Question Sata drives not detected while IDE drive connected

ImWolf

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Mar 18, 2019
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My system has 2 WD Sata drives on Sata 1 & 2, an IDE Seagate drive on IDE 1 master, and a Teac CDRW on IDE 2 master. WinXP home is installed on the Sata 1 drive, and Linux Mint 19.1 is installed on the IDE HDD.

Recently, I had yet another loose Sata cable crash which as some of you may know can be very time consuming to correct.

So first, I opened the case and replaced those Sata cables with some new Sata3 cables I had just purchased to have on hand next time this occurred. The new cables fit very tight so I was happy that I would hopefully never need deal with this scenario again.

Then I needed to boot off my WinXP install cd to access the file system and copy corrupted config files, so as is my normal habit I disconnect any drives that I don't want to accidentally affect.... which in this case was only the IDE drive with Linux Mint on it. The machine booted normally, detected both the Sata drives, and I completed the file management and confirmed that WinXP was now booting normally.

Lastly, I reconnected the IDE drive to confirm that the dual boot menu (on IDE MBR) would come up normally and allow me to boot either OS, but neither of the Sata drives were detected by BIOS. When I disconnect the IDE drive and restart, then the Sata drives appear again.

As I understand it, the new Sata3 cables are supposed to be downward compatible with all previous drives and MB ports, and should work even if those devices aren't capable of delivering the faster speeds that Sata3 cables are designed to allow. Anyway, I ended up having to replace the new Sata3 cables with the old ones that eventually come loose and cause system crashes.

Any input would be appreciated!

Wolf
 

ImWolf

Honorable
Mar 18, 2019
195
21
10,615
Perhaps I should have asked a more specific Q....

If anyone has dealt with faulty (loose) fitting Sata cables and found a good replacement, please let me know the brand name that worked for you.

Thanks,
Wolf