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    Can you clone a drive from PATA to SATA?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by niffcreature, Jun 18, 2012.

  1. niffcreature

    niffcreature ex computer dyke

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    If you have 3 SATA ports, booting off 1, all in SATA mode, can you clone a drive in port 2 with a win7 install in PATA/IDE mode to a drive in port 3?

    Will it work?

    Keeping in mind all drives are running in SATA AHCI mode at the time of cloning.

    I'm guessing the answer is no, but I'm really unsure. Can anyone answer for sure?
     
    niffcreature, Jun 18, 2012
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  2. n640nec

    n640nec Notebook Consultant

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    Think you'll run into problems starting off with the interface drivers. SATA AHCI driver is not likely compatible with PATA drives vice versa.
     
    n640nec, Jun 19, 2012
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  3. lsheldon

    lsheldon Notebook Consultant

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    You can pick up a USB 2.0/3.0 to PATA/SATA adapter pretty cheaply. Comes in pretty handy when you need to clone drives when the interface type you need isn't available.
     
    lsheldon, Jun 22, 2012
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  4. niffcreature

    niffcreature ex computer dyke

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    Umm that definitely wont work. You are missing the point completely of what I'm trying to do.
     
    niffcreature, Jun 22, 2012
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  5. cdoublejj

    cdoublejj Notebook Deity

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    We clone drives at work all the time, pretty sure it can be clone with Norton ghost 11. You need a host to clone it though. you can't clone say an OS drive while it is running. I use Hawk or some other win PE live boot with Norton if i need to.

    I asked another tech and apparently it is possible to clone to or from ide/pata to/from sata and have the os still work.

    EDIT: even if it is ide/pata MODE it shouldn't mater as long as the host can see both drives that are gonna be the source and destination drives.
     
    cdoublejj, Jun 24, 2012
    #5