New is Always Better....or Not........
Hi Tmagic
I've looked in bios and the only thing there is to enable/disable sata and raid - nothing about setting to ide or anything.
I have also tried plugging into both of the sata ports on the motherboard - both have the same negative result!
Am I looking at yet another reload of Windows and all my other programs with the subsequent loss of data yet again????????
This isn't in direct support of your current issues, but I thought I might give you some food for thought.
There's really not many valid points to having an optical drive that's SATA or a HDD drive that's IDE.
I understand that money is always a consideration, but allow me the luxury of ignoring it for the sake of this discussion.
The only SATA optical drive I would consider owning is a Blu-Ray, this because they're not made in IDE models.
Most all motherboards auto select "Run as IDE", (or whatever the MOBO Manufacturer chooses to call it), when only one SATA HDD is present. This dispenses with the need for SATA drivers.
So, why does everybody rush out and by SATA DVD drives, dunno I suppose it's fashionable.
The new mobos provide a "legacy" IDE buss, which I always use for 2 optical drives. DVD drives can't possibly output more data than the IDE buss can handle! Usually they connect @DMA-4 or 66MBS while the optical transfer is limited at maximum to about 25MBS, or less than half of what the buss can handle. So forget all the 3Gbs BS, no optical will ever even come near to that.
A forseeable configuration for a home computer is 4HDDs (2 in RAID 0 for programs) and (2 in RAID 1 for storage). A MATX mobo only has 4 SATA ports, so why waste a perfectly good SATA port by blocking it up with an optical drive, which as I mentioned has only about a tenth of the output that SATA 2 interface can handle.
In an XP install SATA HDDs cannot be run individually in native SATA mode, or "ACHI" as it's called.
You have an aging HDD and you're building a new machine. If I were in your shoes, I'd purchase a new SATA HDD, and transfer your data to it, and put the IDE HDD in your closet as a data storage thingy. Hey, it's way easier to do it that way, than burn a fistful of DVDs. Although it wouldn't hurt to do that also, just to make double super sure.
This would leave you the IDE buss clear, and you could put 2 IDE opticals on it which nets you direct drive to drive DVD copy, and all of your SATA ports free for HDD, to be added as needed.
I note that your concerened about potential data loss and a OS reinstall. Be aware that Maxtor HDDs don't have the reputation of longevity that other makes do. Not trying to cause alarm here, but it does give you something to think about. I'd save some pennies for a new SATA HDD, and keep Max the Magnificent for a rainy day. Have you ever tried to spend pennies on a rainy day. It makes more sense to stay inside and play with the computer.
I always take my own advice here, IDE opticals, SATA HDD running as IDE (I have all XP boxes and don't see the need for RAID). The machines fire right up in this configuration. This always makes me happy. It could make you happy as well.
There is quite a bit of hysterical silliness that takes place with the advent of technological advance. My prime example here is PS2 vs USB2 input devices. If I can't humanly type or click faster than a PS2 port will allow. Why on earth do I need a USB mouse and keyboard. Wait, I know, to block up a USB port that I could be using for something else, and to make me buy a new keyboard.
