SATA and PATA: compatible or not?

I might get a used IBM tower, IBM Intellistation M Pro P4 3.2 GHz 512MB
6230-41U. IBM's website [http://tinyurl.com/2fvnpu ] shows that the HDD is
SATA. Since I'm not so familiar with SATA and have only owned, and still
own, two older IBM towers that have the old, 1.75" to 2" wide, flat ribbon
cables, if I take out a CD burner from one of these older IBMs, can I
somehow connect the ribbon style connector for the CD burner to the IBM
tower I might get, the one having SATA cables? Is there some kind of
adapter so that older, ribbon style cables can be plugged into SATA?


Thanks

Previously Stan <> wrote:
> I might get a used IBM tower, IBM Intellistation M Pro P4 3.2 GHz 512MB
> 6230-41U. IBM's website [http://tinyurl.com/2fvnpu ] shows that the HDD is
> SATA. Since I'm not so familiar with SATA and have only owned, and still
> own, two older IBM towers that have the old, 1.75" to 2" wide, flat ribbon
> cables, if I take out a CD burner from one of these older IBMs, can I
> somehow connect the ribbon style connector for the CD burner to the IBM
> tower I might get, the one having SATA cables? Is there some kind of
> adapter so that older, ribbon style cables can be plugged into SATA?

Short answer: Not compatible at all

Long answer: There are adapters, but they are unreliable
even for HDDs and generally do not work for CD burners.

You might have luck with a PCI ATA adapter card, but some
of them also have problems with CD-burners. However the
mainboard may still have one ATA port, which could support
the burner.

Arno

Arno Wagner wrote:
> Previously Stan <> wrote:
>> I might get a used IBM tower, IBM Intellistation M Pro P4 3.2 GHz 512MB
>> 6230-41U. IBM's website [http://tinyurl.com/2fvnpu ] shows that the HDD is
>> SATA. Since I'm not so familiar with SATA and have only owned, and still
>> own, two older IBM towers that have the old, 1.75" to 2" wide, flat ribbon
>> cables, if I take out a CD burner from one of these older IBMs, can I
>> somehow connect the ribbon style connector for the CD burner to the IBM
>> tower I might get, the one having SATA cables? Is there some kind of
>> adapter so that older, ribbon style cables can be plugged into SATA?
>
> Short answer: Not compatible at all
>
> Long answer: There are adapters, but they are unreliable
> even for HDDs and generally do not work for CD burners.
>
> You might have luck with a PCI ATA adapter card, but some
> of them also have problems with CD-burners. However the
> mainboard may still have one ATA port, which could support
> the burner.
>
> Arno

I don't know about CD ROMs and burners, but my Gigabit adepter works
just fine. And it cost me all of $15. I currently have it plugged into
a Western Digital 250 GB parallel drive.

Previously Don <> wrote:
> Arno Wagner wrote:
>> Previously Stan <> wrote:
>>> I might get a used IBM tower, IBM Intellistation M Pro P4 3.2 GHz 512MB
>>> 6230-41U. IBM's website [http://tinyurl.com/2fvnpu ] shows that the HDD is
>>> SATA. Since I'm not so familiar with SATA and have only owned, and still
>>> own, two older IBM towers that have the old, 1.75" to 2" wide, flat ribbon
>>> cables, if I take out a CD burner from one of these older IBMs, can I
>>> somehow connect the ribbon style connector for the CD burner to the IBM
>>> tower I might get, the one having SATA cables? Is there some kind of
>>> adapter so that older, ribbon style cables can be plugged into SATA?
>>
>> Short answer: Not compatible at all
>>
>> Long answer: There are adapters, but they are unreliable
>> even for HDDs and generally do not work for CD burners.
>>
>> You might have luck with a PCI ATA adapter card, but some
>> of them also have problems with CD-burners. However the
>> mainboard may still have one ATA port, which could support
>> the burner.
>>
>> Arno

> I don't know about CD ROMs and burners, but my Gigabit adepter works
> just fine. And it cost me all of $15. I currently have it plugged into
> a Western Digital 250 GB parallel drive.

I posted a review some time here. I found that some adapter+disk combos
work well, others not and some do not work at all. That is what I
call "unreliable". Getting such an adapter and using it is basically
an experiment with unclear outcome.

Arno