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Question

Adding a SATA drive to a older IDE system

Feb 4, 2015 3:04AM PST

I have an older system w/a Gigabyte MoBo that has both IDE and SATA hard drive connections; and also Molex and SATA Power connections.
It has 2 maxtor hard drives (IDE type) and 2 optical drives already installed, the system runs WinXP Pro with no real problems, other than Google Chrome is unstable; but that a different problem.
I took the hard-drive out of a WD 1TB "MyBook" External USB hard-drive that the case got cracked up and the power cord was mangled. I want to install it as another drive in my desktop computer, but the current IDE drive will be the primary boot drive.
MY Problem is, when I connected the hard-drive to the system, the computer wont even boot up, meaning that I push the Power Button and nothing happens.

Am I missing something here?
should I get a Molex to SATA power connector adapter?
Someone please help.

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
(NT) How is power supplied to this SATA drive?
Feb 4, 2015 3:14AM PST
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How is power supplied to this SATA drive?
Feb 4, 2015 4:53AM PST

the "Coolmax Model CX-450B" power supply has both kinds of power connectors for IDE Drives -I think these are "Molex" connectors- and for "SATA" drives. I took one of the SATA connectors and plugged it in. The system won't turn on when I do that.

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OK one more test.
Feb 4, 2015 5:00AM PST

Don't connect up the SATA data cable.

It's possible this drive has a hard fault. That is, that it's really dead.
Bob

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RE: One more test
Feb 7, 2015 5:10AM PST

What would be a "hard fault"?
The drive was working fine last I used it.

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(NT) Such as the machine won't start with the power connection.
Feb 7, 2015 5:27AM PST
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As well as what R. Proffitt suggests
Feb 4, 2015 11:43PM PST

Disconnect all power to the IDE drives and see if the PC powers up. I did deal with one odd case in which the small amount of power a hard drive need to start was enough to cause the PS to stutter and shut down. You can try watching the fans when you power up and, if you see a twitch but the fans stop, the PS may have shut down due to a load condition.

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As well as what R. Proffitt suggests
Feb 5, 2015 12:39AM PST

I will try that.
Do I have to set up "jumpers" or something to make this new SATA drive as a Slave drive to the IDE drive?
Ultimately, this new drive will hold music and videos/movies that will be shared to my other computers; kinda like a "Network Storage Drive".

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All SATA drives are masters.
Feb 5, 2015 12:46AM PST

The slave thing is all about IDE connections. There is however some BIOS's that EMULATE IDE and will, through a little trickery report to the OS that the drive is a second drive or slave.

It's pretty arcane stuff but in short, all SATA connections are masters on their connection.
Bob

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RE: As well as what R. Proffitt suggests
Feb 7, 2015 5:07AM PST

Okay, I tried what you both suggested.
I disconnected the SATA data cable and left the power connector connected, the system wouldn't come up.

I disconnected all the power connectors but left one IDE-type optical drive and the SATA drive power connector plugged in; the PC won't power up.

I disconnected the one IDE-type optical drive and left the SATA drive power connector plugged in; the PC won't power up.

I reconnected the one IDE-type optical drive and the unplugged SATA drive; the PC powered up with the expected Boot Error of no OS on a Hard disk.

I'm thinking of using a "Molex to SATA Power cord Adapter" to power up the SATA Drive from the IDE-Type power connections.
What do you think of that?

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(NT) Iffy. Worth trying.
Feb 7, 2015 5:27AM PST