trouble installing a 2nd IDE HDD

I bought a Gateway DX4822-01 with Windows 7 preinstalled. The motherboard lacks any IDE ports so I had to buy an IDE-SATA adapter for my old 250 GB Western Digital drive from my old PC.

After plugging everything in, I powered up. With the device plugged in, Windows 7 takes longer to boot and when it does, it does not detect the IDE HDD at all.

I believe I may have to format the drive. The old drive still has XP installed plus some remaining files. Unfortunately, I can not do this with the Windows 7 disc as Gateway didn't include one. There's an option to burn backup and boot discs to DVD but I do not know if that will be what I need.

Formatting in the old PC is no longer an option. It's been stripped for parts and some of it already sold off.

Is there any chance to use this drive or should I write it off?

Hi and welcome to Seven Forums
Do not write it off,im fairly sure can be fixed.
First,double check to make sure it is installed correctly.
Then go to control panel>system>device manager and see if you can see it in there.

If so,
control panel-> system and security-> create and format hard disk partitions>right click on the hdd >change drive letters and paths>add drive letter.

Then check in the devices and printers portal from the start menu.

Let me know if its possible and if it works,
Dan

What are the jumper settings on the IDE drive??

I have never used the adapter you speak of, but if you are reasonably sure the drive is a working drive, I would certainly think you could use it.

Best guess is configuration--either jumpers, cabling, or an issue with the adapter you bought.

It should be set to "master" but i can't be 100% sure without opening this thing back up again. But my research shows it should be set to master even as a secondary SATA drive. Unless that info is wrong.

I can't see it under device manager.

Mildly possible it's the device i bought. It came with a molex y-adaptor for power and a SATA cable, any of which could be faulty. Then again, it's possible my 300 watt PSU isn't putting out enough power for it, though it should as it's only running mostly the factory stuff plus an extra case fan.

Diosoth said:

I can't see it under device manager.

I would unplug it and replug it,the Pc isnt picking it up.
I believe its a hardware problem like said.

Dan

I've tried nearly everything. Reseated cables, plugged the SATA cable to another motherboard connector. I even found I had enough internal cord length to ditch the molex y-adapter and still nothing.

I don't think it's the device. The way this behaves upon startup makes me suspect it's detecting the drive but doesn't know what to do with it. The Intel Matrix Storage Manager screen pops up with the HDD plugged in, doesn't pop up without it.

However, if the computer won't detect anything, I may be beyond luck on this one. But without being able to format I don't think I'd even want to sell my old HDD off.

Hi Diosoth

Is your hard drive showing in BIOS.

Not even under the BIOS menu under PC setup.

This adapter says Serillel Abit on it, no part number or anything else.

I just took it out. Without this, Windows 7 boots in less than 30 seconds. Maybe 20 seconds. With this device hooked up to the 2nd HDD, boot takes about 3 minutes.

Data transfer isn't a concern. Prior to unhooking the old PC, I left it on as-is and set the new PC up on the small table at the foot of my bed. My Gateway has numerous card readers on the front and I have a few USB card readers for the old PC. I spent about a day moving stuff to micro SD cards to transfer over. I think I didn't bother with everything, though. Some stuff was simply easier to re-download.

I probably could have used my ethernet cable for a LAN setup between them, but I wanted to retain internet usage.

Installing the old drive would simply give me extra storage space on board, possibly with the intent of installing XP as a secondary OS.