Sata question-p4c800-e deluxe

[Fuzzy]

Hi , I am going to go the sata route on a non-raid basis. I plan on using
the sata 1 and 2 connectors, which I understand use the Intel ICH5R chipset.
I gather that I can't just copy Windows XP from my old IDE drive (all drives
in question will be Maxtor) to the new SATA drive. Does Windows XP need a
special driver to reinstall on the new drive? I've searched the net on this
and it is all very confusing. So, when I start to install XP, do I need to
hit F6 to load anything from the CD that came with the board?? Also, as I
plan on getting the drives tomorrow, without my wanting to use Raid, would I
be better off with Ultra 133 drives? My old drives are Ultra 66 and 100.
Thanks.

 

[Bob]

The SATA drives would still be faster. You need to install SATA
drivers at F6, get them from your set up disk. There is a command to
make the driver disk in the SATA folder there. There is also a command
to make the RAID disk in the RAID folder there case you change your
mind. The RAID disk is also needed at F6. I set-up my two drives in a
RAID config recently and disk access during game reloads is noticeably
faster.

Good luck

Bob
Tech Support
MasTec, N.A.

 

[Noozer]

Hi , I am going to go the sata route on a non-raid basis. I plan on using
the sata 1 and 2 connectors, which I understand use the Intel ICH5R

chipset.

From some testing I did a while back I'd say that you can move a drive
between the Promise and Intel connectors without a reformat. Just need to be
sure that any SATA driver you needed was loaded first.

I gather that I can't just copy Windows XP from my old IDE drive (all drives
in question will be Maxtor) to the new SATA drive.

If you aren't moving the HDD to a new PC you should be able to just image
your old drive to the new drive and boot from there. Again, install the
drivers for that SATA controller while your old drive is still going so XP
will know what to do when it finds itself on the SATA drive later on.

Does Windows XP need a
special driver to reinstall on the new drive? I've searched the net on this
and it is all very confusing. So, when I start to install XP, do I need to
hit F6 to load anything from the CD that came with the board??

Most likely you need the F6 when you do an install, but it sounds like you
can get away with just copying (ghosting) the drive. Can't hurt to try as
you still have the old drive if the new image on the new drive doesn't work.

Also, as I
plan on getting the drives tomorrow, without my wanting to use Raid, would I
be better off with Ultra 133 drives? My old drives are Ultra 66 and 100.

Do they even make different speed SATA drives? Could be wrong here but
66/100/133 are IDE (PATA) ratings. RPM and cache size will make a difference
though. 7200rpm and 8meg cache minimum. It's worth and extra few dollars if
you can get faster or bigger. (Don't spend more than $20 more for the same
sized drive with a bigger cache or faster speed)

 

[Bob Knowlden]

If you're using the ICH5R SATA controller, but not in RAID, I believe that
you need no additional drivers. (That was true on my P4P800, which also uses
the ICH5R.) Things will be more complex if you wish to install XP on a drive
that's on the Promise controller. (I can guess how it might be done, but I
haven't done it.)

I doubt there's much to choose for performance between SATA and UDMA. Some
new features (like Native Command Queuing) are beginning to appear in SATA
drives, but I believe that the ICH5R controller doesn't support them. (NCQ
drives are supposed to be back-compatible, but you won't get any advantage.)
If you're prepared to spring for a WD Raptor drive (10k RPM), you'll be
getting drives faster than any IDE models, but their cost per gigabyte is
high, and their capacities (36 or 74 GB) are small by present standards.

I'm happy enough with a pair of WD1600JD (160 GB SATA drives) used in Raid
0, currently on an A8V mainboard.

Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

 

[Ender]

If you're using the ICH5R SATA controller, but not in RAID, I believe that
you need no additional drivers. (That was true on my P4P800, which also uses
the ICH5R.) Things will be more complex if you wish to install XP on a drive
that's on the Promise controller. (I can guess how it might be done, but I
haven't done it.)

I doubt there's much to choose for performance between SATA and UDMA. Some
new features (like Native Command Queuing) are beginning to appear in SATA
drives, but I believe that the ICH5R controller doesn't support them. (NCQ
drives are supposed to be back-compatible, but you won't get any advantage.)
If you're prepared to spring for a WD Raptor drive (10k RPM), you'll be
getting drives faster than any IDE models, but their cost per gigabyte is
high, and their capacities (36 or 74 GB) are small by present standards.

I'm happy enough with a pair of WD1600JD (160 GB SATA drives) used in Raid
0, currently on an A8V mainboard.

Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

I would agree with Bob on this one. Unless you are doing a RAID
install, or a RAID ready install, no drivers are needed to install XP
on a SATA drive connected to the Intel controller. I would also agree
that the Raptor is an excellent choice for a boot drive. I have a 74g
Raptor as drive C: on my P4C800-E Deluxe and it is a screamer. Three
sweeps of the XP loading bar and I am into the OS, a few seconds later
and it is good to go at the desktop. I see no reason why you could
not image your current drive and drop it right onto the SATA.

Regards,

Ender

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke

 

[Fuzzy]

Thanks to everyone for the help. I just installed a Maxtor 120gb sata drive
and it was easy as pie. After the bios recognized it, I booted into windows
and it showed in device manager. Formatted and partitioned with Maxblast and
copied my current windows setup and everything is great. I partitioned it
into 4 equal parts and will just keep one of the other drives in to backup
stuff I need if I ever re-install or have a problem. One more question. In
the bios there is an option to enable 32-bit data transfer. What is that all
about?? Thanks.

 

[Marcel Overweel]

Hmm, for some reason that didn't work for me.
I set the controller to normal IDE mode, tried all combinations of
compatibility and enhanced support in the IDE device settings but no go.
Had to install the promise IDE drivers in order to install winxp on the
s-ata drive.

regards,
Marcel