question about SATA drives

[flexy]

I'll get a SATA drive as new HD for my next build (Hitachi deskstar 160gb).

So..i know that i have to install drivers for it from the CD (?) while i install XP.

Does that mean the system cannot see a SATA drive without the drivers, without XP loaded ?

What if i boot into safe-mode/ command-prompt only ? Are the SATA drivers loaded already or does that happen in windows ? The bios (obviously) sees the drive...or doesn't it ?

(One of my scenarios was that i have a dual-boot XP/98....and i often use the 98-dos prompt to go into command-line for flashing bioses or do other low-level stuff which i cant do under XP. (No DOS on my XP side).

 

[Arcanedeath]

It totaly depends on your motherboard, if you using onboard SATA thats built into the chipset and emulates IDE, like Intels I8XX and I9XX (eg ICH5R ect..) chips or Nvidia's Nforce 3/4 or via's 8237 ect... then it's pretty much just like IDE once you have it setup correctly in the bios, but for 3rd party controlers even onboard ones like Silicon Image or Promise, your SOL w/out drivers in most cases

 

[flexy]

i am getting a board with onboard SATA (nforce4 probably)..... so i dont even need to worry about the drivers then ?
I always hear i have to load them with F6..so i thought this was done in general.

 

[Arcanedeath]

w/ Nforce 4 you prolly will not need to load the drivers w/ F6 unless you have a raid array, as long as you set the SATA drives to emulate IDE in the bios no drivers should be needed when loading windows.