SATA vs IDE

[Charlie Berube]

I have 2 identical computers and I have the same problem with both.



I have ASUS P5GC-MX/1333 socket 775 motherboard.

I have a Seagate 80GB SATA/8MB 7200RPM OEM hard drive.

I have an LG GSA-H55N 20X Dual Layer DVD burner (OEM).



My DVD burner is hooked to an IDE cable.

When I try to hook up a slave hard drive to the IDE cable, it does not see
the drive unless I unhook the DVD burner.

I cannot see both the slave drive and the DVD burner at the same time.

I tried different combination of slave and master configurations but I still
cannot see both devices.



I tied with 2 different know good hard drives that worked on other computers
both as masters or slaves.



Would this have anything to do with the fact that my hard drive is SATA and
my DVD burner is IDE?



1.. Ps: I contacted the retailer where I purchased the computers and their
technician indicated that this is the first time he has ever heard of this
happening.
2.. I am also unable to make a "ghost image" of the SATA drive.
Anyone out there able to help me??



Charlie

 

[Paul]

I have 2 identical computers and I have the same problem with both.

I have ASUS P5GC-MX/1333 socket 775 motherboard.

I have a Seagate 80GB SATA/8MB 7200RPM OEM hard drive.

I have an LG GSA-H55N 20X Dual Layer DVD burner (OEM).

My DVD burner is hooked to an IDE cable.

When I try to hook up a slave hard drive to the IDE cable, it does not see
the drive unless I unhook the DVD burner.

I cannot see both the slave drive and the DVD burner at the same time.

I tried different combination of slave and master configurations but I still
cannot see both devices.

I tied with 2 different know good hard drives that worked on other computers
both as masters or slaves.

Would this have anything to do with the fact that my hard drive is SATA and
my DVD burner is IDE?

1.. Ps: I contacted the retailer where I purchased the computers and their
technician indicated that this is the first time he has ever heard of this
happening.
2.. I am also unable to make a "ghost image" of the SATA drive.
Anyone out there able to help me??

Charlie

If you look in the BIOS, have you left the "Onboard IDE Operate Mode"
at Enhanced and "Enhanced Mode Support On" at SATA ? Those are the
defaults, and most likely to lead to all storage ports working. Some
combinations of those settings, can lead to weird symptoms, such as
a drive operating slower than normal, bandwidth-wise.

Be careful with those settings, as some changes may lead to a failure to
boot. If the board has ever claimed to have an "overclocking failure",
make sure you check all the BIOS settings, and that they haven't changed.
A good way to keep track, is when you get a new computer, flip from one
BIOS screen to the next, and take a picture with a digital camera for
later reference.

Paul

 

[Bill in Co.]

If you look in the BIOS, have you left the "Onboard IDE Operate Mode"
at Enhanced and "Enhanced Mode Support On" at SATA ? Those are the
defaults, and most likely to lead to all storage ports working. Some
combinations of those settings, can lead to weird symptoms, such as
a drive operating slower than normal, bandwidth-wise.

Somewhat relatedly, I just found out that by disabling write caching on the
external eSata drive (to play it safe), there is a HUGE speed penalty (in
making backups, etc, etc). So it's back on now. (May not be as
significant for external USB drives, haven't tried that yet).

 

[Bill Ridgeway]

Paul wrote <<A good way to keep track, is when you get a new computer, flip
from one BIOS screen to the next, and take a picture with a digital camera
for later reference.>>

This is also a good way to record your software configuration screens. If
you ever have to re-install software you have reconfigured some while ago
you will have a reference from which you will be able to get it to go the
way you want straight away instead of having to scratch your head. An
alternative (for those without a digital camera) is to press <Print Screen>
and copy that into a word processor and print out. Doing this page by page
is a bit tedious but may well be worth it in the end.

Bill Ridgeway