Re: "Question, If I did get one of the pci cards I assume that each
drive would still have to be hooked into the power sypply. What about
the external drive enclosure? Do the device need external power with that?"
External USB enclosures for 2.5" drives (laptop drives) normally are
powered from the USB port (a very few may have an external power supply
also), while external enclosures for 3.5" drives and 5.25" drives
(optical drives, CD & DVD) normally have their own power supplies,
sometimes internal and sometimes external (but, in any case, thereby
requiring a power cord to plug into the wall).
If your need to access these drives is semi-permanent and ongoing, then
get an external enclosure. For a 3.5" drive or a 5.25" drive, it should
cost about $25 to $35 (try to find one that has a small fan, these can
get hot and overheat).
However, if your need is short term (only to transfer data), then get
one of these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=330063597315
This is a universal USB external drive adapter, it supports everything:
-2.5" IDE drives
-2.5" SATA drives
-3.5" IDE drives
-3.5" SATA drives
-Optical drives
This is a wonderful product for anyone who works with computers, and
it's dirt cheap ($4.99 ... including triple interface, switching power
supply all necessary cables and driver CD for Windows 9x).
Downside: You are ordering direct from Hong Kong. The seller is
reliable and shipping is cheap ($8.99), but parcel post from Hong Kong
takes 3 weeks.
Pamela and Howard Signa wrote:
> Christopher Muto wrote:
>> you won't see a lot of power connecters for pata type devices, just
>> two that are intended for the potentially two pata optical drives.
>> but you can get y shaped sliptter cables to trun each of these
>> connectors into two connectors.
>>
>> yet a better, simpler, and less expensive solution would be to install
>> your old optical drive internally and then get an external usb
>> enclosure for your old hard drive. search newegg.com for "usb
>> external hard disk enclosure 3.5" there are many to choose from
>> starting at just $15 delivered.
>>
>>
>> "Pamela and Howard Signa" <"psignano spammmm"@suddenlink.net> wrote in
>> message news:M1Ugh.5990$...
>>> Christopher Muto wrote:
>>>> not withstanding what paul said, but have you entered the bios (f2
>>>> during the power on self test) and enabled the additional sata
>>>> channels that you have connected the additional drives to?
>>>>
>>>> "Pamela and Howard Signa" <"psignano spammmm"@suddenlink.net> wrote
>>>> in message news:58Lgh.18545$...
>>>>> I have a Dimension E521. I did not realize until i received it that
>>>>> it was strictly a SATA board.
>>>>>
>>>>> I had it configured with a hard drive and a DVD writer.
>>>>>
>>>>> My problem is that I have another IDE DVD writer and a IDE hard
>>>>> drive that I had planned to put in the computer. I purchased two
>>>>> sata to ide convertors, but I cannot figure out how to get the
>>>>> computer to recognize that I have attached the dvd writer. I have
>>>>> not tried the hard drive yet.
>>>>>
>>>>> Any help would be appreciated.
>>>>
>>> I am looking into one of these cards in case I cannot get the other
>>> things to work, but I have another question..............
>>>
>>> I don't see but two other power connectors. One is for a floppy,
>>> shich can connect to one of the adapters that I bought. The other is
>>> a regular white power connector, that I guess could be used on the
>>> other IDE device. Sorry to be so ignorant. This is just one area that
>>> I have not dealt with since I have been around computers for 8 years.
>>
>>
> Thansk. I am pulling my hair out. I have finally just decided to access
> my hard drive off the network from my daughters computer.
>
> I have the dvd write not hooked up with the convertor, that is hooking
> into a sata motherboard cable, the poswer supply for the convertor, and
> then the dvd write is also hooked to the remaining power cable. The dvd
> write now is on, as before it was getting now power, but it still is not
> seen. I tried once again to do the control n, but when the system
> reboots i get a message stating that no hard disk has the operating
> system or something, and to insert the disk. I think I need to specify
> how I want it to boot, I want it to boot from dvd writer, if nothing
> found then hard disk.
>
> Question, If I did get one of the pci cards I assume that each drive
> would still have to be hooked into the power sypply. What about the
> external drive enclosure? Do the device need external power with that?
Linear Mode
