Old IDE hard drive question

[samjohnson]

I think the hard drive is IDE, its the same cable as the CD drives use. Anyway, my question was, can I take the old hard dirve (its out of a old compaq) and put it into my comp that I have now? My comp uses sata hookups for the HD so I don't have any idea if I can put a old HD into my comp using the IDE cable and actually have it work. Thanks for help in advance.

 

[kirock]

You can if your mobo has spare IDE connector. Some mobo have both SATA and older IDE, some of the latest mobo are dropping the extra IDE (other then used for DVD). Follow the connector from the CD/DVD player back to mobo. Right beside that should/could be a spare IDE connector port.

 

[samjohnson]

Ya no there isn't any. I thought I could just use the IDE that my CD/DVD was hooked up to. Oh well. The only thing I have extra of is the sata connectors and the IDE for the floppy drive. Thanks for the help.

 

[BlameCanada]

You could use a SATA to IDE Adapter HERE

You could use a PCI IDE controller card.

You could also use a USB external enclosure.

More info HERE

 

[Tarkus]

the easiest way is the USB external enclosure, they are about $40. (as the canuck mentioned)

 

[SNGX1275]

Ya no there isn't any. I thought I could just use the IDE that my CD/DVD was hooked up to.

Yes you can. Just pay attention to the jumpers (master/slave/cable select).

 

[samjohnson]

Thanks for the website for the adapters blamecanada.

If I was to use the same IDE cable that my CD/DVD drive is using how would I place the jumpers on the HD? And if it potentially didn't work would it mess anything up on my computer. I don't want to fry anything.

 

[BlameCanada]

Just make it slave,as it won`t be your boot drive.

You can`t fry anything.

CD/DVD drives can be quite useful,so I`m guessing

this only a temporary solution.

 

[kirock]

I just got back here (this post). I see you're in good hands.
Yes use the CD/DVD IDE and slave the new HDD. It's temporary to pull stuff off it? Then just remove and hook up CD/DVD again. Else leave it and have CD/DVD though.

Or other solutions like: SATA to IDE connector or PCI IDE card or external USB housing
(all a little expensive for what it's worth)

cheers.

 

[samjohnson]

Thanks for the help guys. I actually want to make it sorda permanent. I found on newegg that you can buy the external casing for hard drives and I will probably do that since it was only like $25. And it comes with all the hook ups for it to be a external hard drive. My other question is though can you use a external hard drive to boot an OS? I want to put linux on it but I don't know if a external hard drive is bootable?

Again thanks for all the help.

 

[SNGX1275]

You could boot linux off of it, if your motherboard/bios support it. You can't easily boot Windows off it though.

 

[samjohnson]

I think my motherboard supports linux. If the external is using a USB cable to run to the computer it can still boot off it? OR does the external have to have like the SATA hookups for the external to boot off it. I can do either though cuse I do have a SATA hook up in the back of my comp.

 

[SNGX1275]

No, I meant if your motherboard supports booting from USB. Some don't.

 

[samjohnson]

Oh I see. If I get a SATA one it would deffintly be able to boot off it right?

 

[nickc]

if u get the SATA to IDE adapter it could definately boot off that.

 

[SNGX1275]

Wait a minute nickc, either I'm confused or you are confused. The way I see it is he has an old IDE hard drive, but no way to hook it up internally. So going IDE to SATA to IDE would be pointless.

Windows won't boot off a USB drive without you hacking some files and making a custom installation cd. Some linux distributions are able to boot off USB devices without a problem. The motherboard has to support booting from a USB device though.

If you want Linux on this and want it USB, make sure your motherboard will do it. If you want Linux on it and don't care if its internal, I'd recommend just picking up a cheap PCI IDE controller card then.

There is eSATA, but you'd need an eSATA external enclosure, and also probably a SATA HD, which you don't have.

eSATA = External
SATA = Internal
IDE = Internal
USB = External

 

[samjohnson]

Thanks for the help SNGX1275. How would I check my motherboard to see if it supports booting off a usb. Also I could just get a IDE to SATA adapter. I saw some on newegg and my computer also has a SATA hook up in the back, but if I did that it would definitely boot off it right? Then I could just make a stand or something for the HD.

***EDIT*** Ok well looked again on newegg at the adapters and mostly there is just IDE/SATA to USB. SO I guess I have to figure out if my motherboard can boot off a USB one.

 

[samjohnson]

OK I think I found out if my motherboard supports bootable external drives. I went into my BIOS and went to "ADVANCED" then I went to the "PCIPnP" setting and in there there was a setting called "Plug and Play O/S" and it was set on "NO". Then below that there was another part called "Resources Controlled by" and it was set to "Auto". When clicked on the "resources" one in the right side of the screen it said, "BIOS can automatically configure all the boot and plug and play compatible devices. If you choose Auto, you cannot select IRQ, DMA, and memory base address feilds, since BIOS automatically assigns them." Now I think if I leave those settings as they are I should be able to boot from a USB device right? IF I am reading it right it sounds like everything is ready to go to boot from a USB HD.