SATA Hard Drives

[Earl Partridge]

I'm about to tackle my first addition of a SATA drive. I think I read somewhere that
SATA drives do not have Master - Slave, only CS. If true, how do I designate which
is to be the boot drive?

Also, appears that SATA data cables permit only one drive per cable?

Power, the one SATA drive I examined appears to be able to accept an old type
power cable or a newer type power cable?

Other tips and recommendations appreciated.

Earl

 

[Don]

I'm about to tackle my first addition of a SATA drive. I think I read
somewhere that
SATA drives do not have Master - Slave, only CS. If true, how do I
designate which
is to be the boot drive?

Also, appears that SATA data cables permit only one drive per cable?

Power, the one SATA drive I examined appears to be able to accept an old
type
power cable or a newer type power cable?

Other tips and recommendations appreciated.

Earl


There are no jumpers or settings to select, on a sata hard drive. Just plug
it in.
The drive, you install Vista on, will become your boot drive. Alternatively,
most bios will allow you to go in, and designate the hard drive boot
priority.

Yes, only one data cable per drive.

Many sata drives, still offer the older power connector, in addition to the
newer sata power connector, for backwards compatibility. You can use either
one. If your power supply has sata power connectors, I would go ahead and
just use those.

 

[Dominic Payer]

The boot drive is specified in the BIOS.

SATA controllers can run two drives but each has a separate data connection on the motherboard or controller card. Note the connection numbers on the motherboard. A SATA data cable connects only one drive to the motherboard.

Most new drives will only accept the new SATA power connector, but there are still some which can accept also the older Molex power connector. Connect only one, if you have the option of either.

I'm about to tackle my first addition of a SATA drive. I think I read somewhere that
SATA drives do not have Master - Slave, only CS. If true, how do I designate which
is to be the boot drive?

Also, appears that SATA data cables permit only one drive per cable?

Power, the one SATA drive I examined appears to be able to accept an old type
power cable or a newer type power cable?

Other tips and recommendations appreciated.

Earl

 

[John Barnes]

As Dominic said, the boot drive is designated in the BIOS, usually in a section called Boot Priority or similar name.

I'm about to tackle my first addition of a SATA drive. I think I read somewhere that
SATA drives do not have Master - Slave, only CS. If true, how do I designate which
is to be the boot drive?

Also, appears that SATA data cables permit only one drive per cable?

Power, the one SATA drive I examined appears to be able to accept an old type
power cable or a newer type power cable?

Other tips and recommendations appreciated.

Earl

 

[Daddy Tadpole]

I think the subject is important because we're moving into a situation where
many of us want to use more than one OS without any risks or techie hassles.
I'd like to continue to use some old W98 software on a new computer, and
also mess around a bit with Linux.

So I have an additional reply and a supplementary question:

With my Dell, you don't need to go into the BIOS to choose your boot disk.
Just type F12 when invited. I suppose other motherboards have something
similar.

My problem is that only 2 (existing) SATA connectors are activatable, and I
use the second one for a data drive. Otherwise the easiest way to install an
additional OS would have been to add another drive.

Most conveniently this would be external. Presumably it would be best to use
SATA and not USB for this.

I read somewhere that you can simply plug in a SATA interface card, but they
don't seem to be available through the usual retail outlets. Any
recommendations?

Regards


"John Barnes" <[email protected]> a écrit dans le message de
As Dominic said, the boot drive is designated in the BIOS, usually in a
section called Boot Priority or similar name.

I'm about to tackle my first addition of a SATA drive. I think I read
somewhere that
SATA drives do not have Master - Slave, only CS. If true, how do I
designate which
is to be the boot drive?

Also, appears that SATA data cables permit only one drive per cable?

Power, the one SATA drive I examined appears to be able to accept an old
type
power cable or a newer type power cable?

Other tips and recommendations appreciated.

Earl

 

[Phillips]

Some SATA2 (3 Gbit/sec throughput) have a pin setup for 1.5 or 3Gbit/sec
throughput for compatibility with older motherboards/SATA controllers;
there's no Master/Slave pin or setup, though.
Newer SATA3 go up to 6 Gbit/sec. Check wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA
Also, go to the manufacturer's website and look for installation
instructions in the Support area for details to what your mobo can run...
but think that you might upgrade mobo later and consider the latest SATA
specs.
Michael




I'm about to tackle my first addition of a SATA drive. I think I read
somewhere that
SATA drives do not have Master - Slave, only CS. If true, how do I
designate which
is to be the boot drive?

Also, appears that SATA data cables permit only one drive per cable?

Power, the one SATA drive I examined appears to be able to accept an old
type
power cable or a newer type power cable?

Other tips and recommendations appreciated.

Earl

 

[Ringmaster]

I think the subject is important because we're moving into a situation where
many of us want to use more than one OS without any risks or techie hassles.
I'd like to continue to use some old W98 software on a new computer, and
also mess around a bit with Linux.

So I have an additional reply and a supplementary question:

With my Dell, you don't need to go into the BIOS to choose your boot disk.
Just type F12 when invited. I suppose other motherboards have something
similar.

My problem is that only 2 (existing) SATA connectors are activatable, and I
use the second one for a data drive. Otherwise the easiest way to install an
additional OS would have been to add another drive.

Most conveniently this would be external. Presumably it would be best to use
SATA and not USB for this.

I read somewhere that you can simply plug in a SATA interface card, but they
don't seem to be available through the usual retail outlets. Any
recommendations?

SATA is the latest and fastest interface. They use a much smaller
cable unlike the old IDE flat ribbon cables.

Look in LARGER so-called "super" computer stores in the Retail channel
like Fry's. Mine is indeed a "super" store with in excess of 100,000
SQ feet. If you don't have any such retailer in your area there's
always the web.

As far as choices you aren't limited to external. You can get
controller cards that support internal or external drives or a
combination. If you have room inside you computer. I have a large
tower case (home build system) where I currently have 4 high capacity
internal drives with room for two more, plus I have a bunch of
externals.

 

[Dominic Payer]

A "Boot menu" option allows you to override the BIOS setting. Many
motherboards have the option.

USB drives are not usually bootable for an OS installation. ESATA would be
better than SATA for an external drive: the design life of a standard SATA
connector is only 50 insertions.

Google for "sata card" - or "sata carte" in France. Such cards are not in
great demand so won't be readily available in computer stores. Smaller,
specialist shops may stock them.

 

[Paul Montgomery]

I read somewhere that you can simply plug in a SATA interface card, but they
don't seem to be available through the usual retail outlets. Any
recommendations?

Newegg.com

 

[Ringmaster]

So far, no one has spoken about the advantages of SATA drives. THE ONLY
ADVANTAGE OF A SATA DRIVE IS THAT YOU GET TO USE A SLIM SERIAL CABLE!

Yes, SATA II has a theoritical data transfer rate of 3 Gb/s BUT don't
forget that your motherboard data transfer rate from the hard disk is
still 150 Mb/s.

So until manfacturers start producing motherboards that will sustain
the higher transfer rates, the only advantage of a SATA drive is the
slim cable which is really excellent for better PC case air flow!

If you expect to see any performance improvement, at this point, you
will not see any.

Tommy2

Yep, trouble is it's getting harder to find anything but SATA drives
in stores now. At least we're rid of those stiff ribbon cables. Just
like you said the bottle neck now is how fast the data can be moved
just like a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. ;-)

 

[Phillips]

.... for a single hard drive; however, you can set up all the types of RAID
with more SATAs.
Michael