SATA as boot drive?

[Hans]

Hi,

My computer boots from a 30 Gb IDE drive.
The secondairy drive is SATA.

Is it possible to boot from the SATA drive without
the IDE drive on board? If yes; can someone tell me how to
do this as I can't find to set the SATA in the BIOS as Primairy
drive ?

My configuration:
ASUS A7NX8 E DeLuxe motherboard
Award BIOS
Athlon 2500
1 Gb Memory
SATA 120 Gb 7200rpm HD
IDE 30 Gb 5200 rpm HD
ATI 9800 Graphics
Win XP Pro SP1

Regards,
Hans

 

[S.Heenan]

Hi,

My computer boots from a 30 Gb IDE drive.
The secondairy drive is SATA.

Is it possible to boot from the SATA drive without
the IDE drive on board? If yes; can someone tell me how to
do this as I can't find to set the SATA in the BIOS as Primairy
drive ?

ASUS A7NX8 E DeLuxe motherboard
SATA 120 Gb 7200rpm HD
IDE 30 Gb 5200 rpm HD
Win XP Pro SP1

Download and copy the Silicon Image SATA drivers to a floppy.
http://usa.asus.com/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=A7N8X-E Deluxe

Connect the SATA drive and disconnect the IDE drive. Set the BIOS to boot
from CD-ROM. Boot from your Windows XP CD. In the first few seconds of
setup, you will be prompted to press F6. Do so. When prompted to insert the
floppy, do that. Windows can not "see" your SATA drive without this driver.
When Windows XP has finished installing, enter the BIOS and set the first
boot device as SCSI. Reconnect the IDE drive and copy over any files if you
like.

 

[Hans]

Download and copy the Silicon Image SATA drivers to a floppy.
http://usa.asus.com/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=A7N8X-E Deluxe

Connect the SATA drive and disconnect the IDE drive. Set the BIOS to boot
from CD-ROM. Boot from your Windows XP CD. In the first few seconds of
setup, you will be prompted to press F6. Do so. When prompted to insert the
floppy, do that. Windows can not "see" your SATA drive without this driver.
When Windows XP has finished installing, enter the BIOS and set the first
boot device as SCSI. Reconnect the IDE drive and copy over any files if you
like.

Thanks...

 

[S.Heenan]

Thanks...

Any time.

 

[Jim]

Any time.

Is it possible to copy the IDE boot drive contents over to the SATA
drive, remove the IDE drive, then boot from the SATA drive (as when
upgrading to a larger IDE drive)? Or is it necessary to do a fresh
Windows XP install on the new drive? Thanks.

 

[Steven L Cox]

Is it possible to copy the IDE boot drive contents over to the SATA
drive, remove the IDE drive, then boot from the SATA drive (as when
upgrading to a larger IDE drive)? Or is it necessary to do a fresh
Windows XP install on the new drive? Thanks.

I don't believe there are any easy methods to do this, you could
probably do something like using Ghost to image one drive to the other
but if you're not too familiar with the process you might want to
simply rebuild. Even with Ghosting there is likely to be some OS
configuration issues when going from IDE to what is essentially a SCSI
device.

-s-

 

[Natéag]

I would use Ghost or Drive Image (much more convenient to use).
Then using Windows install CD launch install then choose « update »
rather than new installation.

 

[Jim]

I don't believe there are any easy methods to do this, you could
probably do something like using Ghost to image one drive to the other
but if you're not too familiar with the process you might want to
simply rebuild. Even with Ghosting there is likely to be some OS
configuration issues when going from IDE to what is essentially a SCSI
device.

-s-

Yeah I don't think it's going to work. I used Drive Image Pro and it
almost booted from the SATA, getting just past the XP logon prompt
before freezing. The SATA drivers are on the image because I booted from
the IDE drive with the SATA drive in place and it was installed OK. Also
tried booting from XP CD and re-install over the existing OS but that
didn't work. I'll try a couple more BIOS versions and re-installs and
post back here if I get it to work.

