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Questions about SATA HDD's

Zenoth

Zenoth

Diamond Member
It might sound newbie, but I'm not sure how to install SATA Drives. I've always been using IDE Drives up to this day, so please bear with me. I ordered two SATA Seagate Barracuda® 7200.10 Hard Drives (320 GB each), and when it arrives next week I will scratch my head when the moment of installation comes. My motherboard is in my signature.

That's the drive I ordered, times two: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?l...VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD&reqPage=Model

First of all, do I need a Floppy Disk Drive to install anything during the BIOS/Boot, as in drivers for either the Drives themselves or the SATA interface, or both ? Because as surprising as it may seem I don't have a FDD. I do have a USB Drive though (512 MB) and I can boot from such a device via the BIOS (if it matters to mention).

Here is what I found on the Seagate web-site regarding drivers and Windows: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?l...71781e73d5d010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

So if I understand well, I won't need to install drivers prior to arriving in the Desktop nor during the Boot sequence, right ? I only need to plug in any SATA wire into the Disk and into the Motherboard's SATA port and voila ? Or am I missing something ? Is it as simple as IDE ?

The red wires are the SATA ones, right ? http://www.viperlair.com/images/reviews...bo/asus/amd/s939/a8nslipr/contents.jpg

If so, all I need to do, as I mentioned above, is to plug one end into the SATA Drive, and the other end goes to the "SATA 1" port on my Motherboard ? And if I have two SATA Drives, then I just need to get another wire and plug it in my "SATA 2" port, right ? I just want to be sure, I just need step-by-step instructions. If I got everything right just tell me ! Or else please correct me and tell me what I should do.

Oh, and, will I have to configure anything in the BIOS ? Do I have to tell the Mobo not to use IDE and instead read the SATA ports or something ?

Thanks for your time and help guys.

 
The red wires are indeed SATA cables.

Are you planning on installing these drives as additional storage to an existing installation or will you be installing windows on these drives?
 
Ok, I planned to use one one them as the C:\ Drive with Windows installed on it, and the second one will be used for other data and backups as the D:\ Drive, two separate partitions as my system is currently configured with my IDE Drives. Is it possible to do so with the SATA drives ?
 
The SATA drives will just plug in, connect your new C Drive into SATA 1 (master) In Bios set the satas as STANARD IDE, if you plan to use your existing IDE Drive be sure to set it as Slave via the jumper Pins on the back(SATA Drives dont have pins for master\slave). In Bios you will also need to set boot priority for your DVD\CD drive so you can reinstall windows or it may boot from your old IDE Drive.
If Possible when installing the drives leave an empty drive slot between them in to assist in cooling, and mount a fan at the front of the case (if not already).
Going from IDE to SATA2 you should notice a large jump in system performance!!
 
Originally posted by: jboot51
Going from IDE to SATA2 you should notice a large jump in system performance!!
Click to expand...

I agree on this one.

But WATCH OUT!!!

SATA drives have two power supply plugs on them!!! USE ONLY ONE. Either the SATA power supply cable OR the legacy power supply sloty. If you use both of them you will burn the hard drive and void it's warranty. It does not make any difference whether you will use the SATA or the legacy power supply slot. But use only one!!
 
Originally posted by: AstroGuardian
Originally posted by: jboot51
Going from IDE to SATA2 you should notice a large jump in system performance!!
Click to expand...

I agree on this one.
Click to expand...

While it's probably true that there'll be "a large jump in system performance" when OP switches from his old HDD to the 7200.10, it's not a result of going from IDE(PATA) to SATA2. The change of interface doesn't in itself provide any benefit, because even the fastest desktop drives (Raptor, 7200.10) would barely test the limits of ATA133.
 
Originally posted by: AstroGuardian
Originally posted by: jboot51
Going from IDE to SATA2 you should notice a large jump in system performance!!
Click to expand...

I agree on this one.

But WATCH OUT!!!

SATA drives have two power supply plugs on them!!! USE ONLY ONE. Either the SATA power supply cable OR the legacy power supply sloty. If you use both of them you will burn the hard drive and void it's warranty. It does not make any difference whether you will use the SATA or the legacy power supply slot. But use only one!!
Click to expand...

