2007-07-06, 10:01 | Link #1 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
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About SATA harddrives
I have a question I'm planning on using a SATA hard drive instead of regular ATA, but i was wondering is it true that you need a special driver to install the SATA hard drive? Or is it just like a ATA which you just plug it into the mobo.
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2007-07-06, 10:17 | Link #2 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Edinburgh
Age: 41
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Well you need to install the sata driver, which you probably already have,
if you mainboard has sata connectors. If you planning to get a sata (pci) card, you'll have to install the drivers for the card. To get straight to you question, - no, you don't need to install drivers for a sata hdd, if you already have a OS installed and you want to use the sata disc as an expansion. -however, if you want to install an OS onto the sata drive, in that case you need a floppy and put the driver of your sata card onto it, same way you would do if a HDD is installed on a PCI IDE or SCSI card. It is not a special driver, just the driver for the bus. That only true for M$ OS up to XP, no clue about vista, for linux check the distro. |
2007-07-06, 10:56 | Link #3 |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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Computers more than a couple of years old don't have SATA connectors on the motherboard. You'll need to buy a controller card that fits into a PCI slot.
I tried installing WinXP Pro SP1a onto a SATA machine the other day, and it didn't recognize the hard drive. I believe you need at least Service Pack 2 for XP, or Vista. Modern Linux distributions all support SATA.
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2007-07-06, 11:52 | Link #5 |
Just call me Ojisan
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: U.K. Hampshire
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Errrr, what
Are you trying to install a SATA drive as your boot disc, or, are you trying to install a SATA as a data disc to an existing system? And please, people are not mind-readers, what OS do you have. Does your motherboard have on-board SATA or are you using a separate SATA controller to connect the drive? Help us to help you. |
2007-07-06, 11:55 | Link #6 |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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xris beat me to it, but I'll ask these questions anyway.
OK, let's take a couple of steps back here, shall we? First an "OS" is an "operating system," so I'm not sure what you're trying to do. What OS are you running now, if any? What are you installing? Have you already installed the SATA drive? When you boot the machine, hit the key to take you into setup (before Windows or any other OS boots) and check to make sure the computer sees the drive. If you're using a fairly recent version of Windows or Linux it should see the SATA drive without any additional drivers. What do you see after the computer boots up? In Windows, for instance, is there a new drive letter like E: or F: perhaps?
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2007-07-06, 17:31 | Link #9 | |
Love Yourself
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Northeast USA
Age: 38
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Quote:
Did you have a question about the hardware aspects of SATA? A SATA plug is completely different from a standard ATA plug.
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2007-07-07, 00:23 | Link #11 | |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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Quote:
By the way, it's not a "kernel patch set," it's part of the standard kernel source itself. See, for instance, the Kconfig file in the drivers/ata directory of a kernel source tree.
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2007-07-07, 02:53 | Link #12 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Edinburgh
Age: 41
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Quote:
During the installation of any Windows OS, it ask you if you want to add in an additional Controller card (SCSI, IDE or Sata). You just need to hit the F6 button when it asks you and all you need to do is to put the floppy, with the drivers, into the drive. It is no big deal. XP Sp2, X64 Sp1 and vista only have the driver integrated into the disc and automatically detects it for you, which you can do by manipulating a standard XP disk yourself, by adding the driver and editing some conifg files, if you want. The driver for sata controller can be found on the homepage of your mainboard, controller card or installation disc supplied with your mainboard or controller card. But since you have the lastest Xp disc, it is all good, untill it breaks. Well i'm running 2k from my sata drive, no problem here. |
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2007-07-07, 06:49 | Link #14 |
Cutely Pervy
Join Date: Dec 2005
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Its weird but I have built two computers for myself in the past and only the older one needed to do the f6 thing to install drivers for SATA. With the newer of the two, the windows xp installer picked up the drive right off the bat. Maybe because the installation already had the proper SATA driver on hand.
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2007-07-07, 10:08 | Link #15 |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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I'd bet the different results occurred because the installation image contained some SATA drivers, but not all. For instance, when SATA first arrived in Linux we had to be careful to buy computers with Silicon Image controllers on the motherboard because that was the only brand that was well-supported at the time.
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2007-07-07, 12:45 | Link #16 |
Gregory House
IT Support
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Maybe I'm wrong, but the last installation of Windows XP Service Pack 2 I did asked me for drivers when trying to recognize my SATA HD. So I'd certainly recommend the OP to download the drivers anyways and put them in a floppy disk--better safe than sorry, right?
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2007-07-08, 18:56 | Link #19 | |
Gregory House
IT Support
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Quote:
When you want to install the OS, pop the XP CD into the drive and reboot (remember to remove the floppy disk with the drivers you just copied). When the blue installation screen appears, insert the floppy back. After some while, there should appear in the bottom of the screen a message saying "Press F6 to load SCSI drivers" or something like that. Do so. After loading a bit more stuff, it will ask you to load the SCSI drivers (SCSI drivers = SATA drivers). I can't remember exactly what was the process to follow, but it's nothing too complicated. At any rate, read whatever pops up in the screen and follow the instructions.
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