 

[Tdaddy]

Hi,

My computer boots from a 30 Gb IDE drive.
The secondairy drive is SATA.

Is it possible to boot from the SATA drive without
the IDE drive on board? If yes; can someone tell me how to
do this as I can't find to set the SATA in the BIOS as Primairy
drive ?

My configuration:
ASUS A7NX8 E DeLuxe motherboard
Award BIOS
Athlon 2500
1 Gb Memory
SATA 120 Gb 7200rpm HD
IDE 30 Gb 5200 rpm HD
ATI 9800 Graphics
Win XP Pro SP1

Regards,
Hans

You didn't mention what brand harddrive you are using but I just did
the exact same process using Seatgates Disk wizard 2003. Went from a
40gig drive to a 200gig drive, the program does everything, formats,
does multiple partitions if you like and copies all the files from the
old drive to the new one. All you have to do is move the cables and
jumpers when told to do so and set bios to boot from SCSI instead of
IDE. Your harddrive mfgr. may have the same type program available for
download.
TDaddy

 

[Creeping Stone]

I don't believe there are any easy methods to do this, you could
probably do something like using Ghost to image one drive to the other
but if you're not too familiar with the process you might want to
simply rebuild. Even with Ghosting there is likely to be some OS
configuration issues when going from IDE to what is essentially a SCSI
device.

-s-

Yeah I don't think it's going to work. I used Drive Image Pro and it
almost booted from the SATA, getting just past the XP logon prompt
before freezing. The SATA drivers are on the image because I booted from
the IDE drive with the SATA drive in place and it was installed OK. Also
tried booting from XP CD and re-install over the existing OS but that
didn't work. I'll try a couple more BIOS versions and re-installs and
post back here if I get it to work.

Sounds like you might have to just edit boot.ini
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q102873

Inside boot.ini, lines define where various windows installation can be
found like,
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="displayed in menu"

Multi is for IDE, changing from ide to sata, it would change to something
like,
scsi0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="displayed in menu"

That could do it,

 

[Robert Sudbury]

WAHHHHHH!!! Symantec bought PowerQuest!!!

WAHHHHHH!!!

 

[Ray Kasprzak]

Is it possible to copy the IDE boot drive contents over to the SATA
drive, remove the IDE drive, then boot from the SATA drive (as when
upgrading to a larger IDE drive)? Or is it necessary to do a fresh
Windows XP install on the new drive? Thanks.

Sure. Just did it a couple of weeks ago. If you don't have the disc
utility go to the disc manufacture's web site and download. Also with the
IDE drive still installed turn off system restore and virtual memory. If the
sata/raid driver is not on the IDE drive install it. When you are all
finished copying turn off tthe computer and disconnect the IDE drive.
Before the system starts to boot make sure that it is enabled in the bios.
System should boot with the SATA drive as your C drive. Worked like a charm
for me with a Maxtor 120gb SATA drive.

 

[Dream King]

Hi,

My computer boots from a 30 Gb IDE drive.
The secondairy drive is SATA.

Is it possible to boot from the SATA drive without
the IDE drive on board? If yes; can someone tell me how to
do this as I can't find to set the SATA in the BIOS as Primairy
drive ?

My configuration:
ASUS A7NX8 E DeLuxe motherboard
Award BIOS
Athlon 2500
1 Gb Memory
SATA 120 Gb 7200rpm HD
IDE 30 Gb 5200 rpm HD
ATI 9800 Graphics
Win XP Pro SP1

I may be unclear on what you're actually asking.. But when I setup my
system I set the SATA drive as my primary and installed XP on it. When I
added 2 other drives on the primary IDE controller, I wasn't able to
boot from the SATA drive anymore because the IDEs pushed out the SATA
from the selection. However, if you mess around with it you can get the
SATA as the primary drive just fine. Forgot the exact BIOS option at the
moment..