Dimension 4700, installing 2nd SATA, BIOS/boot problems

Question

I have a 4700 that's about a year old. I have a 160GB IDE drive that I want to put in, but both parallel connectors are taken by optical drives, so I bought an IDE-SATA converter card and hooked it up that way to the Drive 1 SATA slot on the mb. Both SATA connections are on in the BIOS, but here's where it goes wrong.

The new drive doesn't show up in the BIOS. If I try to boot anyway, I get a "Drive 1 not found" error, F1 to bypass F2 to setup. F1 yields a "No boot device found" error.

If I unplug the new drive but leave the connection on in the BIOS, I get the first error, but can bypass to boot successfully.

The new drive doesn't show up, regardless of which connection it's plugged in to. To test the converter, I unplugged an optical drive and used the IDE connection. Still didn't show up. The errors were slightly different, but the result was the same -- "can't find it" error followed by "can't boot" error.

Just for reference, the new drive is jumpered to slave. I've never used one of these converters before, so I don't know if that's at all relevent.

Everything I've read on these forums indicates that the BIOS should just see the new drive, and I should be able to fiddle with it in the XP disk manager. Am I missing something? If the drive were simply dead, would it still be interfering with booting the way this is?

Thanks for any suggestions!

shesagordie · Answer

myrddins.

Did you check the BIOS setup, that the drive is set to "Auto" [enabled].
Try setting the hard drive's jumpers to master. Regards to the hard drive not showing up on the optical drive connector, Dell uses "Cable Select" jumper setting for their IDE drives.

What is the make of the convertor?

Bev.

myrddins · Answer

Hi Bev,

Yes, both SATA and both PATA connections are set to "on" in the BIOS. I believe the drive was jumpered to master the first time I tried plugging it in, but I can always try again to verify that. And thanks for the note about CS, I hadn't thought of that. I'll do that test when I get back to the machine, just to make sure the converter isn't the problem.

And on that note, the converter I bought is this one:
http://cpustuff.com/estore/product.php?productid=4&cat=252&page=1

I did notice that it's SATA-1. Do you think that could be the problem?

Thanks!

Message Edited by myrddins on 10-25-2005 02:34 PM

shesagordie · Answer

myrddins.

You could have a bad convertor, there have been problems with them posted.

http://cpustuff.com/estore/product.php?productid=4&cat=252&page=1

Personally, if you wish to install the hard drive internally, I would prefer to use the PCI controller card [$30-$50], but if you don't have a spare PCI slot, then you will have use the convertor.

But, if you wish to use a convertor, then check out this unit.

http://www.addonics.com/products/io/ide_sata.asp

You could also,use an USB 2.0 IDE external enclosure, as I did for my D-8400, because of having two160GB hard drives in an array and install the IDE hard drive into it, for backups and storage and connect it to a USB 2.0 port on the back panel. I found this a very easy method.

Bev.

myrddins · Answer

Bev,

Thanks again. The converter you linked looks good, but its orientation will make it hard/impossible to fit into my 4700 with the way the drives are stacked. If I can verify the drive's integrity, I'll probably just look into an external solution like you mentioned.

Thanks for your help!

shesagordie · Answer

myrddins.   Thanks for the feedback.     Bev.

Akro · Answer

I have the same problem.   I just bought a new Dell Dimension XPS Gen-5. (3.40GHz; 4x512MB DDR2 533MHz; 256MB PCI-Express nVidia GeForce 6800; 160GB SATA HD; 16x DVD+/-RW; 48x CD RW; Windows XP Professional SP2)   My old computer is not working anymore and I would like to tranfer data from my old Hard Disk Drive, a Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 Ultra ATA/100 80GB ( http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/discsales/marketing/detail/0,1081,581,00.html) to my new XPS Gen-5. Unfortunately there is only one IDE hard drive connector on the motherboard ( http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dimxpsg5/om/D86590.pdf) and that is already occupied by the DVD and CD drives via a common cable.   I bought a converter on eBay ( http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IDE-to-SATA-Hard-Drive-Converter-Adapter-PATA-to-SATA_W0QQitemZ5823432948QQcategoryZ74941QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem) which I would like to connect to my old PATA HDD.   I connected the converter to the HDD by using the power cable from the CD and DVD drives. I've powered both the converter and the HDD. I also connected it to the SATA1 port on the motherboard and enabled Drive 1 to on in the BIOS, but when I start up windows doesn't recognize the drive.   Please help!

shesagordie · Answer

Akro.   Why not temporarily connect the IDE to the middle connector of the optical drives IDE cable, remember to set the hard drive's jumpers to 'Cable Select' .   Then remove the drive, after the data is transfered.   Bev.

myrddins · Answer

Just for reference, I did manage to get the drive working on the IDE cable once it was CS jumpered, so it appears to be a bad connector. Akro, perhaps you have a bad one as well? Unless there's some sort of setting that we're not aware of, that seems the most likely explanation. If your setup will accomodate this card, which Bev mentioned, it appears to have gotten a few good reviews (although it too seems iffy, judging from the first comment on the Amazon page...)

