Serial ATA IDE adapter issue 1

[kmmcdanie]

Hello,

I have a new Dell 8400 and it came installed with a Serial ATA hard drive. I have a WD IDE 80GB drive that I want to use as the second drive in this computer. I did not like the idea of piggy-backing it with the optical drives and I did not want to take up a slot with an adapter card so I bought an IDE to Serial ATA adapter. This is the item I bought if it is important:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812107112

I formatted and made active the WD drive using XP disk manager on another Dell I have with an IDE setup. I went into setup on the new Dell and made sure to activate sata 1 which is off by default. Here is my dilemma:

When the new Dell boots it tells me that SATA Drive 1 is not recognized however when I continued booting XP found the new hardware and installed it. The drive shows in "my computer" and in disk manager is shows as healthy and active. But every time I boot the computer beeps and warns me that the drive is not recognized by the bios. When I go into setup it indeed says the drive is unknown. I did not even realize that XP could recognize a drive that was not recognized by the bios.

What is amiss here?

Thanks!
Kathleen

 

[garebo]

I know that when you install a sata hard drive you first have to install the sata drivers before you even install windows.
I wonder if you have to do that all over again with a second sata drive? If so then that could be the issue, could be windows wants you to install the drivers again so they will be listed for that new drive you have installed.
Im just guessing really as i havent installed sata on my ide\sata mobo yet, trying to learn from you guys first, lol.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[BaudKarma]

No, he's got the opposite problem. In this instance his mobo/bios isn't recognizing the drive, but once XP boots the drive appears to be installed and operating normally.

My guess is that when the mobo doesn't see a SATA drive that it recognizes, it gives you the warning and then drops to some default level of SATA support. Then your adaptor hooks into that default level and puts your IDE drive online.



I try not to let my ignorance prevent me from offering a strong opinion.

 

[kmmcdanie]

Hi,

Thanks for the input but I'm having more strangeness. As I said Windows recognized the drive and installed it but the drive disappears after a bit and is inaccessible. I have another 40GB Maxtor drive and that one worked fine when attached to the adapter. Both the bios and Windows found it with no troubles.

I can't imagine what would be the difference between one drive and the other. Of course it does not recognize the drive I need!

Very frustrating.
Kathleen

 

[garebo]

There may be a reason, if you have to set the ide drives as master, western digital is one of the weirdest drives as far as jumpers. So check the jumper situation by going to western digital website and possibly even experiment a bit as there are different master settings.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[LloydSev]

So this hard drive is plugged into the motherboard SATA controller? Or is it plugged into a PCI SATA controller?

Computer/Network Technician
CCNA

 

[mainegeek]

kmmcdanie,

Jumper the WD IDE drive as Master.

 

[kmmcdanie]

Hi,

Thanks but I tried it as master & cable select and it did not help. To answer LloydSev, the drive is plugged into the ide to sata converter and that is connected to the mobo. There is no pci card.

I will check WD site and see if there is some weird jumper setting that might help.

Kathleen

 

[mainegeek]

Try it without the jumper.

 

[garebo]

Thats exactly what i was getting at, there are a few ways to go about it with western digital drives, one way is without the jumper at all.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[kmmcdanie]

I'm dreading opening the case for the umpteenth time <grin> but I will try that today. I also intend to check out WD's site.

I will let you know if it worked.

Thanks!
Kathleen

 

[kmmcdanie]

DAGNABIT if that didn't do it! I took off the jumper and it sailed right on through.

UGH! Simple solution.

Thank you mainegeek!

Kathleen