SATA hard drive

[Iowabucks]

I recently upgraded my computer but kept the old hard drive. I changed cables on my hard drive to a sata cable. Everything went smooth. I will be going from XP to Vista soon with a new 500gb drive and i see where Vista will ask for me to load the sata driver during the format.

Will it need the driver if the HD is plugged into the mobo thru the sata cable? The old one is plugged in now without needing the drivers and works fine.

Sorry, this is a nubish question. Just wanted to get it clarified before proceeding.

[DonDon]

I recently upgraded my computer but kept the old hard drive. I changed cables on my hard drive to a sata cable. Everything went smooth. I will be going from XP to Vista soon with a new 500gb drive and i see where Vista will ask for me to load the sata driver during the format.

Will it need the driver if the HD is plugged into the mobo thru the sata cable? The old one is plugged in now without needing the drivers and works fine.

Sorry, this is a nubish question. Just wanted to get it clarified before proceeding.

Hmmm, where to start? Well, you can't change the cable on a drive from PATA to SATA. In either case, while the generic drivers built into XP or Vista will work in most cases, you will prolly want to find and install the motherboard drivers for your system. They will be on a CD that came with your mobo, but it is usually best to check the manufacturers website for the latest drivers.

I think you are just confusing some terms here. Please feel free to ask more questions to help get things clarified for you.

Don

[Iowabucks]

I think you are just confusing some terms here.

Don


You may be right.

I swapped out the big ribbon cable to a sata cable. Does that make it a "sata" drive?

As you can see, even i don't really know what i'm talking about. Just trying to learn. Thanks for your help.

[dandragonrage]

You can't do that. Are you maybe using an adapter?

[silent-circuit]

Can you take a picture of the drive in question?

People are getting confused because drives either are PATA (big ribbon cable) or SATA (smaller cable), not both at the same time. Either you changed drives... or you have a really strange drive none of us have ever heard of.

[werty316]

What type of hard drive do you have? Top pic or bottom pic?

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/8748/sataidelgcz8.jpg

[dandragonrage]

I think maybe his mobo came with one of those PATA to SATA adapters that some boards did in the past

[DonDon]

Yea, but the problem is the drive. Did you change drives when you changed the cable?

In most cases, windows will work with either type of drive. Unless you have an obscure motherboard, or are trying to use an add in hard drive controller, windows should install just fine no matter what interface your drive is using.

Don

[Iowabucks]

I swapped out the IDE cable for a Sata cable and left the molex connector in for power. I do have sata power connectors in my PSU's wiring harnesses. Should i be using those instead?

I guess what i'm try to say is if i have a new sata drive, if i plug it into the mobo through a sata cable, will it be the type of drive that needs the drivers installed to the mobo or needs drivers installed during the installation of vista? Or should it just be plug and play with those connections?

[DonDon]

That's what was throwing us. You got a new drive! That makes things much clearer now. The first post said that you kept the old hard drive.

Windows should work fine if you are just plugging the SATA drive into your motherboard. The power connector does not matter. They just put both on some models because not everyone has the Sata power connectors on their power supply.

Your motherboard may have a driver package that can be installed with windows. It may improve performance over the standard windows drivers. Check the CD that came with the motherboard or the manufacturers web site.

[bigdogchris]

I recently upgraded my computer but kept the old hard drive. I changed cables on my hard drive to a sata cable. Everything went smooth. I will be going from XP to Vista soon with a new 500gb drive and i see where Vista will ask for me to load the sata driver during the format.

Will it need the driver if the HD is plugged into the mobo thru the sata cable? The old one is plugged in now without needing the drivers and works fine.

Sorry, this is a nubish question. Just wanted to get it clarified before proceeding.You do not need drivers to use Sata or Raid with Vista. The OS will provide drivers for both and unless you have issues, I would not replace them, especially if your using Nvidia chipset (newer chipset drivers lowers fps).

[Old Hippie]

I do have sata power connectors in my PSU's wiring harnesses. Should i be using those instead?

It doesn't matter but, don't use both at the same time. ;)