5punk

OK so i have received my new 250gb HDD from ebuyer. what i want to do is instal windows on the new drive, recover any data i can from the knackered 200gb drive then chuck the dead drive andhave the new 250gb drive as my windaz drive and my 500gb drive for media. i only have 2 SATA things on this motherboard, so what i'm thinking is

1. Replace 500gb drive with 25ogb drive
2. format 250gb drive to NTFS and isntall windows
3. download getback data and use it on the knackered drive
4. take out dead 200gb drive and replace with 500gb drive.

i just want to make sure i'm not going to get any issues doing it in that order

i THINK that when i formatted the 200gb drive before and it formatted my external drive it was because of some master/slave issue making it format the slave before the master or something, but i THINK that that won't be an issue with 2 SATA drive because i don't think they work as master and slave.

also, will it make any difference which drive is connected to which SATA portt[/code]

I don't believe there's any master/slave stuff on SATA drives and it wont matter which ports you use. You may come across some problems with the HD boot order, if your PC tries to use the dodgy HD as the boot disk. To start with just put in your new drive, install windows, then install the dodgy disk.

ok cheers, thought it might be best to do it with just the new one to start with

i'm half tempted to isntall ubuntu instead of windows, but i'm not sure how to get it to do everyhting i want, and i can't get the NTFS stuff to work

I'd remove all disks except the new one, install Windows, get it running, then introduce the other disks to recover data.

That way you don't accidentally format the wrong one.

FatherJack wrote:I'd remove all disks except the new one, install Windows, get it running, then introduce the other disks to recover data.

That way you don't accidentally format the wrong one.

this, hard. Also, you won't have wonky drive letters.

This and this too.

Re-lettering drives afterwards is unnecessary cocking about, but has to be done, better that you start with one. You can even power them all, then plug the sata cables in one at a time and initialize the drives as you want to install them.

HereComesPete wrote: This and this too.

Re-lettering drives afterwards is unnecessary cocking about, but has to be done, better that you start with one. You can even power them all, then plug the sata cables in one at a time and initialize the drives as you want to install them.

A bonus feature about SATA is that it's hot swappable, like USB items.

Granted, it doens't get much use internally, but that's why e-sata (external sata) is appearing on mobo's these days.

buzzmong wrote:A bonus feature about SATA is that it's hot swappable, like USB items.

I didn't know that, handy.

buzzmong wrote:


A bonus feature about SATA is that it's hot swappable, like USB items.

ish.

IIRC It's only hot swappable when using a proper sata power connector, not an adaptor or a molex, I'm not certain on that though.

Also, boot/system drives aren't hot-swappable.

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:
ish.

IIRC It's only hot swappable when using a proper sata power connector, not an adaptor or a molex, I'm not certain on that though.

yeah if you're using a molex power connector, no hot swap for you! come back one year!

Fear wrote:Also, boot/system drives aren't hot-swappable.

Though, if you're lucky/unlucky. you can sometimes get away with knocking the data cable out and re-plugging it without windows going too wrong, It just makes a fuss. Really don't try that intentionally though

ok so i removed both my 200 and 500 gb drives and put the 250gb one in, and it isn't recognised. when i go to the windows set up it says it can't find a drive to install on and can't continue and i boot up it says there is no disk on either channel. have tried it with both sata ports and both sata power connectors

any suggestions? Faulty drive? faulty me?

Try another sata data cable?

only have two and have tried them both

also there are no jumpers on the new drive, whereas the other drives both have one, could this be anything to do with it?

I'm assuming other sata drives work?

If you have no others, make sure sata is enabled in the bios etc (if there's an option for it, try IDE mode)

The Incredible... wrote:also there are no jumpers on the new drive, whereas the other drives both have one, could this be anything to do with it?

jumpers aren't needed for sata.

Can the Bios see the new drive?, can you see in in Computer Management->Disk Drives? (or something)