Seagate SATA HD's don't include a legacy power connector. It's better to use a power supply that includes SATA power leads, as opposed to legacy/SATA adapters. Legacy adapters omit one of the specified voltages.
In bios, there may be options for Raid or AHCI mode. Since you're installing 2 identical SATA drives, you'd get faster access times by using Raid, if that option is available.
AHCI mode enables other advanced features. Either Raid or AHCI also requires an F6 Windows driver, which requires a floppy drive to install when booted from the Win XP installer CD. Either that, or slipstream the drivers into a custom made install CD.
 
Originally posted by: jboot51
The SATA drives will just plug in, connect your new C Drive into SATA 1 (master) In Bios set the satas as STANARD IDE, if you plan to use your existing IDE Drive be sure to set it as Slave via the jumper Pins on the back(SATA Drives dont have pins for master\slave). In Bios you will also need to set boot priority for your DVD\CD drive so you can reinstall windows or it may boot from your old IDE Drive.
If Possible when installing the drives leave an empty drive slot between them in to assist in cooling, and mount a fan at the front of the case (if not already).
Going from IDE to SATA2 you should notice a large jump in system performance!!
Click to expand...

I will get rid of the previous IDE Drives. I do not plan to use both SATA and IDE.

One of the SATA Drive will be my "main" one (C:\) and the second SATA Drive will be used as my D:\ Drive. Alright so I think I'm starting to see it clearly. It seems that a Power Cable is given in the package by Seagate already, so I'll use those power cables given by them, and the SATA data cables (the red ones) from my ASUS A8N-SLi Premium package.

There's just one thing I'm not sure to understand AstroGuardian. You say there is two power supply slots onto the SATA Drives ? And to only use one of them ? But which one should I use, do they have the same number of pins (male or female ? is it of any importance ?) ? Like ... right now with my IDE Drives there is only one place I can plug a power cable to, but there is two such slots with SATA Drives, right ? May I ask why ? In what circumstances would one want to plug in two power cables for a single Drive anyway ? (I'm just asking out of curiosity)

Anyway I think Seagate only gives one Power Cable per HDD package, that should mean that I indeed need to only plug in one and not two.

EDIT: I forgot to ask ... which configuration should give me the optimum potential performance considering I will be getting two identical Drives ? Is it RAID 0, 1, 2 ? Etc ? Or is it the same thing in the end if I let them be as separate Drives (respectively C and D, acting independently) ?

Sorry vailr didn't noticed you mentioning the RAID configuration. So it'd be faster in my case ? I know my Motherboard is capable of such a configuration. According to the instruction manual there is 8 SATA slots. Four of them are "regular" SATA configuration (SATA 1, 2, 3 and 4), and the other four are SATA_RAID 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Another question though. Since I have two Drives, if I want them to act as one (the actual "C" Drive will in fact be both Drives combined together once arrived in Windows, right ?) then do I have to use two SATA data cables separately or is there some sort of special "Y" cable with three ends, like two of them for two Drives and the last end goes into one of the RAID slots ?
 
Originally posted by: Zenoth

EDIT: I forgot to ask ... which configuration should give me the optimum potential performance considering I will be getting two identical Drives ? Is it RAID 0, 1, 2 ? Etc ? Or is it the same thing in the end if I let them be as separate Drives (respectively C and D, acting independently) ?

Sorry vailr didn't noticed you mentioning the RAID configuration. So it'd be faster in my case ? I know my Motherboard is capable of such a configuration. According to the instruction manual there is 8 SATA slots. Four of them are "regular" SATA configuration (SATA 1, 2, 3 and 4), and the other four are SATA_RAID 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Another question though. Since I have two Drives, if I want them to act as one (the actual "C" Drive will in fact be both Drives combined together once arrived in Windows, right ?) then do I have to use two SATA data cables separately or is there some sort of special "Y" cable with three ends, like two of them for two Drives and the last end goes into one of the RAID slots ?
Click to expand...

