Author Topic: Quick SATA HDD Question (Read 552 times)

Blue Mako · « **on:** November 03, 2003, 09:48:18 PM »

Just bought and installed a SATA Seagate 120GB HDD and I have a quick question:

Is it normal for a SATA HDD to emulate the Primary IDE slot? If not, how do I set the system to boot from the SATA port?

When I set my CDROM in IDE1 and the CDRW in IDE2 (both as masters), I couldn't find a way to get the system to boot from the SATA HDD. My BIOS boot order list did not show a SATA port, only HD-0 though HD-3 and floppy and the CDROM.

The HDD is running nicely and doesn't appear to be having any trouble running through the IDE1 location but I would like to separate my CDROM and CDRW onto the two IDE ports.

Also, any knowledge regarding the way SATA devices are meant to be controlled/set-up would be appreciated.

TYIA

flakbait · « **Reply #1 on:** November 04, 2003, 09:39:37 AM »

How many IDE ports do you have on that mobo? I ask cause if you set both CD drives to master, and they're on separate IDE busses, nothing will boot. To boot up one HDD has to be set as master, and for simplicity sake it helps if that HDD is on IDE 0. I've got a twin CD drive setup like your's, one CDROM and one burner. I just stuck 'em both on IDE 1 with the burner set to master and they run great. Well, ran great; my POS Toshiba CDROM crapped out a week or so ago. Anyway, try this and see what happens....

Put the HDD on IDE 0 and set it to master. If there's anything else (another HDD) also on IDE 0, set it to slave.

Put both CD drives on IDE 1, with the burner set to master and the CDROM set to slave.

Fire it up and it should boot. Oh, you did install an OS on this HDD, right?

-----------------------
Flakbait [Delta6]
Delta Six's Flight School
Put the P-61B in Aces High

Wanker · « **Reply #2 on:** November 04, 2003, 10:26:11 AM »

Blue Mako, what motherboard do you have?

I have the exact same hard drive. I set mine up by connecting the Seagate to SATA controller #1, then hooked my CD Burner and DVD drives to IDE channel 1, as master & slave.

My Asus P4C800 Deluxe BIOS saw all devices without any problems, and I was off and installing XP in a jiffy.

Blue Mako · « **Reply #3 on:** November 04, 2003, 01:54:35 PM »

I have a Gigabyte GA8-IPE1000Pro (rev 1) M/B. It has 2 IDE ports and two SATA ports.

The HDD is functioning fine and I formatted and installed XP on it no probs. I only ask because I prefer to have the CDROM and CDRW drives on separate IDE ports. On my old system, having them on the same port led to warnings about transfer rates when using on-the-fly copying. Both the CDRW and CDROM will coexist on the same IDE 2 port though so it is no real big issue.

The only other thing that this set up does though is map my partitioned drives to F, G and H, leaving D and E for the CD drives. Kind of wierd. Can you assign drive letters in XP?

BB Gun · « **Reply #4 on:** November 04, 2003, 02:05:47 PM »

Yep, there is a drive letter assignment utility, but I haven't used it yet, do dunno where to find it.

So... off to google I go, and search for "drive letter assignments in windows XP"

and voila!

http://www.duxcw.com/faq/win/xp/drltr.htm which points you to:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q307844

or maybe use this site, with screenshots:
http://www.area450.com/thesampozone/articles/driveletter.htm

Google, thy knowledge is boundless!

BB

Blue Mako · « **Reply #5 on:** November 04, 2003, 05:05:35 PM »

You mean the internet can be used to transmit useful information?!? Not just for games, funny adverts and girly pictures?!?

Thanks BB.