Being dense... Sata and IDE

[Little-Miss]

Right, mate has computer with just a cd drive in. Was going to give him my cd writer when I realised mines IDE and his is sata. Are the converters on fleabag any good?

 

What confuses me is that (dense moment) the power cable for the adapter looks like molex...but I imagined there wouldn't be any in there!

 

Can someone explain? I can cope with just buying a Sata drive but this converter thing has confused me. Have to admit I'm out of touch with this shizzle! *hangs head in shame*

[3s-gtech]

Generally, forget converters. Unless his PC is pretty new, it'll still have an IDE port on the motherboard. As for power - the power supply in his PC may well have some molex tails as well - so it should go straight in. All depends on whether it's a custom build or OEM, its age etc. Can you take a good look around inside the PC?

 

If it won't plug in, just buy a new SATA DVD writer for it, it won't end up costing much more!

[Arthur]

What confuses me is that the power cable for the adapter looks like Molex

Are you looking at PATA (a.k.a IDE) to SATA adapters or SATA to PATA adapters? The former typically use floppy drive power connectors e.g.

 

http://i.imgur.com/yZZKl.jpg

 

As 3s-gtech said, just get a brand new SATA DVD±RW drive for £13 or so. Not only will it be significantly faster than your CD writer, but they will be able to burn DVDs too.

[Michael]

It's easy enough to convert a molex power connection to a SATA power, but more complicated to convert an IDE connection to accept a SATA connection.

 

I have done it, but bearing in mind (as above) you can buy a DVD writer cheap, you may as well just buy one.

 

The converter is literally a small circuit board which plugs into the IDE connection, with a SATA slot the other side. It also needs a floppy drive power to it, so it soon becomes messy.