2.5in to 3.5in IDE Hard Drive Cable Adapter

Note: For more information on how to detect an IDE hard drive, visit http://www.startech.com/faq/hard_drive_accessories_ide_detection.

Older IDE drives are not supported by current StarTech.com products. Typically, these drives were made earlier than the mid-to-late 1990s and are smaller than 1 Gigabyte in size.

There are a number of reasons that older IDE drives may not be detected, including the following:

• The drive uses PIO (Programmed Input/Output) mode and not DMA (Direct Memory Access).

• The drive is non-ATA or is using an ATA mode that predates the chipset's compatibility (usually older than ATA-4).

• The sector size is not 512 bytes.

Unfortunately there is no workaround in these situations. An older system or an older IDE controller card must be used to access older IDE drives.

Note: If you are using an IDE hard drive 1 Gigabyte in size or smaller, refer to the following FAQ: http://www.startech.com/faq/hard_drive_accessories_minimum_ide_hard_drive_size

If you are unable to detect your IDE (PATA) drive using a StarTech.com product, you may need to change the jumper settings on your drive. The jumpers switch the drive between Master, Slave, and Cable Select for most drives. A jumper is a small plastic piece that slides on top of two pins to electrically short them together.

When it does not mention what IDE drive configuration is required or if there is only one drive in the setup, the drive should be configured as Master. If Master is not working, try using the drive in Cable Select.

There is no standard position for the jumpers on IDE drives. On some drives, the jumper diagram is on the label that is on the top of the drive. On other drives, there are markings on the circuit board for CS, MA, and SL, which means a jumper shorts the pins vertically in that position. For more information, refer to the documentation provided by the manufacturer.

When you troubleshoot issues with an IDE cable, there are some quick tests that you can complete to rule out potential problems. You can test to make sure that the following components are working correctly and are not the source of the issue:

• Hard drive

• Hard drive controller (for example, the motherboard)

• IDE cable

To test your setup components, try the following:

• Use the hard drive, hard drive controller, and IDE cable in another setup to see if the problem is with the components or the setup.

• Use a different hard drive, hard drive controller, and IDE cable in your setup to see if the problem persists. Ideally, you should test a component that you know works in another setup.

IDE cables have three connectors that use the same 40-pin connector, but each connection has a specific assignment. One end plugs into the motherboard and the other two ends plug into the master drive (primary, required) and slave drive (secondary, optional). To identify the connections for your cable, refer to the following table:

The information in the above table applies to Cable select mode, which is a jumper pin configuration. Refer to the manual for your IDE hard drive for more information about how the jumpers should be set for the mode that you want to use.

Note: Do not "hotplug" the IDE cable. Always power down the hard drive and the hard drive controller before making any connection changes.

When you test your hard drive, hard drive controller and IDE cable, it is recommended that you do the following:

• Complete your testing with only one drive attached to the cable in the master position.

• Verify that the hard drive is spinning without the IDE cable attached. The power cable attached to the drive should make the drive spin.

• Make sure that the cable is inserted into the drive in the correct orientation. On drives without a key or pin 19 missing, line up the red stripe on the cable with pin 1 on the hard drive.

• If the hard drive is not being detected in the BIOS, make sure that the jumpers are set correctly on the hard drive.

• If the hard drive is not being detected in your operating system, make sure that the drive is formatted with a partition (for example, NTFS or FAT32). If you are using a computer running a version of Windows, a drive letter must also be assigned to the hard disk drive.

For more information about how to initialize a drive, refer to the following FAQ: https://www.startech.com/support/faqs/technical-support?topic=hard-drives#initialize-hard-drives.