Old EIDE MotherBoard w/ New Sata Drive???

[Chunce DeLeone]

I am building a Jukebox with an old PC that has been collecting dust in the basement for years.  I want a 1 TB drive and noticed that most drives nowadays are SATA.  How are you guys installing new SATA drives in old PC's?

[DeLuSioNal29]

You'd need to buy an adapter such as this one:

http://www.pcconnection.com/IPA/Shop/Product/Detail.htm?sku=8185118&oext=1038A&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=8185118

You just have to make sure your BIOS supports hard drives that large.  If not, usually the Hard drive utility CD rom can allow LBA (Large Boot Access) via software that is loaded at start up.

Another option would be to use the older IDE hard drive paired with a USB SATA hard drive.  It will avoid all the headaches of the BIOS not supporting larger drives, since Windows XP will take care of it for you.  (Assuming you are running Windows XP)

SATA to USB adapter:
http://www.pcconnection.com/IPA/Shop/Product/Detail.htm?sku=7873592&oext=1038A&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=7873592

~ DeLuSioNaL

[SavannahLion]

You just have to make sure your BIOS supports hard drives that large.  If not, usually the Hard drive utility CD rom can allow LBA (Large Boot Access) via software that is loaded at start up.

I haven't bothered with installing gigantor drives with older motherboards since 200GB drives were first introduced. But... from my experience, some motherboards are ultra finicky with the larger drives even with included LBA software (are drive manufacturers still offering that software anymore?). Make sure you run as many test gambits you can think of to make sure the drive is fully functional. I would go with a SATA<->USB adapter and let XP carry the extra work.

[Chunce DeLeone]

I never thought of the Sata to USB and let XP do the work, that is a great idea.  What kind of access speed are we talking about here, would the USB solution be slower than traditional IEDE?  I mainly want to play MP3's maybee Videos or some simple Mame games, would performance suffer?

[SavannahLion]

It seems to run quite well as long as the host doesn't downgrade to using 1.1 (my laptop has that annoying habit). I regularly play MP3's and standard resolution videos from USB drives. I haven't tried viewing HDV yet.

I have noticed differences when trying to manage HUGE files. I don't know if this is merely a deficiency with the OS and how it manages files or an upper limitation I'm encountering with USB speeds. I strongly suspect an OS issue since a low level file utility like DD can hork down data from my external drives.