DVD Drive not detected in Bios

[Vandelay]

For reasons connected to Wii games and a certain piece of software named after sea life that I'm not sure I can go into on these forums, I have purchased a very specific IDE DVD drive. Using a Dynamode Bi-directional IDE to SATA adapter, I have hooked the drive up to the machine.

When booting up, the LED on the drive lights up and the door can be open and closed, but neither my BIOS or Windows can see the drive. I've tried switching to alternate SATA ports on the motherboard and ensured that the drive is set to master (it is on separate ribbon from my original drive,) but nothing seems to work.

Not to sure what else to try. Any ideas?

[djbriandamage]

Sounds to me like the IDE to SATA adaptor isn't working.

On an unrelated note regarding aquatic mammals, I heard they enjoy frolicking with ordinary SATA CDROM drives, an ISO mounting application, and this assembler language ISO ripper. I didn't have my echolocation to English dictionary though so I may have mistaken clicks for squeals.

(I read this again and it's kinda cryptic.. what I'm saying is that you should be able to rip your disks with an ordinary DVD drive if you use the right ripping software)

[Vandelay]

Just gave that a try, but my original drive still does not detect the disc. I believe the format on them is not readable, unless you have a very specific drive.

A faulty IDE to SATA adaptor does seem the most likely, but it is definitely powering up, as the LED on it is lighting up. It isn't completely busted then.

It is very likely that there is a very simple setting that I've not enabled/disabled/twiddled with, that would solve the problem.

[Chaz]

Take the jumpers off master and try jumpering it for auto instead. Has solved some similar problems for me in the past, despite having the master and slave set up correctly.

Oh, and by auto I mean cable select or CS.

[djbriandamage]

A faulty IDE to SATA adaptor does seem the most likely, but it is definitely powering up, as the LED on it is lighting up. It isn't completely busted then.

Power and data are entirely separate cables. It's very common for one to work and the other to be the problem.

<engaging cryptic cryptometers>

If you own legitimate copies of these disks and all you're trying to do is make them playable or rip them to disk images you could always just hmmmhmmhrmblmumblecough

That'd certainly be the path of least resistance here. If only hrmhemdo made products that worked natively on PC I'd own a sky-high stack of their plastic disks.

aherrm hem cough pardon me, a little phlegmy today y'see.

[djbriandamage]

Take the jumpers off master and try jumpering it for auto instead. Has solved some similar problems for me in the past, despite having the master and slave set up correctly.

Oh, and by auto I mean cable select or CS.

This!! I completely forgot about this bit of excellent advice. When I used to dabble with Linux this oft-forgotten hardware jumper was once the answer to my frantic tinkerings. Flip the jumper to Cable Select ("CS") and if the drive doesn't work right away try plugging it into another port.

Althooooough I think with SATA every port is master, not slave, so if it doesn't work on the first port you try maybe this isn't the solution at all.

[Vandelay]

Well, I think I discovered the problem and it is all past me's stupid fault. I'm on a Sandy Bridge computer, bought when these were brand new. If you recall, the early mobos of these machines suffered from SATA issues in the slow ports. The tiny proportion and long time frame on faulty devices made me think "Screw it! It'll be fine!" It ain't fine.

Switching ports with my original drive makes the IDE one work fine, whilst my original drive is no longer detected.

Bugger!

On the positive side, I now have an ISO of Goldenfin. Or something like that ;).

[djbriandamage]

Good job nailing down the issue. That's a pretty tricky, specific one. I'm glad things are now going swimmingly.