First SATA HDD....

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » January 11th, 2006, 16:28

Right, I'm getting a new computer, unformatted, with a SATA HDD in it. Is it just the same as formatting and installing windows on a normal IDE drive, or do you need to install SATA drivers first? Thought I'd seen something about installing drivers from a floppy (pffft) so didn't want to get stuck in without knowing what I'm doing!

Since my existing 80GB IDE drive will also be going in, I've just assumed that windows/applications/games etc would all be better off on the faster drive and the old one can be used for music/films/pr0n etc, but is this right?

I may be a hardware n00b, but we've all got to start somewhere! Cheers guys.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » January 11th, 2006, 16:32

depends on your motherboard.

some will emulate being normal HDDs, and not require drivers.

others won't and will need a floppy disk with the SATA drivers on for when you install windows. (or use a windows disc with the drivers slipstreamed)

edit: it's also worth noting that the windows installer will only support floppies, not usb pen-drives, and will probably be odd with usb floppy drives.

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » January 11th, 2006, 16:35

Motherboard will be an Asus A8N-E. Are SATA drivers generic or would it depend on the motherboard as to what I need to put on the floppy?

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » January 11th, 2006, 16:40

Lateralus wrote:Motherboard will be an Asus A8N-E. Are SATA drivers generic or would it depend on the motherboard as to what I need to put on the floppy?

Yes, and no.

often drivers will be generic on a per-controller or chipset basis. but no more than that.

as far as i can tell, you should be fine, it's a newish mobo and there's no downloads for SATA drivers*.

*which means you probably don't need them

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » January 11th, 2006, 16:43

So in idiot-speek - put the XP disk in and it should be able to install straight onto the SATA drive no worries?

And am I right in thinking that having everything on the SATA drive is better?

Edit: Maybe this forum should be changed to Kitteny Berk's Question Tiem!

Post by **deject** » January 11th, 2006, 16:48

The newest generation of mobo's don't need any special drivers for regular SATA drives. The RAID controller might, but other than that you should be all set.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » January 11th, 2006, 16:52

Lateralus wrote:So in idiot-speek - put the XP disk in and it should be able to install straight onto the SATA drive no worries?

Yup

And am I right in thinking that having everything on the SATA drive is better?

Yesandno. i'd put your OS, games and apps onto the SATA drive. put the paging file onto its own partition (say, 6gb partition) on the IDE drive and use the rest of the space as storage (i like to move my "my documents" folder to a safe place*)

Edit: Maybe this forum should be changed to Kitteny Berk's Question Tiem!

pfft.

* Right click the my documents shortcut on the desktop > properties > change the target location to your non-OS drive. this stops your windows install getting fragmented so easily.

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » January 11th, 2006, 18:52

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:put the paging file onto its own partition (say, 6gb partition) on the IDE drive

How? Both the partition, and then moving the paging file. Its an 80GB drive if that matters much to size of partitions....

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » January 11th, 2006, 19:07

acronis partition expert is available from your local floor.

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » January 11th, 2006, 19:22

Gosh, so it is. And I've picked it up already. But how does one move the paging file (is that the same as virtual memory?)

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » January 11th, 2006, 19:36

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307886

friznit · Post by **friznit** » January 21st, 2006, 14:55

Cross postage! In the process of reinstalling windoze...course I completely forgot that I had a SATA HDD on a ASUS P5WD2 mobo

Took me 30 minutes just to find a working floppy disk in the piles of old computer junk I've got

Got it working now though. Thing that always makes me laugh is the posts that say "If you have trouble installing Windows on your HDD, then copy the files from the installation CD to a floppy...etc etc" Surely I'd have to have an OS installed to be able to do this? (Given that you can't make DOS boot disks anymore). Always reminds me of the great line "If your phone's broke, ring this number."

Post by **Dog Pants** » January 21st, 2006, 15:40

Or when you ring BT to tell them your intercock's borked and the answermatron tells you you can report faults on their website. Cunts.

friznit · Post by **friznit** » January 21st, 2006, 16:05

friznit wrote:Got it working now though....

After a fashion. When I first did this I new very little about slipstreaming and so made two 127mb partition on by 300mb HDD, plus a little and some left over. Having installed all by games and...stuff...on that second partition I now would quite like to have it back. WTF has it gone? I remember reading something about windows not recognising the seond partition somewhere. Hmm, maybe SP2 will help

*runs Windows update...leaves for an hour