No ATA (or IDE) option in the BIOS setting SATA Operation available (Vostro 3650)

Thank you for the answer.

I was wondering why that option is not shown, but if it's not possible to set ATA (IDE), that answers my question.

I would consider this as a disadvantage though (on other boards it's usually possible), as this setting can be crucial sometimes.

Thank you for the explanation.

While I understand that there is technical progress and e.g. there is no rom floppy disks, but at this point of time I still would like to have a machine (mainboard) with the IDE option.

I'm going to replace this 3650 for something else as I did not expect that the BIOS would not offer that option. Anyhow thank you for the clarification.

As a sidenote: "Microsoft doesn't want people to continue to use the older OS." - Indeed, it looks like MS tries to force people to use only their recent OS and their other recent products!    :)

MS is following Apple - basically supporting only the latest revision (for Apple, that's 10.x, and x is only the last three versions).

With Kaby Lake (7th generation Intel) or Ryzen (new AMD), Windows 10 is it - nothing older is supported any longer.

You never explained why you want an IDE option...

If you want to use an old IDE drive, you can buy an inexpensive IDE>SATA converter that allows you to connect an IDE drive to a SATA port on the motherboard. And there are add-in PCI-e IDE cards that should work.  There are also external drive housings that connect an IDE drive to a USB port on the PC.

If you get a converter, make sure it supports the version of SATA (eg SATA3) on your motherboard; a PCI-e card has to fit whatever available PCI-e slot you have and support the version of PCI-e running on the PC, and a USB3 housing will be faster than USB2, assuming you have a USB3 port on your PC. And the new hardware has to support whatever version of Windows is running on your system.

Just keep in mind that it's unlikely you'll be able to boot from an IDE drive, regardless of how it's connected to the PC.

If you just need data from an older drive use a USB2 to IDE adapter cable.
https://www.amazon.com/Electop-Drive-Adapter-Converter-External/dp/B01LYL3G0O/

First of all thank you for all the answers and input. I really appreciate. Meanwhile I did ask a friend with a machine, in which a mainboard (I believe it was Gigabyte) offered the IDE option.

I'd like to point out that it's not about "doing this or doing that and solving the issue with a cable". For me it's about having a computer (mainboard), which offers the IDE option in general. Pls. don't take me wrong, but in my opinion it's a shame that I had to realize the mainboard does not offer IDE. What about booting older OSs? Older drives? Some maintenance tool? I'd like to have this option and I do not think that it's normal in the year 2017 to simply disable it. I know, I should've checked before buying this machine, but I really did not expect something like that.

Anyhow, at least I know what to do (sell it, buy an other one), so this forum was indeed helpful, thank you again.

Like we said, there are a quite a few options to connect an internal IDE drive.  

If you're interested in running old software, you may be able to install it in Compatibility Mode in whatever version of Windows you're using now, if the software won't natively run in that OS.

But it sounds like you just want a PC with ancient hardware so look for one that supports 5.25" floppy drives while you're at it. :emotion-2:

Well, that's a bit unfair after making a valid point trying to discredit on a personal level.

Or is there something wrong with e.g. having a dual boot machine with an older OS? Or using tools which have their own boot environment under dos? None of these scenarios is possible with that Vostro because the lack of ide support.

Btw talking about ancient hardware is not that convincing if (as I experienced) even a near high end gaming PC with a gigabyte mainboard offers ide (just like the majority of recent superior mainboards). Anyway, thanks for the clarification and input, I will have to be more careful choosing a PC with proper hardware in the future.

The Best Transitional Machine I know of is the Optiplex GX620 Tower.   This particular system supports floppy disks as well as DOS, WIN311, WIN95, WIN98, WIN2000,  XP, Vista, 7, 8, and 10.   8 and 10 require upgrade of BIOS to A11 and pentium D 915 to 960.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/504289159

IDE is 36 year old technology. Last boards I've seen that had this onboard were LGA 775 and 1156 systems. MSI Intel P55 4DDR3-16GB On-Board IDE/SATA motherboard P55-GD55 7589-01X

Doing IDE on modern systems doesnt work well if at all from PCI-E slots.  A bridge board works however.

https://www.amazon.com/Bipra-Bi-Directional-Converter-Connect-Motherboard/dp/B01JLY5O1A/

UEFI doesn't allow for Floppy Disk Booting or MBR IDE booting so this is one reason why its not working.  The other incompatibility is the break in backwards booting of DOS, XP, VISTA.  MBR and FAT32 are no longer allowed as a boot volume.   What you are asking for is NOT OFFERED by any vendor now AFAIKT with Microsoft closing the door on windows 7 as well.

Not sure what you mean by recent boards offering IDE especially in light of 2012 windows 8 and UEFI.  There is no MBR DOS/XP/VISTA booting from UEFI systems let alone dual booting.

GPT booting is not supported with XP.

Well, I suppose you know it better that me that UEFI (just like secure boot) can be disabled and the machine boots in Legacy mode (and it's also a well known fact that even Win10 does _NOT_  require UEFI).

In that case it's not relevant anymore that UEFI doesn't allow for Floppy Disk Booting or MBR IDE booting. It's not UEFI, but the missing IDE support by the mainboard that limits the booting options.

If someone looks at it this way, it does not make sense at all that Legacy mode can be enabled, but there is only AHCI and no IDE available.

CSM does not allow booting from MBR partitions aka DOS, WIN31, XP, Vista.

CSM ON Secure Boot OFF and LEGACY on only allows GPT partition booting.  MBR booting only works on older non UEFI Bios based systems.  CSM=Compatibility Support Module. This does not allow DOS or WIN9X or XP or Vista to boot.  It also does not support MBR booting.

WINDOWS 7 and up REQUIRE GPT partitions on UEFI BIOS Systems.  Windows 10 legacy booting is via GPT partition.

MSDOS, FAT32, WIN9X, and XP etc do not boot via GPT partitions.

It was actually possible to dual boot DOS and XP on the same FAT32 partition.  This however does not work on new systems with UEFI.

The GX620 is conventional INT13  MBR Bios.  It has an IDE CDROM drive and SATA Hard Drive connectors but can also support IDE hard drives.  There is no dual booting XP and 10 or any earlier os on a UEFI system because these MBR based systems can never boot on a

UEFI system.

It _IS_ possible to dual boot Windows 10 and Windows XP, even if it may require a second HDD or a Windows 10 reinstall in Legacy Mode. UEFI systems has the advantage, that UEFI can be disabled, but I mentioned this already. I also mentioned that the Vostro 3650 has the boot option "Legacy Mode", but it does not have IDE support. It makes no sense.

Anyhow, I made my point, that mainboard is a shame. The Machine's on sale already, hopfully it'll be sold this week.