Can new hard drives work in my old system?

coltson · n00b Joined: 15 Oct 2005 Posts: 54

My old hard drive is going to space, so I am thinking into buying a new one. However the models that I checked all use sata interface and my pc is an old athlon xp with ATA interface. It is compatible or I will have to search for an old hard drive?

chithanh · Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 12:49 am Post subject:

There exist inexpensive (<10€/$) adapters which allow you to connect SATA drives to PATA ports. Be careful to get the correct variant when you buy one, the cheapest ones are often not bidirectional.

An alternative would be to get a bootable PCI SATA controller.

pidsley · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 09 Jun 2012 Posts: 80

Depending on where you are, there might be computer equipment recyclers in your area. There are two here (Portland Oregon) and they both sell used IDE drives very inexpensively. You could also look on ebay if you can buy things from there.

Or as chithanh says you can buy a SATA-to-IDE adapter.

coltson · n00b Joined: 15 Oct 2005 Posts: 54

What is the problem with it not being bidirectional?

Would the PCI SATA controller be cheaper?

Thanks for the input.

wcg · Guru Joined: 06 Jan 2009 Posts: 588

Here is a pci sata controller. It will do sata 1 (1.5 gb/sec).
Sata 3.0 gb/sec and sata 6.0 gb/sec drives are backward
compatible with 1.5 gb/sec controllers. Access to the
drive will simply be slower (not slower than an ide drive,
though): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815104219
I suggest reading the feedback from people that
have purchased them.

You might find one for a little less on eBay, and they can
also be found via Amazon. (Newegg has several models,
some with raid, some without, etc. It is important that it
works without raid, so that you don't get locked in to some
manufacturer's proprietary hardware raid format.)

The "sata to ide adapters" mostly go the other way, connecting
an ide drive to an sata controller. There might be a few for
connecting an sata drive to an ide controller, but they are
rare and quality could be an issue.

You will also need power cable adapters (sata drives use a different
power connector than the old molex 4-pin drive power connectors).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812816029
_________________
TIA

chithanh · Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 8:56 am Post subject:

"bidirectional" means that the adapter works both to connect PATA/IDE drives to SATA ports as well as SATA drives to PATA ports. The least expensive adapters are often not bidirectional and support only one configuration. So if you buy a non-bidirectional adapter, carefully check that it is the correct one.

A PCI SATA controller would cost maybe twice as much, and support SATA features like NCQ, PMP or hotplug (depending on chipset).

wcg · Guru Joined: 06 Jan 2009 Posts: 588

That Koutech card is only 2-port (2 drives), and it has a Silicon Image 3512
controller chip, so it would use the sata_sil driver (no ncq support, etc).
Reports are that it does work, however. If you only need to be able to
get to the data reliably, and drive performance is not much of an issue,
this may be sufficient. It is cheap ($15US + shipping, new).

Some higher end cards that are more capable and cost more, but
still use a controller chip that the linux sata drivers have no particular
problems with:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816104006
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124008

Both of the Koutech cards have a 1.5tb drive size limit. I did not find
that in the Syba card specs, but you could probably find out elsewhere
on the www what the limit on drive size is for it.

Here is a bi-directional adapter that might work:
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812186078

(It probably also has a drive size limit.)
_________________
TIA