PATA -> Serial ATA convertors - do they always work ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ZigZag Master
  • Start date Start date
Z

ZigZag Master

I have some regular IDE to Serial ATA adapters that came with an Abit NF7-S
motherboard.

I tried using one on an Asus K8V SE Deluxe with a Western Digital 250 GB
(WD2500BB) hard drive. I could not get the drive recognized by the BIOS.

Are these convertors sometimes known to be flaky, or is it possuible that
the Serial ATA ports on my new mobo are hosed ?
 
Thats what I am saying.....you will need to install the sata drivers...they
should have come on your motherboard CD.
 
Thats what I am saying.....you will need to install the sata drivers...they
should have come on your motherboard CD.
Click to expand...

I don't think yer hearing me man. The BIOS does not see the drive. There
is not even an operating system on my machine yet.
 
Mark said:
Thats what I am saying.....you will need to install the sata
drivers...they should have come on your motherboard CD.
Click to expand...

Drivers are NOT used until you load an operating system. Obvious. The
BIOS should recognize the drive it before any OS gets loaded to then
load any drivers specific to a device. On the NF7-S, there is actually
a second BIOS just for the SATA support (although it is embedded within
the same flash update for the system BIOS). You first see the BIOS load
and the screen showing CPU and memory which is followed by a screen
clear and a load of the SATA BIOS. If the system BIOS has the SATA
device disabled then the SATA BIOS won't load and you get no support of
the SATA ports. If the system BIOS has the SATA port(s) enabled then
you should see the SATA BIOS get loaded later (just like you see SCSI
BIOS get loaded later). The SATA BIOS will then scan for drives on
those ports. If the SATA BIOS loads but it doesn't find any drives then
nothing later is going to see the drives, either, even if you load
drives in a much later load of the OS. That's how it is on the NF7-S.
I don't know about the Asus and whether it incorporates the SATA support
directly within the system BIOS or if it loads another but separate BIOS
for separate SATA controller chips.

If the SATA BIOS loads but it doesn't find the drives then you have a
hardware problem at that point that loading drivers later won't fix.
Can you take off the PATA-2-SATA converter and attach the IDE drive to
an mobo IDE port to ensure the drive itself is okay? Is the SATA BIOS a
separate BIOS from the system BIOS (i.e., it loads later)? If so, check
that the system BIOS has the SATA controller enabled. Presumably you
don't have anything else connected to the SATA ports (and which works);
else, you would know the SATA port and SATA BIOS already work okay.
 
ZigZag said:
I don't think yer hearing me man. The BIOS does not see the drive.
There is not even an operating system on my machine yet.
Click to expand...

some of them are duff, make sure the drive is configured as master, try the
hdrive on normal pata
 
"ZigZag Master" said:
I have some regular IDE to Serial ATA adapters that came with an Abit NF7-S
motherboard.

I tried using one on an Asus K8V SE Deluxe with a Western Digital 250 GB
(WD2500BB) hard drive. I could not get the drive recognized by the BIOS.

Are these convertors sometimes known to be flaky, or is it possuible that
the Serial ATA ports on my new mobo are hosed ?
Click to expand...

Comments on Serillel adapter:
http://secure.newegg.com/app/CustratingReview.asp?DEPA=0&item=13-999-402

Comments on Rockethead adapter:
http://secure.newegg.com/app/CustratingReview.asp?DEPA=0&item=22-999-111

Yes, they can be flaky. Some of the original designs didn't
give error free transmission. There are some combos of chipset
and adapter known not to work.

And SATA ports on motherboards do arrive DOA, as I read of someones
efforts to get an ICH5R SATA to work, only to find one port was
dead. So, that happens too.

You can try the search terms "serillel" or "rockethead" over
on abxzone. There is one thread just on converters, although it
is a little weak on good info:

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/search.php (search engine)
http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50014

With the WDC, it could be a jumpering problem. I would try the
single master setting, if you haven't already.

HTH,
Paul
 
ZigZag Master said:
I don't think yer hearing me man. The BIOS does not see the drive. There
is not even an operating system on my machine yet.
Click to expand...

I dont think your listening, He can hear you, can you hear him!
 
Drivers are NOT used until you load an operating system. Obvious. The
BIOS should recognize the drive it before any OS gets loaded to then
load any drivers specific to a device. On the NF7-S, there is actually
a second BIOS just for the SATA support (although it is embedded within
the same flash update for the system BIOS). You first see the BIOS load
and the screen showing CPU and memory which is followed by a screen
clear and a load of the SATA BIOS. If the system BIOS has the SATA
device disabled then the SATA BIOS won't load and you get no support of
the SATA ports. If the system BIOS has the SATA port(s) enabled then
you should see the SATA BIOS get loaded later (just like you see SCSI
BIOS get loaded later). The SATA BIOS will then scan for drives on
those ports. If the SATA BIOS loads but it doesn't find any drives then
nothing later is going to see the drives, either, even if you load
drives in a much later load of the OS. That's how it is on the NF7-S.
I don't know about the Asus and whether it incorporates the SATA support
directly within the system BIOS or if it loads another but separate BIOS
for separate SATA controller chips.

If the SATA BIOS loads but it doesn't find the drives then you have a
hardware problem at that point that loading drivers later won't fix.
Can you take off the PATA-2-SATA converter and attach the IDE drive to
an mobo IDE port to ensure the drive itself is okay? Is the SATA BIOS a
separate BIOS from the system BIOS (i.e., it loads later)? If so, check
that the system BIOS has the SATA controller enabled. Presumably you
don't have anything else connected to the SATA ports (and which works);
else, you would know the SATA port and SATA BIOS already work okay.
Click to expand...

yea but this isnt just the "BIOS" tho is it..
 
Thanks Everyone,

and Paul, I think you have given me the info I was looking for....

The convertors that came with my Abit NF7-S must not work with the Asus K8V
SE Deluxe SATA implementation.
 
Afaik the Serillel only works with Silicon Image controllers (I may be
wrong).
The K8VSe DeLuxe doesn't use SiL controllers > not seen?
 
yea but this isnt just the "BIOS" tho is it..
Click to expand...

NOTE: It isn't necessary nor even desired to include ALL of someone
prior's post unless it is short (and I'm usually verbose), especially if
you aren't going to refer to anything specific within it.

The OP said, "I could not get the drive recognized by the BIOS." Mark
then mentioned installing drivers. It was to Mark's post that I replied
because drivers were irrelevant. The problem was occuring long before
an OS got loaded under which the drivers would THEN load. Could be the
system BIOS doesn't have the SATA ports enabled (which will then not
load the SATA BIOS). Could be the SATA BIOS doesn't find any drives on
its ports. Could be the PATA-to-SATA adapter doesn't work. Could be
the PATA hard drive doesn't work. But the drive not showing as detected
by the SATA BIOS scan is not a problem of SATA drivers loaded sometime
later when the OS eventually gets loaded.
 
I don't know how much this might apply, but I'm using the adapters that
came with the ic7-g on the intel chipset and it works with my western
digital pata drive.
 
Mark, the bios does not need "drivers" to be able to see the drives. no OS
is loaded at the bios level and drivers load at the OS level. a bios can
either see the drives or not. if not, then power to the devices, cabling or
the Serillel adapters are suspect. some SATA channels require the newer
Serillel-2 adapters.

--

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