Apparently something happened to it as the result of attempting to install the adapter. After trying a number of jumper settings and noticing that apparently the two data connections on the adapter aren't the same, it wouldn't read it as an IDE drive any longer either - gave the same "Dynamic Disk - unreadable" status in Computer/Disk management. Had to reformat it to get it to work. I imagine there might be a way to fix it without reformatting but there wasn't anything that critical on the disk so path of least resistance was to reformat.
Nah, I don't think that's it. I did the format the same way as any other drive that shows up as "Basic". And after formatting it again the same way, it reads as Basic. I actually wasn't even aware of this Basic/Dynamic disk issue previous to this.
The question remains, how is one supposed to make this thing work, assuming it's not defective?
One Sata data connector says IDE Host --> SATA HD the other says SATA Host -> IDE HD. I assume the SATA Host --> IDE HD is the one I want to use? That was the only one that would even allow the drive to be recognized in BIOS.
How should it be jumpered? My understanding has been that actual SATA drives don't need to be jumpered at all (wondering why some come with jumper pins anyway?)
SATA to IDE adapters exist in three flavors.
1) SATA to IDE
2) IDE to SATA
3) Bidirectional, controlled by jumpers and/or the
presence of three connectors.
Many of the adapter chips are bidirectional in nature, and
unidirectional designs use configuration pins to set the
direction permanently. But a true bidirectional adapter
makes all the features of the chip visible.
On the IDE end, most adapters work if you select Master mode for
the disk drive. My IDE host to SATA disk adapter, has a jumper for
selecting Master or Slave, Using that feature, I can stick two
of those adapters on the same ribbon cable. Some other
adapters, lack that flexibility, and you can only use one
adapter per ribbon cable. (Or, use one adapter
stuffed into a motherboard IDE connector.)
*******
We can look at a manual for a bidirectional one.
http://www.syba.com/upload/1268089921/12680899211944.pdf
http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/12-186-078-V01?$S640W$
The adapter has a female IDE. The computer IDE host port is male.
The hard drive IDE port is male as well. That means the same female
IDE can plug into either of them. But, there are differences,
in that when plugged into a hard drive, the adapter is a "driver",
whereas when plugged into a motherboard, the adapter is a "receiver".
The chip inside that one, has three end-user signals. It
has two signals for selecting Master/Slave/Cable_Select.
That would use three of the four possible codes.
http://www.sunplusit.com/download/if223av21_Web20101130.pdf
The third signal (H_D_Sel), selects the direction of operation. It
must be tied to a ground on one of the connectors, to sense how
the cables are installed. That's problematic, in that a user
could plug in all three connectors, and make a "mess" of things.
The signal should have been brought out to a switch, like the
other two, to make it "more of the users fault" if it
was mis-configured. I'm guessing it's using a ground
on one of the SATA connectors, to sense when that SATA connector is
plugged in.
*******
SATA uses one terminating device per cable, so there's no need
of Master or Slave for that. Only one chip is expected
at the end of the SATA cable.
"SATA Host" means the motherboard end, as the motherboard is the Host.
So if you were connecting a SATA motherboard to an IDE drive,
it would be "SATA Host" on one end, and "IDE device" on the other end.
Since we're dealing with an IDE device, the switches have to be
set, to select Master, Slave, or Cable Select. And the IDE
drive has to have something that will work with those settings.
(Like, an 80 wire cable if using Cable Select. And a matching
jumper setting. Master on the adapter, Master on the drive block.)
The jumper block on SATA drives, is for a different purpose.
Not all brands have one (Hitachi doesn't have a block). Seagate
has a block with four pins, two for "Force150", two for
"Spread Spectrum". Some older Macintosh computers cannot
tolerate Spread Spectrum clock modulation, so the Seagate
gets jumpered for those Macs. And the Force150 jumper, is
used so a SATA II drive can work with a VIA VT8237 (broken)
Southbridge SATA port that only runs at SATA I rates and
nothing else. The VIA VT8237S is the "fixed" version of
Southbridge, which properly negotiates with SATA II drives
and then the jumper on the Seagate is not needed. Most
other chipsets (brands other than VIA) are generally OK.
And if VIA ships new versions of stuff, you can expect
their fix to be included on those as well.
*******
The SunPlusIT chip contains an 8051 processor and firmware.
That means it can present as quirky a behavior, as can be
obtained by home-grown firmware. There are some other,
simpler SATA devices, which are "dumb", and less likely
to "have a personality". It's hard to say whether the
presence of a processor inside the adapter chip, is a
good thing or not. It does allow the manufacturer to
change the behavior of the chip, by making new chips with
a different mask ROM (firmware) layer on top of the silicon die.
They can make batches of the basic wafer first, and then, as new
versions of firmware come along, make a slight change to
the part number printed on the plastic top of the chip,
and use a different firmware in the mask ROM layer. (The
mask ROM layer is one of the last process steps.) So
if the old chip didn't detect an ATAPI DVD drive, and a
newer date code chip did, that could be explained away
via a different firmware load.
*******
As for the "Dynamic Disk" thing, I think a Dynamic Disk uses a
different entry in the Partition table in Sector 0.
http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_types-1.html
"42 Windows 2000 dynamic extended partition marker
If a partition table entry of type 0x42 (hex) is present in the
legacy partition table, then W2K ignores the legacy partition
table and uses a proprietary partition table and a proprietary
partitioning scheme (LDM or DDM). As the Microsoft KnowledgeBase
writes:
Pure dynamic disks (those not containing any hard-linked partitions)
have only a single partition table entry (type 42) to define the
entire disk. Dynamic disks store their volume configuration in a
database located in a 1-MB private region at the end of each
dynamic disk.
"
So it would be pretty hard to mistake a drive for being Dynamic. As
it would require masking the readout of sector 0, and presenting
0x42 in the right place in the partition table. Instead of finding
0x07 or 0x0C or the like for FAT32 or NTFS.
Paul
