Used a SATA drive made by Samsung in my KT600 Barton rig with one of these adapters and it worked, but was slower then using a real 'IDE' 160GB laptop drive, even though the laptop drive should've been much slower. I think it was the adapter that made it slow. But at least it worked 😀.

i've never had any issues with the adapters themselves.

I've used SATA/IDE adapters for years now (so I can keep using a couple of old Tivo DVRs that originally had IDE drives) without any issues. Of course that's not a DOS environment, but FWIW I never had any trouble.

However you should know that not adapters are created equal. I've sampled about 3 or 4 different types from ebay before I found one that worked in my application. Those that didn't work, didn't work at all (HDD not recognized by the system). Those that worked, worked perfectly. No middle ground.

stamasd wrote:

I've used SATA/IDE adapters for years now (so I can keep using a couple of old Tivo DVRs that originally had IDE drives) without any issues. Of course that's not a DOS environment, but FWIW I never had any trouble.

However you should know that not adapters are created equal. I've sampled about 3 or 4 different types from ebay before I found one that worked in my application. Those that didn't work, didn't work at all (HDD not recognized by the system). Those that worked, worked perfectly. No middle ground.

Perhaps those that didn't work were just faulty

My experience with some of these adapters and K6-2 systems was good for compatibility but not good for safety. Maybe if they were built on a PCI socket and not directly connected with the whole pcb to the sata disk. One I had melt the psu wires for some reasons when I wasn't in the room, another stopped working. Generally they move too easily from the sata connector and the whole stress/weight from the ide cable is too much IMHO.

Elia1995 wrote:

stamasd wrote:

I've used SATA/IDE adapters for years now (so I can keep using a couple of old Tivo DVRs that originally had IDE drives) without any issues. Of course that's not a DOS environment, but FWIW I never had any trouble.

However you should know that not adapters are created equal. I've sampled about 3 or 4 different types from ebay before I found one that worked in my application. Those that didn't work, didn't work at all (HDD not recognized by the system). Those that worked, worked perfectly. No middle ground.

Perhaps those that didn't work were just faulty

It's not impossible, but it would be a long stretch to imagine that all 6 adapters of one type that I bought were defective, and all 6 of the other type were not. 😀

It's hit and miss, I'd say..
Re: IDE or SATA hard drivers on retro computers?

Mine is way different than yours.
It doesn't have the pins in the IDE slot, but the female part.

386SX wrote:

My experience with some of these adapters and K6-2 systems was good for compatibility but not good for safety. Maybe if they were built on a PCI socket and not directly connected with the whole pcb to the sata disk. One I had melt the psu wires for some reasons when I wasn't in the room, another stopped working. Generally they move too easily from the sata connector and the whole stress/weight from the ide cable is too much IMHO.

I insulated the PCB with some black tape for this very reason, plus the cable on mine is supported by the CD-ROM drive underneath.

The adapter I bought is like this one:

gdjacobs wrote:

386SX wrote:

My experience with some of these adapters and K6-2 systems was good for compatibility but not good for safety. Maybe if they were built on a PCI socket and not directly connected with the whole pcb to the sata disk. One I had melt the psu wires for some reasons when I wasn't in the room, another stopped working. Generally they move too easily from the sata connector and the whole stress/weight from the ide cable is too much IMHO.

I insulated the PCB with some black tape for this very reason, plus the cable on mine is supported by the CD-ROM drive underneath.

I did the tape "mod" too. But after tried three of them (and they were not cheap ones) I went for the sata-1 pci controllers (that sadly on my system had safety but not much compatibility), and so after spent too much on these solutions, I went for a native early sata motherboard (KT600).
The idea of the sata ide adapters were good if redesigned: IMHO an idea would be to be powered by the pci bus on a bigger and stable pci-pcb-case and definetely connected to the sata disk with just the usual sata cable (!).

Elia1995 wrote:

The adapter I bought is like this one:

Look at the soldering..

Mine has perfect soldering, that must be one unlucky guy 🤣

Elia1995 wrote:

Mine has perfect soldering, that must be one unlucky guy 🤣

I had one very similar adapter (the very last I tried) that teorically had better stability of the one directly connected to the disk. Beside the fact that it never worked ( 😁 maybe I was the unlucky guy)... there's the logical problem that happens if you need to unmount it often from the ide connector where you'd risk to damage it from stressing the soldering on the adapter ide connector.

The adapter in the picture above is very similar if not the same as the ones that worked for me. Of course YMMV.

stamasd wrote:

The adapter in the picture above is very similar if not the same as the ones that worked for me. Of course YMMV.

You guys.... If you got one that works, you likely got the authentic version. If you got one that doesn't, you likely got a counterfeit. Counterfeit computer hardware does exist, and it's usually stuff like adapters. If you get one that doesn't work (eg off eBay) leave negative feedback. That's the scam, you're shown the legit version from a stock photo, you're sent a fake, and if you don't test it, the window to get a refund closes. If you do test it, and it doesn't work, they will beg you not to leave negative feedback while they send you another (usually fake) one.

Counterfeits also find their way onto Amazon.com. If there is any review/feedback that says they sell rubbish, don't buy.

Elia1995 wrote:

Mine has perfect soldering, that must be one unlucky guy 🤣

And so had one of my CF-IDE adaptors, before it killed one of my PCs..
Tip: If your PC behaves strange or doesn't boot (black screen, etc.), don't use it.

Well, my doubts on these are the logical concept itself of using an adapter directly connected and supported only by iron soldering. Maybe I was unlucky but usually if I buy something that works until some point and then I buy another one that stop working too, generally I'm supposed to think that it's not a seller problem.
By the way I don't think every adapters could have problems. For myself I will prefer a PCI controller that cost more.

Kisai wrote:

You guys.... If you got one that works, you likely got the authentic version. If you got one that doesn't, you likely got a counterfeit. Counterfeit computer hardware does exist, and it's usually stuff like adapters..

Wow, just had a flashback! 😳
This totally reminds me of this video about intentionally bricked clone chips..

386SX wrote:

Well, my doubts on these are the logical concept itself of using an adapter directly connected and supported only by iron soldering. Maybe I was unlucky but usually if I buy something that works until some point and then I buy another one that stop working too, generally I'm supposed to think that it's not a seller problem.
By the way I don't think every adapters could have problems. For myself I will prefer a PCI controller that cost more.

I agree. These adapters were built and sold by different people. The bad one I had was an expensive model, for slot mounting.
But for some reason it had a short-ciruit somewhere (it looked fine), because the PC wouldn't boot anymore.
Unfortunatelly, I also did other hardware changes on that PC at the time, so I didn't notice the problem and tried several times to power-on that PC.. 🙁
It wasn't until I tried that adapter on a different PC, when I noticed it was defective. Oh, and there also was a SATA/IDE adapter that went hot and didn't work..
It was one of these types which are supposed to work in both ways. Anyway, it was probably just bad luck and not model-specific.