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SATA to IDE Bridge Board

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Grandcheapskate

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Has anyone been using a SATA-IDE bridge board to connect a SATA device to a motherboard IDE port?

I tried one today, connecting a new SATA DVD rewriter to the motherboard secondary port as master (no slave). THis replaced an existing DVD rewriter. When I fired up the PC (Win XP), it identified the DVD player but it was marked with that little yellow exclamation point. The problem was stated as "device will not start". The player did get power (the door would open and close).

I realized after connecting everything up there was no way to indicate whether the device was a master or slave on either the board or the SATA device (obviously). There is one jumper on the board but no documentation. Then I wondered whether it only works with hard drives.

Anyone familiar with these?

Thanks...Joe
 
I have one I never used yet. What motherboard and drive are you trying to use and what make/model is the adapter?
 
I tried a few several years ago to connect IDE DVD burners to SATA ports and didn't have any luck...but that's opposite of what you are trying to do. They worked fine with real hard drives. I don't recall now the exact symptoms, but seems to me they weren't recognized at all... Seems to me commentary I've read leads me to believe they aren't as likely to work with optical drives. But...you're at least getting far enough to have it recognize a DVD drive attached...

Wesley
 
A long time ago there was a big difference between ATAPI which optical drives used and IDE/EIDE that hard drives used, is there any difference between optical and hard drives on SATA these days?
 
The machine I tried it on is an eMachine T2742 (Celeron based). The brand name of the DVD writer is Cendyne.

As to the chips on the adapter...there is only one chip. JM20330. There is no brand name on the board, which is only about 3" long and 1" tall.

Unfortunately I don't have a SATA hard drive sitting around for testing.

Thanks...Joe
 
The JM20330 and SunPlus chips are, from my experience, very variable. I've had good luck when interfacing to some moderately-sized <500GB SATA hard drives, but lousy results with the larger drives. On the flip side, the adapters are cheap.

I've never tried mine with a SATA DVD-writer.
 
JM = JMicron, they make a variety of IDE/SATA controller and bridge chips. If you are connecting a SATA drive to a PATA bus, the adapter usually has jumpers for master/slave. The most common adapter for that situation is usually one that plugs directly into the 40-pin connector on the motherboard and converts it to 2 SATA ports. One port is logically mapped to master, the other slave.

Also note, unless the adapter claims its bi-directional, it will only convert in one direction ex: PATA bus/host to SATA drive, or SATA bus/host to PATA drive. Many adapters also specifically advertise ATAPI optical drive support, so at least some of them should work with DVD burners.
 
I've had pretty good luck with these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232020&Tpk=CB-SP200
(damn that site is script heavy these days)
I have one on a machine that runs both a 500MB hard drive and a DVD drive, and it seems to work well.

One port is hard-wired as "master" and the other as "slave". On the single port versions it is just "master".

Some of the earlier converters - especially the type that attach the the back of a drive - were so horribly built they would corrupt data or not function at all.
 
SomeGuy said:
Some of the earlier converters - especially the type that attach the the back of a drive - were so horribly built they would corrupt data or not function at all.
Click to expand...

This is the type I have. It plugs directly into the back of the SATA device with the IDE connectors exposed. I can then attach the IDE 40 pin connector and 4 prong power connector to the other side of the board.

Like I mentioned, there is a single two pin jumper on the board but no documentation at all...and of course no brand name. Maybe I can try it with the jumper removed. I bought two of them ($5 each) for testing so if they fail me, it's not a huge loss.

Anyone know why I would get the "device will not start" (code 10) message? Of course, I should eliminate the possibility the new SATA device may be bad.

By the way, PATA and IDE are the same thing....right? This is a PATA to SATA bridge board.

Joe
 
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I tested the SATA DVD drive in a native SATA machine and it worked fine. So that was not the problem. I then took the SATA DVD drive from that machine and placed it in the test machine with the IDE-SATA bridge board. Supposedly both DVD drives should have been from the same maker (Cendyne) and same model, but...

The DVD drive which was in the native SATA machine sounded like a motorboat from the day I purchased it in December, but it worked. When I replaced it and tested the second drive in the native SATA machine, it ran quiet. It also gets reported as a different drive and manufacturer. Looks like the DVD drive I was using was bad from day 1.

But since I had everything apart I decided to place the "bad" DVD drive into the test machine with the IDE-SATA board. And guess what? Win XP identified the drive without issues. However, it reports the drive as a Pioneer. And it will not read a CD. It spins and makes motorboat noises, but never displays the contents (until I eject the disk, then you can see the contents flash on the screen).

Bottom line is I need to exchange the bad drive and try again. But I did get one step further than before.

Joe
 
It turns out the two DVD drives were from different manufacturers. Someone placed a different model DVD drive into a Cendyne box - but since it runs quiet and works, I'm not complaining.

I was able to return the "bad" (motorboat) DVD drive and replace it with another Cendyne. While I have not yet tested it in a native SATA machine I did try using it via the bridge board. I ran into the same issue as before. Win XP identifies the drive but still issues a code 10 "device will not start". Maybe these bridge boards are for hard drives only.

One interesting point to make. These bridge boards attache directly to the back of a SATA device. As such, the IDE side (40 pin connector and power socket) faces outward. But the backside, the side which is against the SATA device, touches the back of the SATA device. That means every one of the 40 IDE pins (on the backside where they are soldered) touches a metal surface. This has to be bad. So I figure it is best to put something between the bridge board and SATA device so all the pins don't end up connected to each other - that can't be good.

Thanks...Joe
 
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