SATA Hard Drives Question

Saint Nick

Lifer
Jan 21, 2005
17,722
6
81
I would like to buy a WD Raptor. I wanted to know if hooking up a SATA drive is the same as hooking up a PATA drive? Plug it in and go?

jared d.
 

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
19,458
765
126
Originally posted by: AnnihilatorX
Yes, No jumper settings; can't be easier

Possibly. However, I've worked with Asus P4C800-E and Abit IS7 boards and 74 gig raptor and neither recognized the drive. First I had to get SATA drivers from either motherboard CDs (or downloaded them from the website) and transferred those drivers onto a floppy through MakeFloppy action button for each. Then once I loaded windows xp cd, I pressed F6, followed the instruction and loaded SATA drivers form a floppy. However, without a floppy and SATA drivers, there is a large chance the HDD wont be recognized (it didnt for me in both cases). Other than that it's easy. But installing PATA drives is worlds easier in my eyes since you dont have to do anything..but plug them in.
 

Umberger

Golden Member
Apr 13, 2005
1,710
0
76
Originally posted by: RussianSensation
Originally posted by: AnnihilatorX
Yes, No jumper settings; can't be easier

Possibly. However, I've worked with Asus P4C800-E and Abit IS7 boards and 74 gig raptor and neither recognized the drive. First I had to get SATA drivers from either motherboard CDs (or downloaded them from the website) and transferred those drivers onto a floppy through MakeFloppy action button for each. Then once I loaded windows xp cd, I pressed F6, followed the instruction and loaded SATA drivers form a floppy. However, without a floppy and SATA drivers, there is a large chance the HDD wont be recognized (it didnt for me in both cases). Other than that it's easy. But installing PATA drives is worlds easier in my eyes since you dont have to do anything..but plug them in.

It sounds harder than it is. There is a utility on the mobo CD to make the floppy, it takes maybe 2 minutes. I've got 2 SATA drives and I love them both. The SATA cable size makes it worth it on its own in my opinion.
 

theMan

Diamond Member
Mar 17, 2005
4,386
0
0
the windows install can just be kind of tricky. you have to have a floppy disk that is perfect, or it wont work. usually there is a utility on the mobo cd that makes a driver cd for you.