Question 1

Hi Fred, what os system are you using that you put the adapter on?

Accepted Answer

I am using these adapters with three different 64bit Linux OSes: Debian 7.3, Ubuntu 12.04.3 and Mint 16.  I use these adapters for two IDE harddrives on a SATA III platform.  Both adapters have been 100% trouble free since I installed them almost a year ago.

Question 2

When using the device for IDE drive to SATA board connection, are SATA drivers still necessary?  What about BIOS setting?  Thanks.

Accepted Answer

Here is how I used this Adapter. I had one of my 4 Sata mother board cables going to a new Optiarc DVD drive I had added to my system. I then wanted to add another Sata hard drive to the computer. I bought this adapter and used it to connect to the DVD drive and then to the ribbon cable that came from my mother board. That ribbon cable had another connector on it for a 2nd DVD drive. The 1st DVD drive was already in place on the computer. I did have to buy a section of ribbon cable Male to male connections to plug into the spare ribbon cable connector and Optiarc hard drive. The freed up Sata cable I then used to connect to the new Hard drive.
I did not have to do anything with my bios or Sata drivers. My system saw the change and made the driver adjustments.

I am running a Sony Vaio VGC-RC210G multimedia desktop with Windows 7 Ultimate w/Media Center. I did this well over a year ago and have had NO problems with the adapter or the computer.

Question 3

The description says compatible with pata 100/133 devices, but what about pata 33 motherboard controllers?

Accepted Answer

I wouldn't call it a 100% guarantee, since I no longer have any PATA 33 controllers with which to actually test it, but there is a very important standard in PCs.  The standard is twofold, 1) Backward compatibility is a must, or 2) the connectors cannot be made the same.  In other words, generally, if it will plug in, it will work.  The industry ls rather obsessive about this standard whiuch on one hand gives confidence but on the other sometimes causes new connector shapes for very slight differences.

I'm 99% certain you will have no problem other than the ones inherent in the PATA 33, slow transfer speeds.  An adapter can't change that just because it will also work with faster interfaces.

Question 4

will I be able to use this item to keep my IDE drive and still boot from it instead of having to buy a new SATA drive??

Accepted Answer

All motherboards with the appropriate chipset to see the drive will be seen but wheter it will boot or not depends on your BIOS boot options.  You may have to resort to choosing "Other Devices", "SCSI" or some such tag for the motherboard's chipset to recognize it as a bootable device.

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