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IDE Woes
AbsoluteZero
The new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered User regular
The new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered User regular
So for Christmas I bought my mom a new internal DVD burner for her new computer. Anyhizzle, it was my duty to install the sucker, and... well...
The computer has 2 IDE channels. The DVD-ROM and HDD are both on the primary IDE channel, and the secondary IDE is unused. Simple enough, right? I'll just plug the new DVD burner into the open secondary IDE channel.
Alas, the connector does not fit. The secondary IDE channel is not quite wide enough and is also missing two pins in the middle. I have never seen this before so I have no clue what the deal is here. Is there some kind of adapter or special cable I can get to use the DVD burner (which has the wider IDE connection) on this skinnier connection?
The primary IDE channel uses the correct size, but like I said it is already in use by 2 drives. I could just remove the existing DVD-ROM drive but I'd rather not.
Any ideas?
The computer has 2 IDE channels. The DVD-ROM and HDD are both on the primary IDE channel, and the secondary IDE is unused. Simple enough, right? I'll just plug the new DVD burner into the open secondary IDE channel.
Alas, the connector does not fit. The secondary IDE channel is not quite wide enough and is also missing two pins in the middle. I have never seen this before so I have no clue what the deal is here. Is there some kind of adapter or special cable I can get to use the DVD burner (which has the wider IDE connection) on this skinnier connection?
The primary IDE channel uses the correct size, but like I said it is already in use by 2 drives. I could just remove the existing DVD-ROM drive but I'd rather not.
Any ideas?
AbsoluteZero on
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Any reason not to?
It's one of those computers with a front bezel that sticks out really far. I tried doing just that but it looked very stupid and left a big gaping hole above and below the drive.
I also tried swapping the bezels on the drives themselves as they are both LITEON drives... but no luck, little plastic notches prevent them from being switched.
Right now the DVD burner is on the primary channel and the DVD-ROM drive is just not hooked up. It is in there solely to fill up the hole at the moment.
I've seen a LOT of different PCs over the years, and none of them have had an IDE connector of nonstandard size.
http://www.thelostworlds.net/
That would be my bet as well. Look for another plug on the motherboard of the correct size.
I thought that as well but... do floppy connectors have missing pins like that?
There are no other IDE connectors on the motherboard, though the device manager lists the presence of a secondary IDE channel.
A friend said I should just buy a PCI card with IDE connectors on it. I'm considering this but... are there any disadvantages to that? Will it limit the drive's speed? Will I need to screw with the bios at all?
http://www.thelostworlds.net/
The secondary IDE channel may not be adjacent to the primary. Sometimes they are mounted on the edge of the motherboard, facing outward instead of upward (if you were laying the case on its side).
Oh shit... really? Hell I might have to take another look in case I didn't notice it then.
One other question... Does it make a difference if I use a 40 wire or 80 wire IDE cable? I've been told 80 wire is faster, but all I have here that isn't being used is a 40. Only one drive will be on the cable, the DVD burner.