What makes you think an adapter would make a difference?
Did you double check the plug settings on the IDE HD? If you post a picture of the pins as well as one of the settings if there is one, we can look. Also in BIOS maybe you have to enable IDE? Does your BIOS even see the IDE drive?
BTW, Is the SATA HD making all the noise by any chance from Hitachi? Just curious because I had that issue. Hitachi HD was very loud and it also ran very hot, I added extra fans to help pull out the heat but it still died a year later.