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Buying new HDD tomorrow

Sylvanas

Sylvanas

Diamond Member
Ok so tomorrow I am purchasing XP 64bit and a new Western Digital WD1600JS (160B) to replace my old workhorse current hard drive. The thing is, the Storage industry is not my forte, and the drive mentioned above has the 'SATA 2' spec. Is there anything different I need to do installing a SATA 2 drive opposed to that of ATA133? Do I need special IDE cables or something? At the moment I just have the standard IDE cable going into my ATA 133 HDD, so do I need to change anything around or set some jumpers? The motherboard I will be installing this into is the DFI Lan Party SLI-D (Nforce 4 ultra)
 
Sylvanas don't buy XP 64 it has alot of drivers that don't work well. XP Pro for now is a better system for 64x. As far as SATA on that new hard drive I'm not to sure how far along XP is with SATA drivers unless you have XP Pro with SP2 in it, but personally I think SP2 sucks and is not needed, anyhow IF you need anything, iy will be on a Floppy that comes with the hard drive, UNLESS you bought a OEM drive, so to install the drivers during the installation, right at the very BEGINNING when you start the install it asks you if you want to install any drivers and to press I think it's like the F4 or F6 keys I believe but you'll see it telling you, then this brings you to that section and tells you to put in the floppy and it will load the drivers that are going to be needed for the SATA hard drive.

Yes forgot you need SATA cables, they're smaller:

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant...t_Code=270800&Category_Code=SATACables

GL
 
Ok so I got it today and im down with how to physically install it, but the drive didnt come with any floppy disk or with SATA drivers, just came in a static bag. I have checked Western Digitals' site and it doesnt list any stand alone SATA drivers for download. It does list 'SIIG Serial ATA COntroller card driver' and a 'WD Serial ATA RAID controller card driver' which means nothing to me since I dont plan on using raid or have this 'SIIG' add in card. Any help?
 
Ok so after sifting through boxes I found that my motherboard came with a 'SATA RAID driver disk' is this it or is this only to be used when using my HDD's in RAID?
 
It depends on the motherboard. Most newer motherboard do not needed any initial drivers to set up the HD. Just plug it in and the bios should pick it up and show you it on post screen. If its undetected than itll be either that Windows XP Pro w/ SP2 will still automatically detect and install it or youll need to use the disc that came with the mobo,

I also suggest Win XP Pro for now, windows x64 is still too buggy and missing too many drivers for various applications.
 
I have the same motherboard (without the sli) and it came with a UV SATA cable (which it sounds like you've already found.) XP pro has a good set of drivers already built in, and you don't use the DFI RAID driver disk unless you're using RAID. You actually have a choice for your drivers though because the NVIDIA drivers that come with your motherboard (on the cd) have NVIDIA SATA drivers that will replace the Microsoft ones if you install them. Most folks seem to like the Microsoft drivers better but I've had good results with the NVIDIA ones. You could also download the newest NVIDIA drivers 6.70 for your board and get the latest version.
 
Originally posted by: deptrai
As far as cables, does SATA I cable works great with SATA II hard drive? Or is there SATA II cable?
Click to expand...

SATA II doesn't exist. As for second generation SATA, or SATA 3G which would be a more appropiate way of addressing it, there is no difference. Even if there were, it would only show up at higher than 1st gen SATA bandwidth, and no single SATA drive can actually deliver 150MBs STR.

Cliffs: One type of SATA cable. for all.
 
My advice to you since you are not familier with this is to avoid OEM Drives.

BUY RETAIL BOX HARD DRIVES, THEY WILL COME WITH ALL THE CABLES YOU NEED, DIRECTIONS, A TOLL FREE NUMBER YOU CAN CALL. You get none of those things I listed with an OEM drive.

Go Retail


To answer your question, Sata does not require jumper configurations, sata does not use the old flat ribbon style cables, sata DOES use a thinner power cord style cable with only a seven wires wraped in brading vs 40 or 80 for ATA133.

The Best SATA Cables on the Market- They are shielded!

[*] Standard SATA Cable Works with any brand- Including WD (with one 90° and one strieght bend connection)

[*] Standard SATA Cable Works with any brand- Including WD (with two streight connections- most common type)

[*] Standard SATA Cable Works with any brand- Including WD (with two 90° end connectors)

[*] Locking Sata Cable for western digital drives


[*] ATA 100/133 Cable



EDIT: I forgot to add, SATA Requires a special PSU with the proper connections to power SATA Drives.
 
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