Going SATA

[Eiolon]

I've finally built my PC. The last one I built was in 2000 when GeForce 3 was king. Any ways, nne thing I'd like to do is move from IDE to SATA when I get enough cash for the drive.

Since I have never used SATA before (getting a Seagate 7200.8), is there anything I need to know about it before installing the drive and Windows? Do I just install it like a normal IDE drive and call it a day or are there BIOS options I need to enable or drivers to load like in SCSI?

Thanks for all your help :)

[BillR]

I've finally built my PC. The last one I built was in 2000 when GeForce 3 was king. Any ways, nne thing I'd like to do is move from IDE to SATA when I get enough cash for the drive.

Since I have never used SATA before (getting a Seagate 7200.8), is there anything I need to know about it before installing the drive and Windows? Do I just install it like a normal IDE drive and call it a day or are there BIOS options I need to enable or drivers to load like in SCSI?

Thanks for all your help :)

Installing SATA isn’t all that hard but does require some drivers. Those drivers should have come with your Motherboard.

Follow the instruction in your users manual and you should be ok.

The basics are, when you install XP you will be asked to hit F-6 if you have special drivers to install. Push F-6 when prompted and install the drivers from your floppy then continue your install.

To make life easy if you don’t already have XP with SP-1 or 2 you should make a new install disk slipstreaming the new service packs into your new disk.

Google “Slipstream + windows XP” and get a full set of instructions from many sites.

Luck

[Eiolon]

Thank you for your help.

I have a Windows disc with SP2 already so it appears I'll be able to coast through it with the help of my manual then.

[Dark Ember]

Its possible that you may have to turn on Bus Mastering in your BIOS as well. So if you do what Bill said, and still no dice, try looking for the Bus Mastering setting in your BIOS and make sure that it is enabled.

[Dew]

For 99% of cases, as long as you have the SATA on a normal controller and not a RAID controller, it will act just like any old IDE drive for installation.