SATA drive advice

[Gary C]

Today, I plan to install a new SATA drive and fresh install Windows MCE.
Am I correct to assume that I should set my CD/DVD drive to "master",
on my "primary" IDE channel, as to boot first to CD when set in BIOS?

Later, I want to reinstall my PATA drive, to use as storage and retrieve some
files.
Would I *then* set the PATA drive to "master" and CD/DVD to "slave" on the
primary IDE channel, and leave BIOS to boot my SATA drive?

 

[BigJim]

have to set you boot preference in the bios.

 

[old jon]

Hi Gary, you sound a bit confused in your questions. Booting from floppy,
hard drive or CD drive is not the same as Master\Slave config of hard
drives. If your H\drive is the only one in your system set it to Master on
your primary connector. Then in the Bios set your machine to boot from CD
first. Got the idea ?. best wishes J

 

[Gary C]

Hi Gary, you sound a bit confused in your questions. Booting from floppy,
hard drive or CD drive is not the same as Master\Slave config of hard
drives. If your H\drive is the only one in your system set it to Master on
your primary connector. Then in the Bios set your machine to boot from CD
first. Got the idea ?. best wishes J

My MoBo has a separate SATA channel.
My SATA Hard drive is not IDE.


First, I want to run ONLY a hard drive on the SATA channel,
and a CD/DVD drive on a IDE channel.

Does that clarify it better?

 

[Gary C]

have to set you boot preference in the bios.

Yes, I know that, as stated in my last sentence.
I am questioning the IDE connections and settings.

 

[old jon]

got you now Gary I think you could leave your CD\DVD as master on IDE 1. and
put the drive in as a slave `cos it`s only gonna be a data drive (not a
bootable). After you`ve Cd`d your system on you could go into Bios and make
your Sata boot first. best wishes..J

 

[RBM]

I think what they are trying to explain is: You want to install the blank
SATA drive and in the bios set it as the boot drive. You can also install
your PATA drive at the same time as master or slave on its ide channel, but
leave it out of the boot order in the bios, and I think you want your CD
drive to be set as (1) in the boot order

 

[johns]

Holy cat. !!! Stop !!!

Put your SATA drive on the ZERO SATA connector
( drive 0 ). Put your cd/dvd on the SECONDARY
ide channel .. put NOTHING on your PRIMARY
ide channel. The cd/dvd drive should be set to master
.... and probably is by default. Do not slave ANYTHING
to your cd/dvd drive. If you have a ZIP drive, throw it
in the garbage can. It will walk all over both your SATA
and your cd/dvd. Use USB drives for anything else ..
like a backup drive.

Now, you need to make a floppy with the SATA drivers
on it that came with your mobo. Call tech support at
the place where you bought the mobo, and get them to
tell you how to make the floppy. You are going to have
to copy those files off the mobo drivers cd to the floppy.

Since your SATA drive does not have an OS on it, the
OS install cd will boot by default. Leave the BIOS
settings alone. As the install cd boots, hit F6 and tell
the install disk that you wish to install the SATA drivers.
Follow instructions that will come up later in about
5 minutes.

After the OS has installed, and you are up and running,
try accessing your spare drive. If it is an ide drive, slave
it to the cd/dvd temporarily to copy off files. If it is an
old SATA drive, put it on SATA drive 1 .. no jumpers.

Listen carefully .. !!! ... When you ask for advice in this
news group, read all the posts until you figure out who
is a pro in the field, and not just speculating. With a
SATA boot drive in your system, NEVER put anything
on your primary ide channel. You will ball up all kinds
of unsuspecting things that appear to work at first, but
will fail during use. You will corrupt the SATA driver,
and there goes your data .. or a $$$ trip to the pc
store to let a teenager play with things and make
excuses.

johns

 

[Gary C]

Holy cat. !!! Stop !!!

Put your SATA drive on the ZERO SATA connector
( drive 0 ).
Yup.

Put your cd/dvd on the SECONDARY
ide channel .. put NOTHING on your PRIMARY
ide channel.

Thank you!

The cd/dvd drive should be set to master
... and probably is by default.

OK, that's where it is from before.

Do not slave ANYTHING
to your cd/dvd drive.
Gotcha!


Now, you need to make a floppy with the SATA drivers
on it that came with your mobo.

Yes, I have one with MoBo.

{snip}

After the OS has installed, and you are up and running,
try accessing your spare drive. If it is an ide drive, slave
it to the cd/dvd temporarily to copy off files.

Noted and will try at a later time.

