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May 12, 2006
Dear CNET members,
For those of you who celebrate Mother's Day this coming Sunday, Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! (To: my mom and my wife, I love ya!) Now, let's tackle this week's question from Trevor who finds himself with a new computer with only SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) connections and would like to use his old PATA (Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment) hard drive in his new machine. Well Trevor, and all those who find themselves in this predicament, you're in luck because there are several possible solutions available for you--from changing your current hard drive to an external USB/FireWire hard drive, all the way to using a PATA to SATA adapters. These and many other solutions are all great recommendations from our members, and they have all been listed in our submissions section this week. With so many options, the decision on which way to go is up to you. But to start you off with this week's topic, we have Bill's winning answer, which lists four options. Trevor and all, if you do have any additional questions to this topic and would like more help, please post them in the forums. And for those who have more advice or would like to share their experiences with this scenario, come on down. Take care and have a great weekend!
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Member Question of the Week
My name is Trevor and I'm a subscriber to CNET. I have a question regarding internal hard drives. I recently bought a new PC that came with an internal Serial ATA hard drive. I still have a Parallel ATA hard drive from my old PC that is in fine condition that I would like to use as a second internal hard drive. However, the motherboard on the new PC doesn't have an extra parallel slot to which I can hook up my old hard drive. Are there any products out there that can help me hook up my parallel drive to my new PC (such as an external adapter or some kind of PCI slot card)? If there is, can you please recommend a reliable brand and also let me know if there is anything I should be aware of before proceeding with whatever I need to do? Thanks!
Submitted by:
Trevor Y.
Hey Trevor, the way I see it, there are four possible ways to skin your cat:
1) If your PC has an optical drive (CD-ROM, CD, or DVD burner) then it is likely hooked to the one PATA (parallel ATA or old-style 40-pin) connector on your motherboard. If the cable has only the one connector on it for the optical drive, then you could get a two-drive cable and hook your HD on there. If you want to be able to boot from your optical drive on occasion, it may be necessary to set it to master and set the HD to slave depending on the flexibility of your PC's BIOS. This is the cheapest method but may require a nonstandard-length cable depending how the drives are laid out in your case. Get the shortest cable that will do the job...
Submitted by:
Bill B.
For
Bill's
efforts, we're sending him his choice of any
Help.com Learning CD.
Community Buzz
 Each week we take a look at topics discussed in the forums.
Best regards and enjoy!
Piracy or unauthorized use of the Windows operating system is widespread, and member seafox13 knows of a friend who's doing so and has advised that it is morally wrong. What his friend wants to know is the actual repercussions of lending his XP Home installation disk out. If you have any experience or comments for our member's friend on this topic, please speak up.
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Confused about which external hard drives are best
Member duffyea has been researching external hard drives and still has no clue as to which will be the most reliable. While members have yet to recommend a drive, the primary concern for this member is using the external drive for backup. So if you are considering a external hard drive for backup data, read this, and if you have any recommendations for a good reliable drive, chime on in.
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People are always looking for a simple and realistic way to back up their data in case of a catastrophic failure. Do you have a particular method that has worked for you? See what member wengert is trying to accomplish, and if you have any suggestions, post them here.
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Simple question, simple answer
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Check out next week's question:
When I plug in my USB flash stick, I hear a bling-blong, but no drive appears in My Computer. Does anyone have a solution to this? The same USB flash stick comes up perfectly on another computer. I am using Windows XP Home on this computer. Ironic: On the same computer I have Windows XP Pro, and when I boot up with that, it mounts the drive at once. Same computer, different version of operating system, and it doesn't work in XP Home. I have tried going into Device Manager and deleting the USB drivers, making them reinstall themselves, nothing works.
Here's a freak solution that I found after weeks of frustration, but it means I get truncated filenames. I did find a backdoor solution, but it's not the way it's supposed to be! Open Device Manager. Most often the USB stick is indicated, but no drive name. Right-click the stick area, add a drive name (for example K:). Then right-click the area and select Explore. First it gives an error, but do it AGAIN, and it lets you through. You see the contents of the drive, then it pops over to the My Computer area where the drive does not exist. Click Back in Explorer, and you should see the files on the stick. Does anyone have a solution to this? Thanks!
--Submitted by:
Thor I.
(Please note: If you have a solution to Thor's problem, please submit it to us no later than Tuesday morning (5/16) Thank you!)
If you have the answer,
e-mail us at messageboards@cnet.com.
If we choose your response, you'll get a
free Help.com CD.
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User name: Dirty Pirate
Location: Ireland
Member since: January 31, 2006
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About me: If I am not fixing fiber underwater, scraping barnacles off of hulls, or making puffer fish puff, I am providing Network tech support for a few companies...
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