DELL IDE interface

lukin

I recently bought a Lightscribe DVD drive to install in my new DELL. Imagine my surprise when I found the IDE cable attached to the motherboard was not the one I am used to seeing but this:

The IDE interface on the Lightscribe drive is the normal 2.5 " one:

Is there an adapter I can get that will allow me to use it or will I just have to send it back?

Stephen

That's a SATA cable the Dell has. Most new machines won't have IDE ports, they're old hat. Fortunately you CAN get adaptors to connect IDE devices to SATA ports, although I don't know where. Ebay would be worth a shot. There was one thrown in with my previous motherboard, and it required seperate power from the floppy disk power cable - your dell might not have one of those either.

lukin

I think it is one of these I need:http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=36036&TabID=1&C=SO&U=SEOsearchPages&doy=search

There isn't a power supply on that, there is a cable for a floppy drive on the DELL, I presume there is a power cable for it too.
There's lots of them on eBay:http://search.ebay.ie/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&_trksid=m37&satitle=SATA+To+IDE&sacat=-1%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D3&sabfmts=1&saobfmts=insif&ga10244=10425&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=17%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search
I dunno which one is the right one though.

I asked DELL's tech support on their chat program but they weren't able to recommend a converter for me.

Anti

The one from maplin will work grand. Just connect the floppy power connector to it.

lukin

The smaller cable of these two looks like it will fit into the converter on the maplin's link but where does the other one go?


I presume the large cable is the IDE interface and the smaller one is the power supply?

Anti

No the smaller one is the sata cable, and the larger is a sata power connector.

On the maplins board you will connect the smaller cable (sata cable) and a floppy drive power connector ( fdd )

lukin

Anti wrote:

No the smaller one is the ide cable, and the larger is a sata power connector.

On the maplins board you will connect the smaller cable (sata cable) and a floppy drive power connector ( fdd )

Yep you are right. I dunno what made me think that, probably just assumed the smaller one would be the power connector. I don't actually need the power connector as there is an unused one in the machine.
I'll go with the maplins one but I'll try and buy it in the store and not online so I can return it more easily of it doesn't fit.

lukin

Bought it yesterday in Maplin's, working grand.