IDE to SATA adapter for DVD drive

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hawkeye_wx

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I have an old 'Abit Serillel 2' IDE to SATA adapter. Would this thing work to connect an IDE DVD drive to a Haswell/Skylake motherboard, or would it likely be incompatible? I'm putting together a new build that needs an optical drive, but the drive will very rarely be used. I'd have to buy a new sata drive, but I have an old ide drive that works fine if I can use the adapter.
 
That old Abit adapter is not compatible with any ATAPI devices (such as optical drives) at all. It is compatible only with hard drives - and the transfer speed will be limited to the maximum burst speed of the PATA interface of the drive (e.g. 100 MB/s for ATA/100).
 
When I did this same thing, I just put my old pata DVD in an external pata USB enclosure.

I only plug it in when I need it, which is less and less often as time goes by.

You can get non-bluray SATA optical drives for $10 online though, so it might just be cheaper to pick up a SATA drive than to look for the right adapter.

If you live near a Microcenter, they often have used/refurbished drives you can pick up for cheap.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041991026 said:
When I did this same thing, I just put my old pata DVD in an external pata USB enclosure.

I only plug it in when I need it, which is less and less often as time goes by.

You can get non-bluray SATA optical drives for $10 online though, so it might just be cheaper to pick up a SATA drive than to look for the right adapter.

If you live near a Microcenter, they often have used/refurbished drives you can pick up for cheap.
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Agreed. You'll spend as much in adapters/enclosures as you will in just getting a replacement.

The replacement is the price of a couple cups of Starschmucks coffee. Brew your own pot once and you're got your new optical.
 
Today I remembered I have a much newer Vantec CB-ISATAU2 SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter that I've used a few times to get data out of an IDE hard drive in a dead computer. It says it works with 5.25" optical drives. Would it be possible for me to use this adapter to connect an IDE dvd drive to a new system in order to install Windows 10 onto a new ssd? Or would this only work to install/play dvd software on an already-functioning windows installation?
 
hawkeye_wx said:
Today I remembered I have a much newer Vantec CB-ISATAU2 SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter that I've used a few times to get data out of an IDE hard drive in a dead computer. It says it works with 5.25" optical drives. Would it be possible for me to use this adapter to connect an IDE dvd drive to a new system in order to install Windows 10 onto a new ssd? Or would this only work to install/play dvd software on an already-functioning windows installation?
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I'm not familiar with that particular model, but I boot from external USB connected optical drives all the time. I would imagine that it probably works.
 
The adapter does exist but those drives are typically slower and as others said, a new one would be the same cost
 
He is just using it to install Windows. Speed isn't really that much of a concern. That Vantec adapter should work just make sure the BIOS is set to boot from a USB device.
 
Skillz said:
He is just using it to install Windows. Speed isn't really that much of a concern. That Vantec adapter should work just make sure the BIOS is set to boot from a USB device.
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And any modern basic mobo (H81/H110, etc) will have the usb boot option in the bios?
 
Yeah it should. Enable USB Legacy support (should be on by default) and then go to the boot menu in the BIOS and select the USB drive in there. You'll need the drive connected to the PC in order for it to be in the boot options. Make sure it's first on the list and the Windows CD is in the drive. Save and Restart and upon rebooting you'll probably be asked to press any key to boot from the CD-ROM. Do so.
 
The only caveat here is that Windows will install in the same method it boots.

So if you want Windows installed in UEFI mode, you need to boot the install disc in UEFI mode. Some older USB adaptersay not support this.
 
I was just checking out Vantec's site and found a FAQ page for my adapter. Unfortunately, it says this sata to usb adapter cannot be used as a boot device. It appears I'll have to pick up a new sata dvd drive.
 
hawkeye_wx said:
I was just checking out Vantec's site and found a FAQ page for my adapter. Unfortunately, it says this sata to usb adapter cannot be used as a boot device. It appears I'll have to pick up a new sata dvd drive.
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If all you are going to do is use it to install, why not write the Windows image to a USB stick?
 
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