SATA and Primary IDE share a bus?

D

Drummerstp

New Member
Computer specs: Dell Dimension 4600i
Windows XP Pro SP2
Pentium 4 3.06GHz 1.5 GB Ram
Bios Version/Date: Dell Computer Corporation A09, 2/20/2004
120 gig HD on SATA bus

Problem: I have 2 DVD disc drives on my secondary IDE bus and nothing on the primary. My primary HD is on the SATA bus. I am trying to add a second 300G HD on the primary IDE bus. I cant see the HD when i boot to the bios. I tried setting it as a slave and as a master. Is it possible by using the SATA bus, I cant use my primary IDE bus? I've tried to find info on my motherboard from dell but with no luck.
 
I cant get that far. The bios cant see it. It shows up as an unknown device. Its a Seagate harddrive and i tried to use the software it came to do the parttioning/formatting, but it cant find it.
 
I had this problem. I have a 4800 Dell. If you call dell they will tell you to purchase a converter. The converter plugs into the back of your ide hard drive and has a sata cable coming out to plug into one of the other 3 sata ports. They specifically said you cannot have an ide hd with a sata hd. Things to remember if the drive is WESTERN DIGITAL make sure you remove the jumper (not just set to master). The jumper settings have to be master for the converter to work. Also in Bios you will have to enable the sata port, leave raid 0 active. Thats it. Email me if you have any problems. Mine works flawlessly now.
 
Thanks Trizoy for your reply. I think I only have one more sata port, but that'll be enough. Where did you get your converter from? And so does this mean our primary IDE busses are disabled by using the sata busses?
 
No it doesnt mean the IDE are disabled, you can use them for cdroms burners and anything else that plugs in there except for hard drives. I got my converter from fry's electronics (electronics store here in California) or outpost.com... But I would really NOT recomend them. BestBuy would have it. This is similar to the one I had, and since everyone here adores newegg.com I thought I would throw a link in.

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

Good luck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top