Dell 4700 doesn't see CD, DVD or HDD IDE Drives

[Odyssey]

Have just acquired a Dell Dimension 4700 desktop with a SATA HDD. Am trying to add an optical drive and a IDE hdd. No matter what combination of jumpers (CS, Master, Slave, etc) and cable cable connections (first or second connector), none of them have been recognized. Have tried 4 CD drives, 2 DVD drives and 1 HDD. No cigar!

What gives? Thanks.

 

[vacunita]

Have you made sure the IDE interface is turned on or enabled in BIOS?




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Phil AKA Vacunita
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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[Odyssey]

Before starting the thread, I had checked the Device Mgr to be sure that the IDE controllers were working, which they were, and so it did not occur to me, given this my first SATA computer, that IDE might not be enabled.

I was poking around in the BIOS Setup fishing for anything and, lo and behold, they were not enabled. And so enabled them and that problem solved.

However, iat does beg the question, exactly what is the ide controller vs enabling IDE?

While I am at it, is it possible to use an eide to sata converter so as to have all my old ide adevices running under sata? If so, does this apply to ide optical and hard drives?

Thanks.

 

[Odyssey]

Don't know why yours didn't show before I last posted, but obviously you nailed it! Thanks.

Any thoughts on the related questions? TIA

 

[BadBigBen]

1. IDE controller can also be the SATA controller...

2. EIDE to SATA converter may work, but I haven't personally tried one, so I can not say if it would work for both Optical or Magnetic storage...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[Odyssey]

Can anyone help me with understanding what the difference is between and how they are related:

ide controller

enabling IDE ?

Thanks.

 

[vacunita]

Device Manager tells you they are there. The actual controller hardware is present and working. As Ben said it can also sometimes refer to the SATA interfaces.

However the BIOS has them set to off, so no actual ATA devices can use them. turn them On and the BIOS can then pick up the devices attached to it.

Its the equivalent of having your cable box connected to your Tv but the Tv is turned off. You know its there, and its working, but you can't use it until you turn the interface (in this case the TV) on.




----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[Odyssey]

Thank you. Very clear and helpful

 

[BadBigBen]

At the application level, SATA devices can be specified to look and act like PATA devices. [red]Many motherboards offer a "legacy mode" option which makes SATA drives appear to the OS like PATA drives on a standard controller[/red]. This eases OS installation by not requiring a specific driver to be loaded during setup but sacrifices support for some features of SATA and generally disables some of the boards' PATA or SATA ports since the standard PATA controller interface only supports 4 drives. (Often which ports are disabled is configurable.)

The common heritage of the ATA command set has enabled the proliferation of low-cost PATA to SATA bridge-chips. Bridge-chips were widely used on PATA drives (before the completion of native SATA drives) as well as standalone "dongles."

Source: Wikipedia - Serial_ATA


now with that, PATA or EIDE controller may be turned off in the BIOS, thus not allowing the OS or the BIOS to see any attached IDE / ATA / ATAPI devices, until it gets reenabled...

see the article above (highlighted), SATA controller may be in the LEGACY MODE, and the OS thinks that it is actually IDE...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[kjv1611]

While I am at it, is it possible to use an eide to sata converter so as to have all my old ide adevices running under sata? If so, does this apply to ide optical and hard drives?

I've used an IDE to SATA converter several years ago. It worked fine. But I wouldn't bother if you're trying to gain performance, b/c you'll still be limited by the drive itself - the interface on the hard drive is still IDE. I only used it at the time, b/c I wanted to, I think. Just wanted to try it.

As far as using it for an optical drive, I didn't try. However, I have used a standard IDE to USB adapter with an optical drive, one that could take IDE/SATA/etc, with no problems. My guess is that it'd work the same, regardless of what you connected, so long as it can connect.

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"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me