virus-related as I was running Panda Antivirus and PeerGuardian at the time, with Firewall protection, and I regularly updated and cleaned my system with Spyware Blaster, Spybot Seek and Destroy, Ad-Aware and Microsoft spyware remover. The system is about 2 years old now and I figure the HD it came with just gave up the ghost. Although it was definitely strange that there was no strange noises or anything. I gave the HD a shake and there's no loose pieces. I cleaned off the dust and everything. No luck. I changed the virtual memory settings and all of that just in case, but no luck.

One very strange thing is that I can run Scandisk and Disk Defragmenter just fine, but any virus or spyware-related program times out trying to access the disk. Again, any help is appreciated. I need to move to a larger HD anyway, but I just thought I'd put this out there in case anyone else had ever experienced a similar problem.

Thanks.

 

[wolluf]

You should be able to find your motherboard's manual on the manufacturer's website to tell you if its SATA capable (though if you can't see any SATA connectors.....)

Have you tried running a memory check (eg, memtest) - your symptoms sound like bad RAM rather than bad drive.

 

[Frank4d]

Assuming your MOBO is not SATA compatible, you could buy a PCI SATA controller card. But you might do better to return the SATA drive and exchange it for a PATA IDE drive if the vendor will do an even exchange.

 

[rvnguy]

mike9,

Thanks for the information.
Do you know the actual IBM board model designation?
Does the Rev 1.2 refer to the mobo or the BIOS Version?

As you state that this about 2 years old, it depends if it was a new release board at that time or a board that was at the end of a cycle. This is close to the point when many mobo's came with on board SATA controllers.

This may be all moot if you find that you can exchange the SATA for a PATA drive.

You might at this point, attempt a clean install, performing a full format (not the quick version) before you kiss this drive goodbye. This should not be a great hinderance, as if you do end up installing a new drive, I would suggest that you NOT attempt to clone the present OS installation. If there is any problem lurking in it, all you will do is transfer the problem to a new drive.

Hope This Helps

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[theotherRich]

If spyware and viurus software timing out, then that is your problme.
Try online virus scanner: housecall.trendmicro.com

 

[mike9]

Thanks for the tips everybody. I tried MemTest and the on-line virus scan to no avail - neither found any problems. If anyone has any other ideas I'd be glad to try them.

I searched the IBM site for the motherboard make and model, but didn't turn up anything. The board has 'IBM Rev 1.2' printed on the middle in big lettering, and a small label had the product code and replacement part number on it, but oddly enough they don't get any hits when I search for them on the IBM page. Here is what was on the label:

'LBL PN 32P2992
FRU PN 49P1599'

I think paying the 15% restocking fee and shipping costs to get a PATA drive would be the more economical and efficient solution so I'm going to ship the drive back tomorrow.

Thanks again.

 

[G0AOZ]

I'm not yet convinced this is a hard disk problem... Can you run any of the antivirus or spyware programmes in Safe Mode? Any error messages in event viewer?

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[mike9]

No, the programs won't run in safe mode either. The hard drive just spins and progress stays at 0% as long as I let it run.

Strangely enough, when I press ctrl+alt+del instead of the program manager coming up all I get is a box with a 'CPU Usage' meter on the left and a 'CPU Usage History' line graph on the right. Prior to this problem the Program Manager would come up like it is supposed to.