IDE port for 3 devices

Hi there, I just bought a Seagate IDE 400G hard drive and wanted to use

it as my second hard drive. My Dell desktop already has a SATA hard
drive. Unfortunately after I bought this hard drive, I found out that
my system board only has 1 IDE port which has already been used up for
2 device: a DVD ROM and a DVD burner. So now my question is:

1. can I use an IDE hard drive together with a SATA hard drive all
togther?
2. Can I try to get a IDE interface cable that has 3 connectors (1
master, 2 slaves) for connecting my IDE hard drive, in addition to the
2 DVD drives? I searched google, in one occasion (Years 1999 post) that

1 IDE port can only connect up to 2 devices, is that still true now? I
called DELL support, the guy said I can use this configuration, but I
am not sure if he really knows this.
3. If I can use such a cable, where can I buy it? My 2 DVD drive is on
the top on the computer, and the hard drive is at the bottom of the
computer, so I need a cable that is extened quite a bit on the 3rd
connector.
4. My system board does has a floppy drive port which looks like an IDE

port, can someone know for sure a floppy drive is an IDE port which I
can use to hook up my hard drive?


If I know this cause so many problem, I would have bought a SATA drive
instead. really pissed off

arrayprofile@yahoo.com wrote:



Do you really need the DVD ROM anymore ?


Yes, you can get IDE to SATA converters and put it on a SATA port.


Nope, one ribbon cable can only handle 1 or 2 drives.


Yes.


Yeah, he didnt understand what you want to do.


No such animal.



Unlikely, the ribbon cable should be narrower, less wires.


Count the wires in the ribbon cable.


Yeah, a SATA drive would have been much better.

Thanks for the suggestion. where can I get this converters?

arrayprofile@yahoo.com wrote:

A short Google search using "ide sata adaptor" minus the quotes will give
you more than you care to read about.

Here are a couple of links, not that I have purchased anything from them.

http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=ide+sata+adaptor&hl=en&hs=aKC&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&sa=X&oi=froogle&ct=title

http://www.coolerexpress.com/iwparatatose.html

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=SIL3611&cat=CBL

Another thought would be to purchase one of those external USB\IDE cases and
put the drive in that.

Last but not least would be a IDE interface card that would plug into an
empty slot (if any) and would drive one or two IDE devices. They can be had
for about the same price as the IDE/SATA adaptors.

arrayprofile@yahoo.com wrote:

If you have any free PCI slots, an IDE controllor would be better.

http://www.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?segment=undefined&product_id=87

An External USB enclosure would also work just fine, as metioned.

A SATA to IDE converter is a hit and miss kind of a deal. Since the
SATA spec does not require implementation of certian Legacy IDE
functions.

You should be able to pick up the IDE controller or usb enclosure
locally.