SATA and IDE Hard Drives?
"I want to install the hard drive from my old computer as the secondary hard drive of my new computer. The new computer is an HP with a SATA hard drive. My old hard drive is a Seagate Ultra ATA/100. How do I add this hard drive to my new computer?" |
Can I Have Both SATA and IDE Drives in a Computer?
Most new computers come with SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) hard drives, which are faster and more reliable than the older IDE style drives. Some motherboards have connectors for both SATA and IDE, but chances are your computer will support only one or the other.
If you have an IDE drive and you want to connect it to your new computer which has a SATA drive installed, you have two options:
- The first option is to open up the system unit and see if the motherboard has IDE connectors. (The documentation for your computer may also tell you this.) Refer to the photos in Adding a Second Hard Drive if you're not familiar with SATA and IDE connections. If you have both, plug in the IDE drive's data and power cables, turn the computer on and hopefully both drives will show up.
- If you don't have an IDE connector on your new system, you can buy a kit to convert your old IDE drive into an external drive, and connect it with a standard USB cable. Addonics and other companies offer these kits, so you can shop around for the one that seems best for you.
One advantage of going with an external drive is that you can easily move the hard drive from one computer to another, and use it as a backup device for all your computers.
Got comments or questions about adding a second hard drive? Post your thoughts below...
|
|
Share this article with friends! |
|
Posted by Bob Rankin on 29 Dec 2006
| Need More Help? Try the AskBobRankin Updates Newsletter. It's Free! |
 |
Prev Article: Garbage From Printer |
The Top Twenty |
Next Article: Registry Problem |
 |
|
Link to this article from your site or blog. Just copy and paste from this box: |
There's more reader feedback... See all 37 comments for this article.
Post your Comments, Questions or Suggestions
Free Tech Support -- Ask Bob Rankin
Subscribe to AskBobRankin Updates: Free Newsletter |
||
|
Copyright © 2005
- Bob Rankin - All Rights Reserved
Privacy Policy -- See my profile on Google. |
||
Article information: AskBobRankin -- SATA and IDE Hard Drives? (Posted: 29 Dec 2006)
Source: http://askbobrankin.com/sata_and_ide_hard_drives.html
Copyright © 2005 - Bob Rankin - All Rights Reserved
Free
Most recent comments on "SATA and IDE Hard Drives?"
(See all 37 comments for this article.)Posted by:
ryan humphries
06 May 2009
The computer has only got ide connections, ive brought a adapter so i can use the sata but was wondering if i could just add it straight to the ide hd.
EDITROR'S NOTE: You can't plug a SATA drive into an IDE drive, if that's what you mean. The SATA adapter must be plugged into the second IDE connector on the motherboard.
Posted by:
ryan humphries
06 May 2009
Thanks for you're help, very quick responses as well.
Much appreciated.
Posted by:
null o'neil
18 May 2009
how can i change SATA drive to IDE in dell optiplex755
Posted by:
Chris Gibbons
10 Aug 2009
ryan is wrong, you don't have to plug the drive into the second ide port on the MB. Just plug it into the slave connector on the same ide cable. (the middle connector)
Posted by:
Ashish
21 Aug 2009
Hi! Bob, I wanna know whcih hard disk is better SATA or IDE?
EDITOR'S NOTE: In general SATA is faster and more flexible. Most new computers are using SATA drives now.
Posted by:
Steele
24 Aug 2009
I had an IDE drive as the primary via the MB and added a SATA as a secondary via a SATA. The primary holds a fresh XP install. Since adding the SATA, I have extremely HIGH hardware interrupts. There are no conflicts listed. I have tried updating all drivers and the problem still exists. The primary stays on PIO mode, even after manually changing and rebooting. The SATA is DMA. This is so annoying, I cant listen to music without hearing what almost sounds like harmonics. I cant watch videos, such as on YouTube, without major hesitations in the video every few seconds. Help.............
Posted by:
sunil
09 Nov 2009
i have a new computer its installed already sata hard drive but now i have another one ide hard drive i want to use to this one but one ide port in my motherboard there is connected dvd drive so how can i use it but 4 sata port is there.
Posted by:
traumax
23 Feb 2010
I added an old 320 GB IDE Hard drive to my new computer but I cant get it to show up in My Computer. Any advice please???? Thanks.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Is the drive formatted? Try to find it with Disk Management. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309000
Posted by:
andrew
20 Sep 2010
hi Bob
I have a new motherboard with one ide connector and I wish to connect 4 ide devices. I have bought a pata to sata converter, but when I connect it, the drives are still not detected. Do you have to do anything in the Bios?
EDITOR'S NOTE: If you want to connect IDE devices, why get a SATA interface? Usually you can use 2 drives per IDE port, by chaining them together on the ribbon cable. So you really just need an extra IDE port, which you can do with an add-on card.
Posted by:
Sandra
23 Dec 2011
Hello Bob! I just got a new Dell laptop model: N5040. I know that the file system is NTFS. So my old laptop which was a Sony Vaio VGN-NR140E(which I believes has an FAT32 file system), I took the hard drive out of it. I hooked up the Sony old hard drive via an Sabrent USB 2.0 to SATA/IDE Hard Drive Adapter, to my new Dell. The Dell seems to not identify the drive. Like when I go to "my computer" it just loads and loads and never opens. Now I do notice that on my SATA/IDE adapter that the lights are blue as if the old sony hard drive is trying to release some kind of information to the Dell. Should I wait a while and allow the Sony hard drive information to be transferred to the Dell? The Sony hard drive has about 100gb of information on it.
EDITOR'S NOTE: I don't think waiting will help. The drive should be recognized right away when you plug it in the USB port. And it won't automatically transfer any files, even if the drive is recognized. It will appear as a new drive letter (E:, F:, etc.) I would try connecting the drive to another computer's USB port. If that doesn't work, I would guess that the Sabrent adapter is defective.