Serial ATA
 

Ok, does anyone have any experience in using SATA? I'll be buying an Asus nForce mobo with SATA available, and would like to stick one of these SATA drives in (prefereably that 74GB WD Raptor). Is it as simple as standard IDE? I.E: sort master/slave, stick cable into hdd, into board, then boot? Or is a dark art?

Cheers. :banana:

Re: Serial ATA
 

SATA is one drive per connection, no more master/slave. You just plug one end into the drive and the other into the mainboard. And I'll leave it up to someone who knows more to fill you in on the rest.

Re: Serial ATA
 

assuming you'll be installing your OS onto it (otherwise what's the point of a raptor), you'd need a boot disk to install the sata drivers, you should be prompted if installing WinXP.

Re: Serial ATA
 

Well Windows XP Pro will be installed on the drive, so the usual clean boot from CD should load the SATA drivers? Once in Windows, use the mobo ones?

Off Topic Post
 

hi syph - remember me, hows things etc.

Re: Serial ATA
 

Excellent youf, now I've broke the shackles of PA. Hows things where you are?

Re: Serial ATA
 

im all good man all good. im at college mate - loads of fun. hows rob, stevie, gaz etc?

Re: Serial ATA
 

no, it wont.
windows cant TALK to the drive, without the drivers for it. so you cant install on it just by booting from the cd.

boot from the cd, and then it'll say something like 'press F6 if you need to install SCSI or something blah blah' so press it and install the drivers, then install as usual.

Re: Serial ATA
 

So, in order-

Build PC, connect correct cables etc.
Fiddle
Stick in XP disc
Using SATA driver disc previously made (or with mobo), install drivers when prompted using the F command for it.
Carry on
Nice shiny working drive (hahaha)

?

Cheers. :banana:

Re: Serial ATA
 

Sounds like you've got the general idea.
You just have to catch XP setup at the right point.
A few messages go across the bottom of the screen just after boot, including (as was mentioned) "Press F6 if you need to install a 3rd party SCSI or RAID driver".

Re: Serial ATA
 

Aye, I spotted it building a friends PC the other week.

Thanks all.

Re: Serial ATA
 

Does this mean I have to reinstall Windows on this hard-drive I have right now to use the SATA drive I just purchased? Windows is on my (ATA IDE) C:\ at the moment but I want to use my SATA drive however it's not showing up! :(

Re: Serial ATA
 

holy shit this is one mega old bump lmao!

If you got Windows already installed on a drive, you can just plug in your sata drive and Windows should see it.

If it does not, then make sure the SATA controller is enabled in the BIOS (consult manual), if it is, then you need to install the drivers, there should be a Windows installer ready to be downloaded from the manufacturers website or on a CD-ROM (but probably best to DL latest ones)

Re: Serial ATA
 

I have a Maxtor Diamond10+ SATA 200GB thingy dingy - I have a PSU converter and Serial ATA plug going into the SATA1 con. on my mobo but it's not working!

I've put the drivers I've been given on a floppy but it won't install or anything :|

Re: Serial ATA
 

In my Bios it has these options:

On-Chip ATA operate mode: Legacy, Mative

ATA Config: PATA only, SATA only, PATA + SATA

SATA Keep Enabled: Yes, No
PATA KeepEnabled: Yes, No
PATA Channel Selection: Primary, Secondary, Both
CombinedModeOption: PATA 1st Channel, SATA 1st Channel
SATA Ports Definition (P0/1st P1/2nd or P0/2nd P1/1st if set in Legacy Mode or 3rd & 4th (instead of P0 P1) if in Native)


^^^ all of that confuses me ;( when one option is enabled some others are disabled...

Re: Serial ATA
 

just to get this right: you want to keep your windows running from your old ide-harddisk and use the sata one just for storage?
-boot windows
- insert mobo-cd / driver disk
- right click 'my computer'
- select 'properties'
- select 'hardware'
- select 'device manager' or whatever (i dont have an english version of windows)
- if it shows your sata-controller with some yellow questionmark right click it and install the driver, if not read mobo-manual for enableing the controller.

Re: Serial ATA
 

That is correct - well for the time being yes. I've done what you said but there is an odd controller - Intel(R) 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage Controller which is working fine (I also have Primary IDE underneath that controller) - not a single thing on my list has any error by it (I know what you're about though) - I can't actually see anything by the specific name SATA Controller or anything though. :eek:

Re: Serial ATA
 

hmm, then its probably disabled in the bios. is there nothing usefull in the manual?
or maybe there are just no partions on the drive? i have no idea how windows would react in that case

Re: Serial ATA
 

Should I just give up with the mobo onboard SATA controller and just buy a PCI SATA controller...?

Re: Serial ATA
 

i wouldnt. if there is a controller onboard there usually is some way to make it work, especially with windows. just give it a day or two. maybe there is someone around here who has a better idea about this stuff than i do. what kind of mainboard do you have?

Re: Serial ATA
 

i just bought a samsung 250gig spinpoint sata 2 drive and in 2 days will be ghosting across via norton the entire contents of my old 80gig WD c:\ drive to it.

this thread hopefully will deliver more info on whether just this will work or whether ill have to install lots of fiddly things to get it to work first time.

Re: Serial ATA
 

Thread to be continued in 2008.