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General discussion

Replace old IDE HDD with new SATA HDD?

by cb68 Jan 5, 2010 1:51AM PST

My 200GB IDE HDD is starting to get full and I want to replace it with a 500GB HDD. I have a HP m495c Media Center pc. The motherboard is an ASUS P4SD-LA. The HP name for the MB is Oxford-UL6E. It has 2 SATA 1.5 connectors.

If I clone my IDE drive to a new SATA drive, will the computer be able to use the new HDD to bootup and run my programs? HP did not include the Win XP OS disk with the computer, so I can't do a clean install. Also, if I can change out the HDD's will I need to change any settings in the BIOS?

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8 Posts
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Step one. Create restore media.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Jan 5, 2010 2:39AM PST

HP when they didn't ship the media would give a way to create restore media.

As to moving from IDE to sata I'm going to write it's unlikely in this machine. I couldn't find any document telling me you could emulate IDE on the SATA ports so this means that unless someone has accomplished it on this machine the chances of success are nearly zero. Later machines came with the BIOS IDE SATA emulation and while this was good....

It still means it would tax your average technician as they clone the drive to the new drive (I won't list clone software here but I'd use CLONEZILLA) then power down, arrange drives, remove the IDE!!! then configure the BIOS to emulate IDE.

Good luck!
Bob

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Restore media created.
by cb68 Jan 5, 2010 3:57AM PST

I created the restore cd's when I first set up the computer many, many years ago.

Your answer is not what I wanted to hear, but I can't say that I am surprised. I guess I could look into getting another higher capacity IDE drive, but it probably isn't worth it. It looks like the SATA connectors are pretty much useless. Anyone else have any ideas?

Thanks for the help.

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So why not?
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Jan 5, 2010 5:08AM PST
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I've done this once and gotten away with it
by Steven Haninger Jan 5, 2010 5:56AM PST

but this was long ago. I installed XP on an IDE drive but wanted it on a brand new WD Raptor drive with a whopping 37 gigs of HD space. These were SATA drives but with both SATA type power and molex connections. I did it this way as my MB utility disk didn't seem to have a way to make an SATA driver floppy disk that could be used during the pre-installation. In any even, after installing XP, I was able to install the MB and necessary SATA drivers. Once done, I cloned the IDE drive to the WD Raptor. I pulled the IDE drive out and the SATA drive booted just fine. I built that PC on an ASUS P4C800 series board. I guess in theory it shouldn't have worked but it ran for 6 years before I retired it.

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Here is my BIOS
by cb68 Jan 5, 2010 6:16AM PST
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Thanks for the picts.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Jan 5, 2010 8:07AM PST

See this? -> http://www.cooldrives.com/satoidecofor.html

That will convert that SATA drive back to IDE to get the job done.

But at 59.99 bucks for a 500GB why do that?
Bob

PS. Nothing in the picts or manual shows me it will boot from, much less let you install XP to those SATA connections.
Bob

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Thanks for the help.
by cb68 Jan 5, 2010 11:45AM PST

Thanks again for all the help and for the link to Computer Geeks. I checked Newegg, Tigerdirect and Amazon for IDE 500GB drives for comparison. All their prices were much higher for the same capacity. I will probably buy that Hitachi drive.

I have one last question about cloning. I have CS3 on my computer. If I clone my hard drive, do I need to deactivate CS3 before cloning and then reactivate it when I start using the new drive?

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I never did that.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Jan 5, 2010 11:49AM PST

I cloned the drive. Pulled the old, moved the new to the new position and booted it up to finish it off.

The one thing you don't want to do is boot up the old drive after the clone job. Some windows will mark the clone non-bootable and cause the owner to do it again.
Bob

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