HD Won't Show Up on OLD PC (With New Parts)? Something About an 80 Cable?

DumNDuMMerDumNDuMMer New
edited October 2011 in Hardware
So here's the deal.
The case is from a Compaq SR1030NX with the OEM power supply. The motherboard is new, (well it was back when I bought it but never used it).
The hard drive I'm trying to use is a SATA (New from this century with a IDE to sata adapter).
The optical drive is a Sony DVDRW (old) and the memory is used, I believe PC3200, cpu is new (again, never used until now)

I got a sata to ide convertor but when I boot up the machine it says something about an 80 pin cable and the hd doesn't show up (not even on BIOS). Everything else shows up, with the exception of the HD. I tried the HD on another computer just to make sure and it's fine, tried the memory also, works fine, it's just the HD issue I'm having now.

I've searched around and found out that there is 40 pin and 80 pin cables but I don't know what's the difference. I wonder also if the case.

My question is if it would be better for me to use an IDE hard drive, use a different cable? I think maybe because of the IDE to SATA adapter the drive isn't working? I don't know so this is the reason I ask :confused:

Comments

  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited October 2011
    The machine you have has SATA ports on the motherboard (bottom right, above the words labled SuperIO). Instead of trying to get conversion from SATA to IDE to motherboard working, just get a <$5 SATA cable ($3.55 shipped) and call it done.
  • DumNDuMMerDumNDuMMer New
    edited October 2011
    The thing I forgot to mention is that the motherboard is not OEM, it's a Biostar M7NCG 400 which apparently has no SATA support; and To quote another user of another universe...
    because this board does not support SATA, you will have a hard time installing onto an SATA drive due to a driver issue. as i'm sure you have already discovered, this board does not like the default (or detected settings) in the bios and requires the proper settings for a successful xp install. this board gave me a hell of a time when i tried to install windows using components that the specs claimed to support and came dangerously close to a "chance" encounter with a wall. while on my personal quest for answers, i encountered individuals who also suffered a similar plight as you. i faintly remember something about this board requiring you to install a driver for the SATA support via a 3.5" floppy before the board will properly recognize the hard drive. hate to be the bearer of bad news but you may be better served using an old EIDE drive for your OS. if your search here (which i assume you did before posting) came up null, might i suggest searching the web for more answers. this board is also popular in the HTPC and silent pc crowds, it was on one of those forums that i first read about similar problems associated with this board and the SATA drivers.

    on a side note, i hope that you are using ddr 333 (pc 2700) ram (especially if you are using the nvidia igp) and have all the correct settings for the memory and processor in the bios. the MCNCG is one mother of a board to work with out of the box.

    I'm assuming it would be easier to go with an IDE drive? I just want to get it working, cheaply.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited October 2011
    You can either try something like this IDE to SATA bridge (not sure what you already have and how that is supposed to work, perhaps you can post a link/model number), get a PCI or PCI-X SATA II card (like this one) or get an IDE HDD, like this.
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