Hard drive connections?

[Chipinmyhead]

Okay, so I've installed stuff on computers before, and I do a lot of IT stuff at work, but I'm no expert. I just bought a new Dimension 9100 (insert insult here) and there are two hard drive bays in the bottom of the case. One has an HD in it--the SATA drive that came with the system. The other is empty, and there are connections provided for the "future" drive that are identical to those connected to drive #1.

So the drive I have from an old computer is IDE, and the connections don't match, obviously. I thought "hey, I'll just get a dongle to convert." So I did, I bought and SATA to IDE dongle, snapped it onto the back of the IDE drive, and when I went to connect it, surprise, the male and female don't match. Please explain what's going on. Thanks.

 

[Chipinmyhead]

Bump? Someone has to know the answer to this.

 

[ImUseless]

Chipinmyhead said:

I thought "hey, I'll just get a dongle to convert." So I did, I bought
and SATA to IDE dongle, snapped it onto the back of the IDE drive,
and when I went to connect it, surprise, the male and female don't
match.

You either have the wrong adapter or wrong cable. I cant tell if you're
saying the IDE side of the adaptor fits your drive but the SATA side
wont accept your SATA cable or if the IDE side wont fit the drive??

More info!

 

[Chipinmyhead]

The IDE side of the adapter fits the HD. The other side does not. The connector is about half the length of the male connection point on the adapter. Thanks for your help, btw.

 

[ImUseless]

This is what the other side of your IDE to SATA bridge
should look like.

The "WHITE" connector on the right is to supply power to
the hard drive from a 4-pin molex from your PSU.

The "BLACK" connector is where you will connect the SATA
cable from the motherboard to the IDE/SATA bridge.

On the other side of the board you can see the end of what
is the 40-pin adaptor that plugs into the hard drive. This
should be a 40-pin female on the IDE/SATA bridge that
plugs into the 40-pin male connector on your hard drive.

Your Bridge may look different but all should function the
same minus design differences.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

You should have IDE ports on that hell still

 

[ImUseless]

chipinmyhead, DJ-Chris makes a good point and I didnt want
to ask you so as not to sound insulting because I surely
would think you looked into it first but.....

Do you possibly have an open spot for another IDE device
on your motherboard-this is much easier and more effective
than using a bridge???