Adding a PATA hd to connect to SATA connector on MB

[Slowlearner]

A colleague at work has a Dimension 8400 with a single ide channel and 4 sata ports. As he already has two optical drives, he has no free pata connectors, but he wants to use an 200GB pata HD from another pc as an additional data drive. He purchased a SYBA SY-JM-SIDE IDE to Serial ATA Interface Adaptor, JMicro Chipset from Newegg but that didnt work - I think that not what he really needs, I think he needs one of those adapters that fit at back of the pata HD and have necessary power connectors. Or he could buy one of those cheapo(no raid) pci pata controller cards. Which would be a better/easier/stable solution?

 

[bigboxes]

Get a pci ATA (pata) controller card.

 

[xsilver]

for around the same price (maybe a few dollars more), it may be simpler to get an external usb or firewire 3.5" case -- the bonus being that you can store sensitive information on that hdd and pack it away in a safe place or take it with you.

edit: of course the drawback is that you cant use it as a boot drive but you say u already got 2 sata devices
and transfer speeds wont be blazing fast -- but if its just for data, it should be ok

 

[NuAlphaMan]

I use a couple of Abit Serielle 2 SATA converters. They plug right into the back of the IDE HD and they provide you with an adapter that plugs into the back of the HD and the converter itself. They work like a charm!

 

[corkyg]

No problem using a PATA drive with adapter on a SATA port. It will be many times faster than Firewire or USB externals.

PATASATA

 

[Slowlearner]

Corkyg

Whats that connector, and where can I get one.

 

[corkyg]

I usually get stuff like that from Cyberguys. They have a really nice catalog.

SATA