Problems with New computer detecting old hard drive..

[DocBrown]

That's the problem then. NO power to the adapter card & the HD.

The Connectors in the DELL are SATA only. We need a power adapter to convert SATA power to 4 pin Molex.

 

[bob oblah]

I think the old hd is underpowered and I believe this is what I need:

Newegg.com - AMC CSA-6 6" SATA Power Adapter, (15-Pin) to Power Supply (4-Pin) - Adapters & Gender Changers

 

[bob oblah]

That's the problem then. NO power to the adapter card & the HD.

The Connectors in the DELL are SATA only. We need a power adapter to convert SATA power to 4 pin Molex.

Thanks man, you've been a lot of help. I can't believe I pulled a rookie mistake like that haha. Oh well. I'll have to pick one up and I think I'll be on my way.

 

[DocBrown]

I think the old hd is underpowered and I believe this is what I need:

Newegg.com - AMC CSA-6 6" SATA Power Adapter, (15-Pin) to Power Supply (4-Pin) - Adapters & Gender Changers

Yes, that should work.

I found this one also

Newegg.com - BYTECC SATA-3LP4 SATA Power Input 15pin to MOLEX 4pin Power Adapter Cable

 

[DocBrown]

Bob,

Thanks for participating in Trial & Error Testing

We all have learned some new tips from your thread

Please come back & post your results when you get the power adapter converter.

Tell your Friends about SevenForums

 

[Lebon14]

Also a suggestion for the user here. You can also buy the enclosure mentionned above and a new SATA hard drive. Then, plug the old hard drive to the enclosure and copy the data into the new one.

 

[bob oblah]

Update: Got my new power adapter harness from new egg. Plugged it all in, and still no go. I still have the Q drive, but as previously stated, is probably from Office 2010. I've tried both jumper settings on the adapter board, but nothing is working. Old HD is still set as a slave. I did notice however that the factory HD in the dell has jumper settings but no actual jumper, nor are any of the settings labeled Master, Slave, etc. I also went into BIOS and it wasn't finding the HD there either.

Plug and play can bite me haha. Any ideas guys? In the meantime, I'm going to try a different connection on the motherboard. Thanks again....

 

[bob oblah]

Still can't get it working. I tried different slots on the motherboard, and none of them worked. About the only thing I didn't do physically with it is test the voltage coming out of the power supply.

What of my virtual Q drive from office 2010? Will that somehow block windows from seeing the hard drive? I already went into folder options and selected the option to show hidden system files/drives/etc. Still can't see it in BIOS either.

About at the end of my rope here, starting to think an external setup might be the way to go, but I really don't want to spend more money if I don't NEED to. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks for lookin...

 

[DocBrown]

Bob,

I used an adapter similar to yours but to go the other way from IDE on MB to a SATA HD.

I'm going to take a guess that your IDE HD needs to be set as master for this adapter board. Were there any instructions with it?

 

[bob oblah]

Bob,

I used an adapter similar to yours but to go the other way from IDE on MB to a SATA HD.

I'm going to take a guess that your IDE HD needs to be set as master for this adapter board. Were there any instructions with it?

Instructions with...the adapter? There was, and it was in English, but the grammar was really bad, probably a bad translation? But there was no useful info in it. It basically just said "plug it in".

I didn't try setting the old hard drive to master yet. Just did it now though, and now the computer is detecting a Y drive? Still can't access it though.

Sigh Time for bed, have to work tomorrow, I'll mess around with it some more then. Thanks again for the help doc.

 

[DocBrown]

I know you want a permanent installation, but this is what I use to test various HD's just to see the data & files on them.

Tri-Head Adapter Lots of them on ebay

 

[whs]

Here is a similar one as DocBrown posted and it costs only pennies. USB 2.0 to IDE / SATA Converter Cable | Overstock.com

 

[DocBrown]

Good find whs,

that even has the power supply for the full size IDE HD.