No special Y cables involved. Raid 0 would be fastest.
Go into bios settings and select "IDE Mode = Raid". On reboot, there's a separate Raid setup bios screen. Configure that for "Raid 0".
Then Reboot into the WinXP SP2 setup CD & press F6 to install (from floppy) the extra Raid drivers. Proceed with Windows installation, to the setup partition section.
Drive "C" can be any size from ~10 GB up to 640 GB (320GB x 2 = 640 GB). The Raid 0 array is treated by Windows as one single logical drive.
Choose "Quick Format: NTFS".
 
Re-Going from IDE to SATA2 you should notice a large jump in system performance!!
I'll just explain a recent upgrade,which brings me to this statement.
My second rig was a HP Mediacenter with a 3.2 P4,915P chipset and 160G Sata 1. I was fortunate to win the monthly prize at my PC Shop, which was an E6700 processor. I grabbed a new board (intel 965ot, not so good),and did the upgrade re-using all other components. To my dismay the general performance ( boot time, loading apps,opening folders etc) was no better than the 3.2 P4. I was not happy at all.
Replaced the sata 1 drive with sata 2 and the general performance improved dramatically (just as responsive as my main rig). I am now happy again, although the main board may be getting replaced soon.

Just a quick question-Can Windows be installed on a drive that is configured in RAID ?
 
Originally posted by: vailr
Originally posted by: Zenoth

EDIT: I forgot to ask ... which configuration should give me the optimum potential performance considering I will be getting two identical Drives ? Is it RAID 0, 1, 2 ? Etc ? Or is it the same thing in the end if I let them be as separate Drives (respectively C and D, acting independently) ?

Sorry vailr didn't noticed you mentioning the RAID configuration. So it'd be faster in my case ? I know my Motherboard is capable of such a configuration. According to the instruction manual there is 8 SATA slots. Four of them are "regular" SATA configuration (SATA 1, 2, 3 and 4), and the other four are SATA_RAID 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Another question though. Since I have two Drives, if I want them to act as one (the actual "C" Drive will in fact be both Drives combined together once arrived in Windows, right ?) then do I have to use two SATA data cables separately or is there some sort of special "Y" cable with three ends, like two of them for two Drives and the last end goes into one of the RAID slots ?
Click to expand...

No special Y cables involved. Raid 0 would be fastest.
Go into bios settings and select "IDE Mode = Raid". On reboot, there's a separate Raid setup bios screen. Configure that for "Raid 0".
Then Reboot into the WinXP SP2 setup CD & press F6 to install (from floppy) the extra Raid drivers. Proceed with Windows installation, to the setup partition section.
Drive "C" can be any size from ~10 GB up to 640 GB (320GB x 2 = 640 GB). The Raid 0 array is treated by Windows as one single logical drive.
Choose "Quick Format: NTFS".
Click to expand...

Dammit, so I do need a Floppy Drive, and I need to install Drivers, that's what I was afraid of. I don't have a Floppy Disk Drive. Would a USB 2.0 portable Memory do the thing ? I can boot from such a device via BIOS settings. And, the Drivers, are they available on a CD-Rom given by Seagate in the HDD package ? Or do I need to download from their web-site ?
 
I ran Raid 0 for a bit - was faster on games BUT if a drive fails you lose everything.

Since you don't want to use one of your older IDE drives as a slave storage drive, and you don't want to install a $15 floppy drive, I would suggest you go ahead as you started out, ie, install them as IDE.

Set the drive as 'configure sata as - IDE' or whatever your bios says, and also set IDE operation as 'enhanced' if your bios has that option (for XP support).

 
Thanks a lot for the advice guys. I called the store today and they will receive them tomorrow, so I'll be much better prepared to install them. I won't touch RAID 0 then. I don't want to loose all data because one of the Drives fails. I shall install one as SATA 1 and the other as SATA 2. It might cost me some potential performance but it isn't much of a price if I get stability in return.

I will try to find a Floppy Drive though, it's always good to have one around. My old one broke three years ago and I never wanted another one to replace it, and went for USB Flash Memory instead (which I rarely use anyway). But considering a Floppy Disk Drive goes for around $5 nowadays it shouldn't be a problem to buy. The problem will be to find one.
 
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