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Solve : Bought Wrong HDD. Return, adapt, or ???? |
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Answer» The hard drive in my HP Pavilion a800n died. I looked up the info on the specifications of my motherboard, ASUS A7V8X-LA, and based on that I thought that I needed a SATA HDD. When I opened the thing up I realized that I needed a PATA. Should I send it back and get a PATA, use an adapter, add new components to make the HDD compatible, or something else. I have always had a lot of luck with the help that I have received from this site and I would appreciate all advice and opinions on this matter. Thank you very much.Your motherboard has 2 SATA connectors. Thank you for your response. I read that. That is the info that I was using when I bought the HDD, but the old drive was connected via PATA. After reading what I could from other threads, I am under the assumption that the 2 SATA ports that I have are being used by my DVD-ROM and my CDRW. I am mostly in the dark in this area... personally for what they cost i would replace the 2 optical drives for a single DVD/RW and keep the SATA hard drive. SATA drives perform allot better than PATA drives Okay, I have REMOVED all of the stuff that was blocking my view and used the diagram to learn that I do indeed have two SATA slots open. I am going to order the cable that I should have ordered in the first place. Now, what do I do about power? Is there another cable for that? Do I need to split something?This is what I am about to purchase. It seems to be all of what I need. Hope that I am right. http://www.amazon.com/Syba-SY-CAB40004-Molex-15-Pin-Inches/dp/B002G1YNPO/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1257484724&sr=1-5 Syba SY-CAB40004 Molex 4-Pin to 15-Pin SATA Power Cable and SATA Data Cable (14 Inches)What is the brand and model of the hard drive? Quote from: Beedub245 on November 05, 2009, 10:39:30 PM This is what I am about to purchase. It seems to be all of what I need. Hope that I am right. That is correct Okay, I am going to have to start a new thread, because the SITUATION has changed. I just hate when I move to a new topic and leave those that have been helpful hanging. The HDD is a Western Digital Caviar Green 750gb 32mb CACHE SATA. I bought the adapter, hooked everything up, installed more memory, and now I am having trouble getting the drive recognized. Seems like I read somewhere that the bios had to be changed in some way. I love all of this SOOOOOOOO much! Thanks for all your help.I've read that HP disabled the SATA ports on these computers. Why they did this is beyond me. Even at SATA 1.5 Gbit/s speeds, they are better than PATA. Go figure. Have you found a way to enable them? I know someone with the same computer and I was wondering if it is possible. I have not found anyone online who has been able to do this. Thanks Quote from: jazz4brains on November 25, 2009, 12:53:16 PM I've read that HP disabled the SATA ports on these computers....Where did you read that? I would like to know.Dang! I can't find the page where I read that. I should have bookmarked it. Anyway, at the end of another thread, I read the following: "I was informed by HP support that although the motherboard in this machine (HP a720n w/same mobo) supports SATA, the BIOS does not." What the heck were they thinking by not utilizing SATA? Here's the link: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/psg/board/message?board.id=HardwareDPC&thread.id=900&view=by_date_ascending&page=2Hmmm. Found it. I think I read it here in this thread: http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/19966/ It's the reply dated Mar 05, 2004. It is not referring to an HP a800n, but a Compaq model with the same mobo. It may not apply, or maybe it does. This thread on HP's site is related: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/psg/board/message?board.id=HardwareDPC&thread.id=9443If not in the BIOS, you can't use it. |
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