Computer hardware and software
Is it possible to install a PATA backup hard drive into an ASUS M2A-VM motherboard?
Question : Is it possible to install a PATA backup hard drive into an ASUS M2A-VM motherboard?
I am building a new computer and have an 80GB PATA drive.
Want to install a 160GB SATA main drive with the 80GB as a backup.
backup hard drive
Best answer:
Answer by Joshua
Yes but it only has one PATA.
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#3 written by laburnic 1 year ago
Then so is San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Antonio, St Paul, St Louis, St Petersburg, Santa Fe and probably hundreds of others.
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As far as English only is concerned, one of the reasons for the worldwide strength of the English language (other than one-quarter of the globe at one time swore allegiance to Queen Victoria) is its ability to absorb words from other languages. I suspect that you can grandfather all these place names into the English language, since these place names are currently spoken by people who are so xenophobic that that they would object to being told that they spoke any foreign language at all. - Comment Feed for this Post
It is possible to connect a PATA drive to an Asus M2A-VM motherboard. The IDE connector for this motherboard is located on the lower left hand corner, beside the SATA connectors, and is light blue.
A diagram is available at the following address: http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/6117/1568lho5.jpg
If by backup you mean a place to save and copy your files to, then there is no problem. You will have a drive letter to accomplish this very thing.
However, if you are wanting to clone a hard drive that is booting Windows so you’ll have a spare in case your main drive goes out, you’re proposed drive configuration will not work for that purpose.
The problem lies in the hardware for each hard drive type. SATA hard drives and PATA hard drives each have their own different hardware (or “controller”) on a motherboard. Each hardware takes a different driver to use the attached drives.
When Windows is installed on a drive – SATA in this instance – it also installs the software (or driver) to be able to read/write from the drive. Cloning/backing up your Windows drive to the other drive is no problem. There is software to accomplish this task easily. The difficulties arise when you try to boot from the PATA drive.
During boot, Windows loads the SATA driver that was installed during its setup, and then stops, giving you a “Blue Screen Of Death”, because it isn’t loading off the same controller.
So if you want a bootable drive copy, get another SATA hard drive. If you want secondary storage for your files, you’re fine.