Are IDE to Sata Adapters reliable?

[Zenara25]

I have a Biostar TP35D2-A7 motherboard. This board has one IDE Controller (therefore only 2 IDE devices) I'm currently using an IDE hard drive as my master and an IDE dvd burner as slave.

I want to be able to use my spare IDE hard drive rack to Norton ghost my system from time to time.

I bought an IDE to Sata Adapter but I'm nervous about it's reliability. Any one know if it will work well?

I don't want to buy a new sata hard drive or sata dvd burner unless someone thinks this is a bad idea.

 

[teclis1023]

I don't see why it would be unreliable. Why not give it a try and see what happens? Most likely it'll work fine and you'll be able to forget that it's even there.

 

[Aluvus]

Generally no, they are not especially reliable. Given what they typically cost, there just doesn't seem to be enough incentive for the manufacturers to make them reliable products.

My suggestion would be to buy a PCI IDE card instead. They tend to have fewer issues, and are a more mature technology.

 

[htne]

I have used several different adapters with different hard drives and optical drives. They have been very reliable for me with hard drives, and very flaky with optical drives. YMMV.

 

[Zenara25]

Now what about the PCI IDE card that Aluvus mentioned. I thought about that alternative. But will it work in dos mode with Norton Ghost?

Or maybe I'll just spend $30 and get an sata dvd burner

 

[Zenara25]

Will a PCI IDE card work in dos mode with Norton Ghost?

 

[NoelS]

Zenara,

You could just unplug the optical drive and use the IDE connector for the second IDE HDD whenever you want to use Ghost... Or you could put that backup Ghost HDD in an external enclosure and do your backups through a USB port... or did I misunderstand the problem?

Noel