5 IDE devices - only 2 ports - ABIT NF7-S

[ReadsterCA]

Okay - here's the scoup -

I have three hard drives that I need to keep, and CD-ROM and a DVD burner, the MoBo supports SATA - however, I can't get any of the ATA133 devices to work on it with Win2k..... so -

Do I spend more time tweaking to get the SATA to work with the DVD burner, or do I buy and install a third IDE controller card?

Benefits of either method other than time savings? Let me know.

DVD Burner is a 4x Emprex drive - I could also try to get my primary HD (Max 30GB) to work on the SATA but since it was primary, I didn't install Win2k that way - and hate to have to start all over again.......

Thanks for the help.

 

[ToxicWaste]

You could try an IWILL IDE to Serial ATA Adaptor. I found them for under $20 and I was able to hook up my old IDE drive straight to the SATA port. The benefit is that the SATA controller does more of the work and your CPU does less... This worked for me in DOS and Windows XP, I assume Windows 2000 would work fine as well.

 

[chocoruacal]

$20 will get you a two channel controller card at Newegg. Is hours of 'tweaking' worth more or less than that? Problem solved.

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

What you need.

 

[ReadsterCA]

Thanks - I thought that would be the easiest route - just wanted to know if there were any "extreme" benefits to getting the SATA to work right for a DVD Burner or for a single primary HD.

I'll be stepping over to ebay or Frys soon.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[beatle]

Are you trying to use the Serillel adapter? The Serillel 1 adapter isn't compatible with ATA133, unfortunately. As a last resort, set the jumper to master (single if it's different) and plug in the power to both the Serillel adapter AND the drive itself. Make sure SATA is enabled in bios and that the drivers are loaded in windows.