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19 Posts
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55344
November 9th, 2012 12:00
Changed cd rom from IDE to SATA but computer doesn't recognize change
Hi
I changed out dual cd roms in my Dell XPS 400 which had the IDE interface. I'm not an IT guy but I have swapped hardware out before including cd roms but they were a simple swap. I recently read up on IDE and SATA and found out SATA is the best. On new cd roms they don't have an IDE connector. Looking in the tower I saw that there are 4 SATA data connectors and I had 1 extra SATA power. This is a 2005 computer. I bought 2 new cd roms, 2 sata data and 1 power sata that had 2 connectors to hook both cd roms. I'm sure everything is hooked up correctly inside. When I turn on the computer, before it loads it says Drive 4 and 5 not found Parallel ATA-0 and PATA-1. BTW I removed the IDE cable from the tower since it isn't hooked up to anything. I assume drive 4 and 5 is the cd rom drives that i changed so yes there is no IDE found. When I look up on My Computer it doesn't show E and D Drive. Also under Device Manager it doesn't show the CD/DVD Rom category. So I need to do something to make the computer see that drives D and E are not IDE but SATA. So what do I do?
Josh
jackshack
6.4K Posts
1
November 9th, 2012 21:00
Your System Setup has individual settings for all drives, to include the SATA ports. You should have a list of SATA 0 through SATA 3 in addition to your PATA drives. Each of those ports can be enabled or disabled. Look a bit closer. If I correctly understand, you started with PATA DVD/CD drives, which naturally would be drives 4 and 5. If you no longer have PATA drives of any type you should turn drives 4 and 5 off. The SATA DVD/CD ROM drives must be connected to one of the SATA ports that follow SATA 0; that gives you a choice of SATA 1, 2, and 3. The two SATA ports you are using for the DVD/CD drives must be set to "On" or the OS will not see them.
jackshack
6.4K Posts
0
November 9th, 2012 13:00
You need to be sure to use F2 on system startup to get to System Setup and make sure that the ports you have the DVD/CD ROM drives connected to are enabled. Many computers have an Auto setting that allows you to escape this test, but I note that my XPS 410 has Off and On settings instead. As yours pre-dates mine by a bit, you may find that you have the same situation.
Since there is nothing connected to your IDE ports you should turn them off to avoid getting reminders about no drives being found.
JB818
19 Posts
0
November 9th, 2012 19:00
Well I pressed F2 and under Drives I can go to Drive 4 and 5 but it is just to enable or disable the drive. You can't change the "controller" from what it says from PATA to SATA.
jackshack
6.4K Posts
0
November 9th, 2012 22:00
Glad I could help. By the way, the SATA data cable in SATA 0 goes to your primary hard drive. The chassis design has the space for the hard drives at the bottom of the tower. Dell typically uses a 36" SATA data cable to attach the drive to the board so that the cable can take a rather circuitous route to the SATA 0 connector on the board.
JB818
19 Posts
0
November 9th, 2012 22:00
Oh ok, I see what you mean, I did go back in and take a closer look. I turned off the PATA drives 4 and 5. Above those were the SATA that I missed and I turned those on. SATA-0 was already on and I did notice a cable plugged into it but couldn't tell what device it was going into. The 2 cables I plugged in for the cd roms were plugged into SATA-1and -2 and those are the ones I turned on. I restarted just to make sure it loads and no drive 4 and 5 not found message and it started looking for and found the new hardware (my roms) and seems to be good. Thanks alot! Glad it was a simple fix.