dell inspiron hard drive prob

[halau]

I have slipped me old hard drive into my new inspiron desktop but as you can see from photos they are different connections

any ideas on this ??

[caveman_nige]

i take it you do not have any IDE connections on your mainboard as i can't see any on your pics

[halau]

just been having a read up i take it IDE is the long connection on the right hand side of me old drive and SATA is on the left on new drive....

i have found a long conection on board not sure of what its for but as you can see from photo the one below has a plug on it and that leads to power unit if thats any help

[caveman_nige]

the blue cable connecting to your existing drive is a SATA, yes you need an IDE (or some call it ATA) connection, most mainboards have at least one but if you have two or three you will see the that one is shorter and is only used a floppy drive only.. by the side of the socket it should be printed on the mainbaord, something like IDE 0 or IDE FDD? if its IDE 0 you should be ok, you can pick up an IDE ribbon cable for pennies

[halau]

ok that spare socket i showed in last picture is for a floppy is that any good

[caveman_nige]

no mate... it will only work with a floppy and if you count the pins in that socket you will note that it has less than the one on your IDE hard disk...

your only option will be an IDE to SATA convertor like this one IDE to SATA & SATA to IDE Bi-Directional Adapter.: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

you will also need to get yourself another sata cable though, make your you have a spare SATA socket on your mainboard first or you will be wasting time and money

[halau]

yes i have seen 4 sata sockets on board 2 in use so far hard drive and dvd drive

so i will need that converter plus one of these for power Belkin Serial ATA Power Cable 6" (connects SATA hard drive To Standard ATA internal power connector) - Ebuyer

[halau]

just found this , i think this has everything you talk about Plexus SATA TO IDE Dongle (Connect IDE Drive To SATA Controller) - Ebuyer

[caveman_nige]

yup... your gonna need one of them as well...

you know its probably cheaper in the long run to by a new 500gig SATA drive for under ?40 as your IDE drive will have some years on it may not live for too long..

[caveman_nige]

just found this , i think this has everything you talk about Plexus SATA TO IDE Dongle (Connect IDE Drive To SATA Controller) - Ebuyer

yeah something like that could do it, never used one myself also this thing is similar.. [ame=http://www.amazon.co.uk/SATA-Drive-Converter-Connect-Motherboard/dp/B001CYXMDA/ref=pd_cp_ce_0]SATA Drive to IDE Converter: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo[/ame]

have fun, lets us know how you get on etc..

[halau]

yea i know but i have so many photos and music on it, if you know of a way of getting them onto my new drive i am interested

[Sirus]

You could also buy an IDE controller card that goes into your PCI slot

I have one so that my powermac can read IDE drives over 128gb's.. handy to have

If you do your homework I think you can get a multi card with all sorts of connectors on one PCI card IDE/sata/firewire/usb all in one card.. very handy to have

Just an alternative... maybe best to keep it simple and just do what caveman says and go for a converter cable

Heres a good example of a multi controller card http://www.7shop.co.uk/index.php?mai...u5b6bur1udcsb7