PDA

View Full Version : Hard drive question.



mapguy
04-26-09, 03:40 PM
The drive on my machine is getting pretty packed. I dug out my old pc and removed the HD. The old HD has a 40 pin connector and my new one doesn't. How can I use the old HD as a slave?

dando
04-26-09, 04:22 PM
The drive on my machine is getting pretty packed. I dug out my old pc and removed the HD. The old HD has a 40 pin connector and my new one doesn't. How can I use the old HD as a slave?

Sounds like you are trying to use an IDE drive in a SATA PC config. I believe there are IDE ==> SATA adapters out there. Now, that being said, storage is just dirt cheap right now. Get a new drive.

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?nm_mc=AFC-TechBargains&cm_mmc=AFC-TechBargains-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA&Item=N82E16822136150

I just added 1.75 TB to my desktop for <$200. :eek:

-Kevin

oddlycalm
04-26-09, 05:43 PM
If you have an IDE connection on the motherboard you can attach your parallel ATA drive. There is no master slave relationship, that died with MFM drives as AFAIK. It will just show up as the next drive letter that isn't use. Gotta agree with Kevin though, for $50-$60 you can get a new 320GB - 750GB drive that is fast, quiet and draws less than half the power of the old ATA drive.

I was at Fry's and noticed they had Seagate 1TB USB external drives for $110 this weekend. You don't even need to open up your box.

oc

dando
04-28-09, 09:50 AM
OK, so I'm going to piggy back on this thread...I just installed a new SATA 1 TB drive. First time I've done a SATA install. I have everything configured and the BIOS setup and Device Manager in XP recognizes the drive. However, the drive does not appear in the list of drives in My Computer? What gives?

EDIT: I just checked and the drive can also be accessed by command line.

-Kevin

Insomniac
04-28-09, 10:14 AM
OK, so I'm going to piggy back on this thread...I just installed a new SATA 1 TB drive. First time I've done a SATA install. I have everything configured and the BIOS setup and Device Manager in XP recognizes the drive. However, the drive does not appear in the list of drives in My Computer? What gives?

EDIT: I just checked and the drive can also be accessed by command line.

-Kevin

I was going to say partition/format, but I'm assuming when you say access it via command line, you mean you were able to change to that drive. Can you also type the drive letter in Windows Explorer?

dando
04-28-09, 10:38 AM
I was going to say partition/format, but I'm assuming when you say access it via command line, you mean you were able to change to that drive. Can you also type the drive letter in Windows Explorer?

Correct. When I run cmd from the start menu, I can switch to the D: from the C: path. Haven't tried to go to D: from the Start menu, but I'll try that next (once I get the not quite 3 year-old off the PC). I was trying to get to the drive under My Computer to format it. Odd, I've installed lots of drives in the past, but they've all be IDEs up until this point.

-Kevin

Insomniac
04-28-09, 11:32 AM
Correct. When I run cmd from the start menu, I can switch to the D: from the C: path. Haven't tried to go to D: from the Start menu, but I'll try that next (once I get the not quite 3 year-old off the PC). I was trying to get to the drive under My Computer to format it. Odd, I've installed lots of drives in the past, but they've all be IDEs up until this point.

-Kevin

The whole thing should be transparent. That's my experience at least. Hook up drive, go into Computer Management (in XP) and set up the drive in Disk Management.

dando
04-28-09, 12:07 PM
The whole thing should be transparent. That's my experience at least. Hook up drive, go into Computer Management (in XP) and set up the drive in Disk Management.

Yeah, I just spoke to our IC guy and he said to do the same thing (My Computer, right click, Manage, Disk Management). Prolly an unformated drive (it's an OEM Sammy). I guess the others I've installed were formatted, but I always formatted them anyway.

-Kevin

Insomniac
04-28-09, 03:11 PM
Yeah, I just spoke to our IC guy and he said to do the same thing (My Computer, right click, Manage, Disk Management). Prolly an unformated drive (it's an OEM Sammy). I guess the others I've installed were formatted, but I always formatted them anyway.

-Kevin

If the drive isn't partitioned and formatted, I'm not sure how you could change to it from command line though. I'm assuming D: is your optical drive.

Insomniac
04-28-09, 03:15 PM
If you have an IDE connection on the motherboard you can attach your parallel ATA drive. There is no master slave relationship, that died with MFM drives as AFAIK.

Master/slave is still used on parallel ATA/IDE. There is an additional "cable select" option that sets the master/slave based on which connector you use. SATA gets rid of that since you can only connect one drive per connector.