2 ide + sata drive problem

[vjtrek]

Hi guys. I'm building a secondary rig for my kid and i intend to use some old pc parts that are useless for my main rig. i have a raptor 36g sata drive which i intend to use as o.s drive and 2 ide 60g for storage. Can i connect those 2 ide drives to the mobo with one cable (since my mobo has only one ide plug) and put the raptor on one of the sata plugs? Seems that everytime my mobo doesnt recognize one of the ide drives.

 

[treefrog07]

Yes, you'll have enable the IDE/PATA controller in your BIOS, usually a JMicron 36X setting. You may have to set it to IDE/PATA or "legacy" depending on your BIOS.

 

[Paperdoc]

Yes. ANY IDE port can support up to 2 devices, providing you have an 80-conductor ribbon cable with three connectors on it. BUT you must set the jumpers on each device properly so they are identified differently.

Any IDE port MUST have a Master device on its cable. Consult the diagrams on the labels of your two 60 GB units for how to set its jumpers to Master. Now, since you plan to use both drives on one cable / port, the second unit MUST have its jumper set to Slave. Once you have those two set up, mount them physically in the case. Look at the ribbon cable. The connector on one end likely is Blue - that goes to the mobo port. On the other end is Black - that goes to the MASTER device. The middle connector is Gray - that goes to the SLAVE device. Note that Master and Slave have relevance ONLY to this one port they share - there is no machine-wide Master device.

There is one alternative. You can set BOTH HDD units with jumpers to the "CS" (Cable Select) setting. Then the one on the END connector WILL be the Master.

The SATA Raptor can go on any SATA port, and you should NOT change any jumper it has, if any at all. There is NO setting for Master or Slave on a SATA unit. In BIOS Setup, as treefrgo07 says, ensure that the IDE port is Enabled and so is the SATA port. Near where the SATA port is configured look for a line to set the SATA Port Mode. Choices there usually are things like IDE (or PATA) Emulation, Native SATA, AHCI, or RAID. Do NOT set to RAID. AHCI (or maybe Native SATA if that is not available) is preferred ONLY if your OS you are installing is Vista or Win 7. If you are installing Win XP of any version, set this option to IDE (or PATA) Emulation.

Next in BIOS Setup go to where the Boot Priority Sequence is set. You should have the option to select any of those drives as boot devices. You also should have an optical drive unit in the list. (You did not mention opticals, so I'm assuming you will have one on a SATA port.) Ensure that your SATA Raptor is in the Boot list, but do NOT put either of the 60 GB units in there - you will not be placing a bootable OS on either of them. Many people set the Sequence to try the optical drive first, and the HDD with the OS installed second, and NO other choices.