{snip}

With a
SATA boot drive in your system, NEVER put anything
on your primary ide channel.

Thank you, Johns for understanding my questions.
We will give just the new SATA boot drive a go first.

But, later I will want to permantly have my attach my IDE
drive, to be used for storage.

How would I cable things then?

(1 CD/DVD drive, 1 IDE drive, 1 SATA with OS on SATA
connector ... and of course, 1 floppy, but that's not in question)

 

[Sam]

Holy cat. !!! Stop !!!

Put your SATA drive on the ZERO SATA connector
( drive 0 ). Put your cd/dvd on the SECONDARY
ide channel .. put NOTHING on your PRIMARY
ide channel. The cd/dvd drive should be set to master
... and probably is by default. Do not slave ANYTHING
to your cd/dvd drive. If you have a ZIP drive, throw it
in the garbage can. It will walk all over both your SATA
and your cd/dvd. Use USB drives for anything else ..
like a backup drive.

johns

Just curious. Why do you say to have nothing on the 1st IDE channel? I have
a single SATA drive, a DVD burner on IDE-1 and a plain CD-ROM drive on
IDE-2. Everything works fine and no problem booting at all.

I have my boot order set as Floppy/CD/SCSI since the SATA drive is
recognized as a SCSI drive by the BIOS.

Sam

 

[johns]

Just curious. Why do you say to have nothing on the 1st IDE channel?

That is default boot under conditions that you have not pointed to the
boot drive. Under crash conditions it will corrupt your SATA driver.
Under many software installs, the windows installer will point right
back to the dvd drive, and it will corrupt .. or give you weird error
messages about the "drive" not being a writeable format. Guess not.
It is a cd-drive.

I have

a single SATA drive, a DVD burner on IDE-1 and a plain CD-ROM drive on
IDE-2. Everything works fine and no problem booting at all.

You will .. and it will be too late then. Right now, you could pull the
plain
cd-rom out with no problems. Reboot and let things settle. Then move
the dvd-burner to ide-2.

johns

 

[johns]

But, later I will want to permantly have my attach my IDE
drive, to be used for storage.

How would I cable things then?

You can temporarily slave it to the cd/dvd, or you can
just pull the cd/dvd cable off and put it on the ide drive
to copy files. Another stunt I do a lot is I have a USB
box that lets me put any ide drive in it and then access
it as a USB drive. Those boxes cost around $50 and
are good backup drives. You could keep your old
drive that way, and use it for backups occasionally.

johns

 

[John Weiss]

Today, I plan to install a new SATA drive and fresh install Windows MCE.
Am I correct to assume that I should set my CD/DVD drive to "master",
on my "primary" IDE channel, as to boot first to CD when set in BIOS?

Later, I want to reinstall my PATA drive, to use as storage and retrieve
some
files.
Would I *then* set the PATA drive to "master" and CD/DVD to "slave" on the
primary IDE channel, and leave BIOS to boot my SATA drive?

I don't know that it makes much difference in this case, but it may depend
on your MoBo ability to boot from SATA with a bootable PATA drive
connected...

I would:
Remove PATA drive
Set up CD as Secondary Master
Install OS on SATA
Install PATA drive as Primary Master
Move all required data from PATA to SATA
Repartition PATA drive with Extended partition only (no Primary
partition).

This should prevent conflicts with BIOS seeing 2 bootable HDs.

 

[DaveW]

The harddrive on a given IDE channel should always be the Master, and the
optical drive should be the Slave. THEN, in your BIOS you set the computer
to boot first from your CD-ROM.

 

[Gary C]

Since your SATA drive does not have an OS on it, the
OS install cd will boot by default. Leave the BIOS
settings alone.

Shit too!!!
What a bitch, but I got it, finally after 3 hours!

After the OS has installed, and you are up and running,
try accessing your spare drive. If it is an ide drive, slave
it to the cd/dvd temporarily to copy off files. If it is an
old SATA drive, put it on SATA drive 1 .. no jumpers.

Piss on it, after today's grief!
Time for a beer!

 

[Pat Coghlan]

One of the better posts I've seen on this topic

Now, can anyone shed some light on why it is recommended that Windows be
installed on the SATA vs Ghosting from the original IDE drive?

The trick (for me) is to have the new SATA drive appear as drive C:,
which I haven't been able to achieve yet, even if I disconnect the
original IDE drive.

What's the relationship between the drive that Windows was originally
installed on and the physical location (IDE 0 master, SATA0 etc.) of the
drive?

-Pat