OT: I Need Hard Drive Help

[Suicane75]

So I fired up my brand new Dell today, and everything works great, but i went inside to add an old second hard drive I have and I noticed the first HD is a serial ata or ati, i dunno, basically it has no ribbon cable connected to it, never saw that before, it was cool.
So I take my old hard drive and try to put it my new machine but the pins and the connectors dont line up, im very confused. Im thinking I either cant put an old HD in this machine or I need to get some sort of adapter. Anyone have any suggestions?

[Tasan]

Serial ata is a new type of connection. Here's a possible solution. If you are just trying to get the data off the old HD, you should be able to unhook the CD or DVD drive and plug into their IDE connections. If you are looking for a more permanent solution to keep the old HD in there, then you'll need to pick up an IDE expansion card.

[Airhog]

Why couldnt you just use the old hard drive on the ide cable with the cd rom? as long as its the only other device it shouldnt be a problem. You might need a new cord though.

[Suicane75]

Thanks for your replies guys, pretty much what I assumed, Im gonna have to add a 2nd serial ata hard drive, probably another 250 GB one, but its gonna have to wait a few months. Getting the info is no big deal, i just wanted the extra space as Im starting to learn how to edit video and burn DVD and I wanted as much spare room as possible, but if i can't make it by on 250 GB then I truly need help. I was just perplexed by the way it looked and the schematics of the whole thing.

[Pumpy Tudors]

An IDE expansion card would be a hell of a lot cheaper than a new serial ATA drive. Why not just go that route?

[Airhog]

I still dont understand why you cannot just put the drive on the ide cable for the cd-rom, unless there isnt one.

[Suicane75]

Airhog, the only available ribbon cable in my computer doesnt connect to my old drive, the pins and connecters dont line up. I dont know what the cable going into the dvd and dvdr is like, but im not about to remove them to see, one because im a sissy when it comes to computers and 2 because i want the hard drive to be permanent so it wouldnt really matter.
I checked on my support card and it has a "82801 EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers" listed under IDE Controller, so I dunno what that means, heh. Seems like i have the stuff in there to hook a 1 year old hard drive up but i dunno. The insides of computers make me nervous.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally posted by Suicane75
The insides of computers make me nervous.

Well, I don't want to make you feel like a sissy or anything, but as long as you don't introduce static to the components, there's not a whole lot you can screw up by removing hard drive cables. Just make sure that you plug everything back in the way it was before you started futzing with it.

The best thing to do is play it safe, though. If you're not comfortable doing some work in the computer, don't do it. At least you know you can't mess anything up that way.

Good luck!

[Airhog]

Originally posted by Suicane75
Airhog, the only available ribbon cable in my computer doesnt connect to my old drive, the pins and connecters dont line up. I dont know what the cable going into the dvd and dvdr is like, but im not about to remove them to see, one because im a sissy when it comes to computers and 2 because i want the hard drive to be permanent so it wouldnt really matter.
I checked on my support card and it has a "82801 EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers" listed under IDE Controller, so I dunno what that means, heh. Seems like i have the stuff in there to hook a 1 year old hard drive up but i dunno. The insides of computers make me nervous.

well if you have a dvd and a dvdr then you already have two devices on that IDE device. You should take a peek at your motherboard and see if their isnt a second unused IDE channel. Its been the standard for years to have two. I would just follow the cable that hooks up too your dvd, and trace it back to the motherboard, see if there is another connector.

[johnnyshaka]

Just curious...how long does it take to format at 250 GB hard drive??