I took this opportunity to do away with my dual optical drives in exchange for something shinier to free up that second IDE plug. Hey, when the universe presents you with a perfect excuse... :-D

Akro · Answer

Well, it's a bit like myrddins problem. I managed to temporarily transfer data by connecting my old drive to the IDE port using the cable from the cd/dvd drives. However, I would like to use my old HDD as a second drive (permanently) for more storage and as a backup device. Furthermore, I think it would be more elegant if I could have it installed internally. (But maybe, I have to go for the external version, unless I find a way to connect it properly and make it run correctly.)

Any further help is of course highly appreciated!!!

Thanks!

shesagordie · Answer

Akro.

If you wish to install a second HD internally, you could use a IDE to SATA convertor [if there's room for it] or a PCI IDE controller card, as shown here.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=16-102-002&depa=0

Bev.

Akro · Answer

Hi,

I did get a converter from eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IDE-to-SATA-Hard-Drive-Converter-Adapter-PATA-to-SATA_W0QQitemZ5823432948QQcategoryZ74941QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I connected the converter to the old HDD (PATA Drive), powered the drive and the little converter board. There is a little LED on the converter board that's illuminated, so I think the board is powered correctly.

However, Windows XP (or the BIOS) doesn't seem to recognize it. I always get: "Drive 1 not found" when starting the computer up. I've switched the SATA 1 drive in the BIOS to "ON".

Any idea? I would like to use the converter that I've bought. (If I can't, I probably have to buy one of those IDE PCI cards.)

Thanks for your help!

Akro

myrddins · Answer

Akro,

Like I mentioned (last post on previous page), you might have a bad board. Mine turned out to be bad, and I discovered this by jumpering the IDE drive to CS and borrowing a parallel plug from an optical drive. The BIOS saw it fine and so did Windows. Seems the only hitch in the equation was the board. Like with yours, I knew that my board was powering on, but it wasn't allowing the drive to be recognized. My board didn't come with instructions, but every other place online that I've looked says you just plug it in and it works. So if ours don't, they must be bad, right? Let me know if you get any leads that say otherwise!

thanks,
Myrddins

Akro · Answer

Hi Myrddins,

Thanks for your reply. Sorry, I just saw your other post on the previous page after I've written my last post.

Here is what I did: Before I've had the converter board, I connected my old PATA HDD to the IDE port on the motherboard by using the parallel cable from the CD/DVD drives. I connected it to the end of the cable (black/master connector) and the jumper on the HDD set to master. I was then able to transfer data from my old HDD to the new one. It recognized it, no problem. I then thought, I would like to keep my old HDD and install it internally to use it as a permanent second drive (I had to unplug it form the only IDE port again, because that is used for the two CD/RW and DVD/RW drives that I have). So, I guess the only solutions would be:

- IDE to SATA converter (like we have already)

- PCI / IDE card (as mentioned by Bev.)

- external HDD USB enclosure (my last choice, because I would like to have everything tidy inside the tower)

I then bought this IDE to SATA converter on eBay (I live in the UK and it got shipped from Hong Kong, cost me only a couple of bucks, so I am not too worried about it). As you said, it could be a bad board as well. As in your case, it didn't come with instructions, just the cables. I thought it would be a sipmle plug and play job. I've connected it to the PATA HDD, powered the converter board and the HDD with the respective cables and changed the Drive setting in the BIOS to "ON" (SATA 1 to "On"). However, as mentioned before.... no luck! As you said, I might be a faulty converter.

Or, do you think we need a driver for it (the converter)?

My next hope is the PCI / IDE card. However, I would like to know if I am stupid or if the converter is bad!!!

I will let you know if I find something. Does your PC have only one IDE port on the motherboard like mine? (And four SATA ports?)

Anyone else with an idea or better solution?

Thanks,

Akro

Message Edited by Akro on 10-29-2005 04:41 PM

myrddins · Answer

Akro,

My mb has two SATA interfaces and two IDE ones (ie. one IDE bus), and like yours, both my IDE connections are in use by dual optical drives. Your fourth option, like my solution, is to take this opportunity to replace your dual optical drives with a combo drive, and use the second IDE connection for the PATA drive. If all you need is a CD-RW/DVD combo, you can find them for $25 here, so I imagine they'd be something like 20 quid or less over there.

I don't think the cards are meant to need drivers, because I've seen reviews online that have described simply plugging the converter in and having the whole shebang work fine.

Good luck,
Myrddins

Message Edited by myrddins on 11-01-2005 08:46 AM

Akro · Answer

Hi,

Thanks for your answer. However, my Dell XPS has only one IDE port on the motherboard (and four SATA ports). The two optical drives are connected via a common parallel cable to the only IDE port. So, buying a combo drive won't help in my case.

I've ordered a PCI IDE card though. Let's see if this will do the trick! I'll let you know.

Akro

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Dimension 4700, installing 2nd SATA, BIOS/boot problems

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