Need some immediate Help

[GeMan]

Hey

I am currently selling my computer... What I want to do is move all my data on to another HD for keeping while I build my new one....

I want to have dual SATA drive, but I am not sure if my mobo is captable with SATA and how it works really...

I currently m running an Asus A7V8X i believe... it has 2 optical and 2 HDs running on it.. so all the IDE channels are full, can I just hook up an SATA HD and use copy files over? So basically, does SATA use IDE channels indirectly...

Thansk for your help!

Frank

 

[mechBgon]

Asus has a whole fleet of boards in the A7N8X family. Two of them do feature an SATA controller: the A7N8X Deluxe, and the A7N8X-E Deluxe. If yours isn't one of those, then you could pick up a PCI-slot SATA card to run your drive from.

Once the drive is plugged into the SATA card or the motherboard's SATA plugs (if so equipped), you would need to go into Windows, install the drivers for the SATA card or the onboard SATA controller, and then you might find the drive listed in My Computer. If it wasn't listed, then you would go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management, then find Disk Management in there and find the disk drive listed. At that point its unformatted space should show as a white bar and you can right-click it and partition/format it as desired.

Keep in mind that you could also get another standard IDE/ATA drive and a PCI-slot card that gives you two more IDE ports, allowing four more IDE hard drives (but not optical, they generally won't jive with optical drives). Hope that helps

 

[futuristicmonkey]

He doesn't have an A7N8X, based on the NF2 400 Ultra, he has an A7V8X, based on VIA's KT400.

Anyways, luckily for you, GeMan, your board does have 2 SATA ports. All you'll have to do is just plug in the drives and Windows should recognize them. If Windows doesn't, just read your board's manual and it might tell you to change some things in the BIOS, but that probably won't be necessary.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: futuristicmonkey
He doesn't have an A7N8X, based on the NF2 400 Ultra, he has an A7V8X, based on VIA's KT400.

Anyways, luckily for you, GeMan, your board does have 2 SATA ports. All you'll have to do is just plug in the drives and Windows should recognize them. If Windows doesn't, just read your board's manual and it might tell you to change some things in the BIOS, but that probably won't be necessary.

Ooops, good catch futuristicmonkey :thumbsup: