Boot from nonRAID SATA

[Ozzy]

I have an A7N8X-Deluxe. I currently boot off of my IDE primary and
have a second IDE harddrive and a third hard IDE drive off one of the
SATA connections with a Highpoint SATA/IDE converter.

I've ordered a Western Digital 74 10000rpm SATA drive and I want to
use that as my boot drive.

From what I've read I'll have to take our the primary IDE boot drive
to be able to load XP on the new SATA drive. Will I be able to load
XP on the single SATA drive and keep the IDE drive with the converter
on the other SATA connection? I know that I will have to set the
boot drive in the BIOS as SCSI, but there doesn't appear to be a
seperate setting for SCSI-1 or SCSI-2.

Also, hiw can I now use the IDE primary that has XP on it now. Once I
have XP on the SATA, can I put it back in and delete XP and use it for
data or reformat it and start from scratch?

Thanks,

Larry

 

[Ron]

Everything you wish to do, you can. I had almost exactly the same
situation, and it worked just as you hope/expect that it will. The only
thing you'll need to ensure is that you connect the new/fast/WD/boot drive
to the PRI SATA port. Otherwise, you've nailed it.

Please post a follow-up.
Ron

 

[Tim]

Ron,

If you are going to do a new install, then it is probably best to disconnect
all IDE drives during the process. The reason for this is that if you have
current Primary Master IDE (or other drives) present and install XP on first
SATA then you may end up with the boot sector on the first IDE disc being
used to boot XP on the SATA disc. Later if you remove / reformat this disc
you will end up with a bit of a problem.

Don't forget to have drivers on floppy for f6 install. I no noffing abouut
the SATA controller you are using, but some allow you to run as Raid Ready
IE the controller is configured as raid, but due to a lack of discs or no
raid config it is not running as such, but it is ready to do so - intel does
this now. Tis a good idea to use it if your controller supports it, save
mucking around in bios and so on later.

- Tim

 

[Ron]

Hmm. Tim, it was good of you to respond to this thread...but it is Ozzy
that is doing the changes. I am just a responder like yourself.

That said, I too would have suggested disconnecting the IDE drives...but
Ozzy already plans to do that. (Actually, I think that Ozzy knows *exactly
what he's doing. He just posted that string of queries as a test. Later,
he will assess the accuracy and pleasantness of the replies...and send a
huge cheque to the lucky winner. Me.)

Keep us in the loop, Ozzy!
Ron

 

[Ozzy]

Ron/Tim,

Thanks for the help. It looks like I'm on the right track. The
drive should arrive tomorrow or Friday so maybe I can give it a go
this weekend.

Thanks again,

Larry aka Ozzy