Please help! - Is such a component or adapter available?

THE_EGG · 10 Nov 2011 at 22:47

Hi guys, need some help after buying a new SATA DVD burner to replace an old broken IDE burner and now finding out that all my 3 sata ports are already in use as I assumed I had 4

Can you buy such a thing as a PCI card (not PCI-E) that has at least 2 USB external ports and a single internal SATA port which I could use to connect my new burner?

The only card I could remove from my PC is a PCI adapter card that has 4 USB 2.0 ports on it. The problem is I still need at least 2 of those ports for my external hard drives and can't figure out any other way of fitting my new SATA DVD burner when all 3 of my SATA ports are being used by my 3 internal HDD's

I'd REALLY appreciate any help or ideas on what component or adapter I can buy that means I'll be able to connect my new SATA device.

Big thanks in advance.

Chihero · 10 Nov 2011 at 22:56

Im not sure about being able to get a PCI card that has Sata and USB

but could you not just get a USB HUB that you can jsut plug into one USB port? and then get a PCI Sata controller card

Or a IDE to Sata converter

Vespasian777 · 10 Nov 2011 at 23:00

IDE / SATA converter, PCWorld, couple of quid.

THE_EGG · 10 Nov 2011 at 23:25

Chihero - that might just work but if I remove my 4 port USB card is it possible to power 3 external HDD's from just the 1 USB port that would have a hub attached to it?

Vespasian777 - do you have a link to that product in PC World please?

Chihero · 10 Nov 2011 at 23:39

cant post links to competitors :/

just google IDE to SATA converter and there's tons of links.

THE_EGG · 10 Nov 2011 at 23:44

cheers found it and only £5.99

one thing I did mean to ask was do you any idea if using a SATA to IDE converter will have any negative effect on the performance of a drive?

I'm really hoping it won't and it's just an alternate connectivity method?

d_brennen · 10 Nov 2011 at 23:46

Optical drives are too slow for it to make a difference

AtaRo · 11 Nov 2011 at 00:02

When you buy a SATA to IDE converter ask specifically if it will work with an optical drive as some is only compatible with a Hard drive and will not work with optical drive.

weird_dave · 11 Nov 2011 at 00:25

AtaRo said:
When you buy a SATA to IDE converter ask specifically if it will work with an optical drive as some is only compatible with a Hard drive and will not work with optical drive.

If it doesn't work, take it back and moan. There's no reason one of these type of adaptors shouldn't work with any IDE device since it shouldn't care (or even know) what's attached to it, they should be transparent.

THE_EGG · 11 Nov 2011 at 00:37

big thanks to you all for your advice, greatly apprecaited. Will try that IDE-SATA adapter and if that fails I'll be back to ask for what to try next

andy_mk3 · 11 Nov 2011 at 00:46

How often do you use the drive? Might be better off going for an external USB drive if it's only occasional use