using EIDE (PATA) hard drive in Dimension 8400

Question

Greetings All,   Lately I just purchased a Dimension 8400.  Dimension 8400 uses SATA hard drive but  I also want to reuse my old hard drive in my old machine (Dimension 4100), which is a 120 GB PATA (WDS 120 GB) hard drive.   I read a lot of posts in this section, here is the potential solution based on what I read:   Use the connection for the optical driver (CD or DVD driver).  Since 8400 provides two connections (PATA?) and my machine already has both CD-RW and DVD-RW drivers, in order to connect to my old hard drive, I have to unplug one drive.  My question is:   1) Is the aforementioned solution working? 2) Is there any other solution I can keep the two optical drivers connected and also be able to connect my old hard drive?   I thought about adding another EIDE controller to my machine (8400 provides 3 PCI slots), but I am not sure it actually works.  I will greatly appreciate any suggestion from anybody who has experience with dealing with using PATA hard drive with Dimension 8400.  Thanks a lot.

tonebalone · Answer

Another possibility is to put the hard drive into an external case and use the firewire or USB 2.0 port.  Try www.dealsonic.com for a reasonably priced external enclosure.

ejn63 · Answer

You cannot keep both optical drives and install the EIDE drive without purchasing additional hardware. You'll need either a PCI EIDE controller card, or a PATA drive to SATA controller converter board.

duck_andy · Answer

Thanks ejn63.  So you are saying if I buy a PCI EIDE controller, it should work.  Have you even done that?  Where can I get a PATA drive to SATA controller converter board?  If both solutions work, which one you suggest?  (buy a new controller or converter).  Thanks a lot.

ejn63 · Answer

The EIDE controller method, with a good (Promise) board will work.

The SATA converter method is less likely to work, because of the variable quality of these converters. I've seen them work in some cases, but fail in others, not just with Dells, but in other systems.

If you decide to try a converter, here is what you need:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=12-107-112&depa=0

tonebalone · Answer

If you have firewire, I recommend getting a case with firewire connectivity. It's faster than USB 2.0 in real world scenarios. There are several cases available with both firewire and USB 2.0, if you think you might need to connect to a different PC.

Good luck!

duck_andy · Answer

Thank you all for the suggestion.  The external enclosure sounds like a good idea.

duck_andy · Answer

Thanks a lot.

Storage, Drives & Media

using EIDE (PATA) hard drive in Dimension 8400

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