Jump to content

SATA to IDE adapters: which/what/why?


Recommended Posts

Perhaps the problem is somewhere else? I don't think any modern controller chip would do that in normal conditions.

I don't know where else the problem could be. I have Windows 8 x64 recently installed. I'm using a Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 motherboard with AMD SB950 south bridge. The SATA controller is configured in AHCI mode, and I'm using the stock AHCI drivers made by Microsoft and included in Windows 8.

The SATA cable is brand new and works perfectly well with my other disks (without CRC nor cabling errors)

My setup is pretty standard. Nothing out of the ordinary. What could be wrong on my part??!

The best way might be to get an IDE controller card.

Yes, I know, but I want something more portable, so I can carry it with me.

AHCI mode is not compatable with Windows 9x. Using the SATA controller requires my SATA Patch as well as setting a different Mode.

At best you would be running in compatability mode which is rather slow, regardless of what adapter you use.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


I disagree.. if the original intent of the thread was to categorize SATA to IDE adapters that work under 9x, then I don't think it should be moved from the 9x forum, as it would be much harder for 9x users to find, and some may never know about it. Also it would quickly become filled with non-working or irrelevant things with regard to 9x.

If others post in the thread that aren't interested in 9x, then they could be referred to or have their posts split to the Hardware section.

This is kind of like my "in"famous Bootable DVD thread - it could belong to the Bootable CD\DVD forum where it originally started, but my goals and all methods used were specific to DOS/Win9x so I felt that it was better here...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[...] if the original intent of the thread was to categorize SATA to IDE adapters that work under 9x, then I don't think it should be moved from the 9x forum, as it would be much harder for 9x users to find, and some may never know about it. Also it would quickly become filled with non-working or irrelevant things with regard to 9x. [...]

I understand your point, but the original intent was never mentioned as far as Win98 use, except for it being in this area of the forum, of course. :). Of the posters in the thread, dencorso, rloew, TmEE, and you are the only ones that identified themselves as Win98 users, and I don't believe any comments anywhere in the thread pertained to Win98 use, limitations, capabilities, or anything else Win98 related that I can recall, except rloew's most recent one. In fact, I even forgot this was in a Win98 area of the forum. I'm not aware of any comment given that wouldn't pertain as much to any other Windows version as much as it does to Win98. But, as always, I could be wrong, of course.

Cheers and Regards

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I understand your point, but the original intent was never mentioned as far as Win98 use, except for it being in this area of the forum, of course. :). Of the posters in the thread, dencorso, rloew, TmEE, and you are the only ones that identified themselves as Win98 users...

The OP, shae, is a frequent visitor to our 9x section. In his original post, he mentions Win9x.

I want to get a SATA to IDE adapter, one of those that plug behind the drive, to connect modern drives to an ASUS P2B. It's probably going to be one of those that sell on eBay for a few dollars (it's cheaper than getting a native PATA drive, and more forward compatible).

What's good or bad? What is there to know about compatibility or reliability? Specific chips to look for? Is the disk size a concern for those adapters? SATA flavors? AHCI? Master/slave/CS? SMART?

I do have a SATA controller in that computer used for its eSATA, but for static internal drives somehow IDE seems safer to me for boot drives and for Win9x in general.

(Emphasis mine.)

That's why I have taken the position that I did. Different strokes for different folks I guess. :angel

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fair enough. As we read these posts, we each sometimes see what we want to see or are most interested in, I guess, and miss the rest. Sorry about that.

Cheers and Regards

Edited by bphlpt
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My POV is similar to bphlpt's... Since IDE is natively recognized by 9x/ME, there are no drivers involved when the conversion is SATA => IDE (i.e.: connecting a SATA HDD to an IDE motherboard connector)... now, the other way round is another beast entirely, because most SATA boards require RLoew's patch to work, unless they're those old SATA I (which use RAID drivers even with no RAIDs present). Hence. IMHO, it's hard to define this matter as Win 9x/ME related at all. On the other hand, I agree the thread was started with 9x/ME in mind, but it seems to me to have wandered very far away from that. Be as it may, I'll let it remain here some more, but I feel we may be loosing interesting contributions to this thread precisely because it's "hidden" in the 9x/ME forums. That's just my 2¢, of course.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guys,

If anyone is interested, I ended up buying the ACARD adapter with ARC772 chipset.

It's more expensive, but it works correctly. I'm getting 58.2 MB/s peak read speed and the SMART status is available to tools like HD Tune and similar.

I've also passed Microsoft's chkdsk with success (no errors found).

The adapter with the sunplus chipset has been properly destroyed (I've thrown it with all my force against the wall), and the resulting pieces have been sent to my local recycling center for proper processing :)

PS: Sorry if this is a bit off-topic for this thread, but my frustration with Sunplus has been really enormous!

Kind regards!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you very much for the feedback, Leolo! :thumbup

We sure are interested.

Attached is a good quality image of the ACARD adapter with ARC772 chipset, taken from the site you offered a link to, just to ensure we'll keep on having its image even when the original site takes it down, since it's quite useful for reference:

post-134642-0-03771600-1357668149_thumb.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmmm - re - "where this thread should go"...

IMHO, maybe in Hardware with a specific link given to it from the "Sticky Topics" in the Win9x Subforum. Would that suit? After all, it had interest to me in regards to "other than 9x" in the first place...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmmm - re - "where this thread should go"...

IMHO, maybe in Hardware with a specific link given to it from the "Sticky Topics" in the Win9x Subforum. Would that suit? After all, it had interest to me in regards to "other than 9x" in the first place...

@LoneCrusader: would you agree to this? I think it's a nice solution.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've attached the backside of the packaging, just for reference.

It's interesting to note that they seem to be proud of the low CPU load caused by their adapter. I'm not completely sure if I could use HD Tune to reliably measure CPU usage, but I'll give it a try this week and report back the results.

Regards.

ACARD AEC-7923.pdf

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@LoneCrusader: would you agree to this? I think it's a nice solution.

It's up to you guys. I've stated my case, and I maintain that if moved, the thread will quickly become irrelevant to 9x. But it looks like I'm outvoted. ;)

Edited by LoneCrusader
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...