[Me__2001]

im going to get a new hard drive within the next week or so and am unsure as to whether i should get a Maxtor 200GB SATA, im assuming that it is possible to run an ATA master and a SATA slave? i will also be getting a new Tagan 420W PSU as my current one won't cope with the extra drive as it doesn't have any free connectors

mobo is a Asus P4C800 Deluxe and im using XP on a 120GB ATA

[Quadophile]

I have the WD P-ATA HD drive running as master and a Seagate Barracuda S-ATA running as a slave, no problems whatsoever.

It is very difficult for anyone to tell you which one to go for, all brands have success and failure stories, in the end the one which lasts longer is the best.

[Me__2001]

i was going to get a maxtor as i have one and i've had no problems i just wanted to check if i could use the SATA drive as a slave, the Mobo instructions aren't really clear on running SATA and P-ATA drives together

thanks

[Techy]

why u need new psu?

just buy a molex splitter, costs bout 50p.

[floppybootstomp]

If your current master disk is configured as master and holds your OS, then the SATA drive should automatically configure as a slave.

You will have to load the SATA drivers, they should be on your motherboard CD.

Most SATA drives don't have jumpers, btw, they automatically configure.

What is your current PSU rating? If it's about 300W or 350W, you may be OK and just need to buy a PSU molex to SATA power connector/splitter lead.

As for which make of HDD, just stick to name brands: Western Digital; Maxtor; Samsung; Hitachi; Seagate.

I've used just about every brand and have good and bad to say about all of them.

[Me__2001]

my current PSU is a generic 400W but is only rated a 5A on the 12V rail and im already drawing more than that and dont want to risk putting any more components on it, i have two molex splitters and leads that came with my Mobo. i downloaded and installed all of the latest drivers earlier. so do i just plug it in and format it?

[Cache-man]

I can highly recommend you getting the Tagan PSU, they are excellent units, and are very well respected everywhere.

As for your HDD, there should be no issues at all in running it as a slave, as it should set itself up automatically. I particularly like the Seagate Barracuda line of hard disks as I have always used them with great success, but then many users of other brands will say the same. You should have no trouble with a maxtor either though as it too is one of the major brands, and many have made good comments about them.

[Me__2001]

do i make a partition and format by :

create a boot disk with Fdisk on it
change bios and boot using the floppy
run Fdisk and create a primary partition and format

or do i plug it in boot into windows and create a partition and format using Start>run> compmgmt.msc , make a new partition then format?

will the disk show in windows?

[psd99]

Me_2001

tbh ive been through maxtor, western digital, fujitsu and now seagate

and out of them all i cant reccomend any because they have all let me down. what really annoys me is that for me everytime i get a new harddrive its DEAD silent but then after 6-8 months all harddrives ive ever handled seem to get very loud.

i do rememeber on this site some1 asking abt the best harddrive make and the comment was like this:

"it all depends if ur harddrive comes from agood batch or a bad batch"
luck of the draw

and everytime ive been very unlucky!

[muckshifter]

Originally Posted by Me__2001

do i make a partition and format by :

create a boot disk with Fdisk on it
change bios and boot using the floppy
run Fdisk and create a primary partition and format

or do i plug it in boot into windows and create a partition and format using Start>run> compmgmt.msc , make a new partition then format?

will the disk show in windows?

Boot to Windows ... always use NTSF with XP

As for your PSU, I would change it ... anything under 8watt is really crap.