Sata & Eide

W

wjnm

New Member
Can these drives be mixed in the same computer? Have a very dead eMachine but am sure the EIDE HDD is still ok because we think the motherboard or power supply simply went. Got a new minitower but it is SATA. I had planned to add the EIDE HDD to this new computer, and the technician who took the order at Tigerdirect.com said the model I was ordering would allow this.... but apparently they ran out of stock and shipped me a comparable. As it turns out, the model I wanted was also SATA and the tech taking the order didn't know his specs.

Anyhow, can this be done?? If so, how??
 
as long as it has the ide port on the motherboard to plug the data cable into then no problem I currently run 2 IDE and 3 SATA drives in my system.

Look at the back of your IDE HDD, there should be a set of jumper pins and a diagram on top to tell you what position to put the jumper in to set it to "cable select". Put it on this. Pop it in your system and it should pick it up fine.

I would assume that the machine will already be set up by tigerdirect to boot from the sata so there shouldnt be an issue with that
 
If the board is a Sata and not eide default board the host or boot drive will be the sata type drive with Windows or another OS installed on it. The older ide drive out of the eMachines will most likely be a Western Digital model that you can use as a storage drive on the same cable as the cd/dvd drive in the new case.

On an ide type board with both a primary and secondary ide controller the bios will go to the ide drives first by default. Generally the sata was intended for use as a faster means of accessing data stored there then on a second ide hard drive. If you have two optical drives and only one ide cable you would have to add an ide type controller card in order to add it to the new case.

The ide cable is generally a flat ribbon type while the sata cables are round. Sata drives have no jumpers on them. The port a drive a drive is plugged into determines if it is master/slave and primary/secondary sata. With an ide drive just like a cd or dvd drive a small plastic jumper on the rear of the drive's casing will have to set to either master or slave usually seen abbreviated as "MA, SL" and "CS" or "CA" for cable select. The end of the cable plugs into the drive that is set as master while the center connector is for a slave.
 
not sure I have right cables, though

Looks like the SATA - flat red cable goes from the SATA HDD directly to the motherboard. There's room in the drive bracket for another unit. There's only one ribbon cable and it has DVD +/-RW first, then a CD-ROM before connecting to the m-board and there's no extra junction in the ribbon cable. There's plenty of spare power supply, but no way to connect to the Mom.

I see another juncture point on the motherboard directly adjacent to the existing ribbon cable. Can I take the ribbon currently attached to the EIDE in the dead tower and use it to attach to mother??

Been way too long since I have messed with hardware.... things are totally different.
 
yes you should be able to just use the old one from your previous computer and plug it into the adjacent port :)
 
jumper on the drive?

Can you tell me where to put the jumper? It's a Western Digital. As I face the jumpers directly to right of the ribbon cable... the jumper is on the far right. It's currently a Master since it was the only hard drive in that older computer. The diagram on top of the drive is not very clear as to what to jump to make this a slave. The diagram shows pins 5/6 for Master w/Slave.

thanks again
 
more about the jumper setting

According to western's site on installation and jumpers, it looks to me like I leave the jumpers as they are.... default, CSEL, Cable Select because this HDD will be the only device on this ribbon cable.

Isn't that right??? That's what I'll try in the meantime....
 
Don't think this is going to work.. The cable is 20 pins and the jack on the motherboard adjacent to the SATA drive is only 17-18. The ribbon cable I need to use is too wide.
 
Are you seeing two ide sockets for hard drives or is one for the 3 1/2" floppy drive? On many boards that will be next to the edge of the board and is narrower then the one or two for the hard drives/optical drives(cd/dvd). The cable originally used in the eMachines for the WD drive would be another standard ribbon cable. As posted earlier the drive was found set to cable select as expected there. On another system especially on the same cable with another drive the master or slave setting is generally seen.

With two optical drives already installed on a board with only one ide controller like I mentioned earlier you would need to add an ide controller card onto the system there to run the old drive. Sata boards often only come with only one ide controller seeing only one slot for one ide cable used for cd/dvd drives while the ide boards will see two identical slots for the ribbon cables. All ide cables are two device cables only.
 
IDE controller card

And this would be a card just like a modem or other expansion cards, right?

I re-counted the pins on the mother board in the open socket and it's 17 sets of pins (well, two are single pins)...whereas the ribbon cable from the EIDE drive from the older eMachine is 20 pairs with a single in the center as the 'key'. And there is probably no such thing as a conversion ribbon which would fit the EIDE at the drive end, but have the smaller end for the motherboard.

This is SUCH fun. that was sarcasm, but I do really enjoy, but realize it's been a long time and my knowledge is very rusty.
 
If you find there is only one ide controller for a single ribbon cable now in use by your cd and dvd drives you would have to go with the expansion type ide controller card that goes into a pci slot. Usually the only card seen there now on newer systems would be the RAID or RAID/SATA type controller card. You may want to consider adding a second sata drive to save stuff from the old ide by temporarily unplugging the dvd or cd drive until the files are copied from it.

This would see a faster and even larger drive used for storage rather then fussing with an older type addon card. The newer boards now have fewer pci slots to begin with. At the moment you can try plugging the end of the cable now being used by the two optical drives to see it plugs in as it should. If the standard cable in use there doesn't plug in right away the drive must have come out of an old I386 eMachines.

The ide socket on newer boards will simply have a small square recess for the locking tab seen on ribbon cables. It was on the older boards a notch was seen for the one way fit. The difference in the amount of pins suggests you comparing the cable from the eMachines to the socket for the floppy drive's cable which is naturally narrower. That is why there are fewer pins seen. Do you know the make and model board? That will clear this up fast. The board's manual will also show how many ide controllers are present in the diagram alone.
 
think I'll go with your idea of temporarily unhooking CD drive and getting the files off that EIDE that way. thanks!
 
First decide which optical you are going to unplug for this. That will determine whether it should be set as master or slave there. The next thing will depend on how much and how large the files are to be saved. If you already have a cd or dvd burner installed you make one or more backup cds or a data dvd to preserve the files there along with storing them on the sata primary.

But for the quick save of a few files(personal or otherwise) just plug it in for the quick transfer there before anything is lost. I've done that enough times to grab files off of a drive when going to upgrade or perform a drive wipe.
 
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