The issue around SATA (more properly, AHCI) devices vs PATA and driver installation goes like this. All HDD systems require device drivers, just like any other device type in Windows. Up to Win XP (all versions), Windows has "built-in" drivers for PATA (or IDE) HDD's, optical drives, floppy drives, and a host of others, but NOT AHCI (or SATA) devices. So, the Windows Install process CAN use those older device types to do the Install work AND to boot thereafter from the unit where it was installed . However, it cannot access an AHCI device at all unless a driver for that is installed additionally. This does NOT apply to Win 7 or anything after. (I don't remember about VISTA, but I think it's like Win 7 in this matter.) Those later Windows DO have drivers for AHCI devices "built in" and so can use them for any task.
Now, for Win XP and earlier, how can you get to use AHCI (SATA) devices? There are two scenarios:
(A) IF you will use the device only for storage and NOT for booting, then AFTER Windows is running you can install the AHCI device driver from any storage medium. Once it has been installed, it will be loaded from the boot drive at every boot, just like any other device driver (like for a modem or your sound card or your video card, etc.) and you can use that device any time.
(B) IF, however, you plan to BOOT from this AHCI device, there's a problem - Windows can't access that device to boot from because it has no driver. Well, Windows has had a process for a couple decades to deal with this. More commonly before this it was used to set up a driver for a RAID system or a SCSI system. (In fact, it is still necessary for all RAID systems if you BOOT from that array.) When you first install Win XP (or earlier), there is a prompt early in the process asking whether you wish to add device drivers from an external source. If you do, you press the "F6" key and follow its routine until that is done. If you do nothing, the query will time out and the Install process will continue. But if you press the "F6" key, you will be prompted to insert the FLOPPY diskette containing the driver(s). Note that this process (up to Win XP) only knows how to use a floppy drive for the storage medium in this process (later Windows versions allow a USB stick, useful if you're adding in a RAID driver), so your driver (s) must already be copied onto a floppy diskette, and you need (at least temporarily) a floppy drive attached. The Install process will show you the list of drivers it finds on that diskette and ask which to install. When that is done, it will ask whether you have more of these to do, or wish to quit. When you've finished, it returns to the main Install routines. What it does with those drivers is to use them to access the device for the Install process, and to add them into the Windows version it is creating so that they become "built in" to that customized installation of Windows. From then on it can always boot from that device because now it DOES have a "built-in" driver.
That's the "correct" process. Now, SATA drives came on the market about the same time as Win XP, so a lot of people were caught in this glitch - their new OS could not work with their new HDD without a fiddle during Install. So many mobo makers added a "work-around" in their BIOS chips. Under that, you can set the "SATA Port Mode" to either "IDE (or PATA) Emulation" or to "True SATA" or to "ACHI". If you chose either of those last two, you needed to install the driver during installation of the OS. But if you choose "IDE (or PATA) Emulation", the SATA port controller chip is limited to using only those functions that an IDE HDD has, and Windows is deceived into believing it is actually using an IDE HDD it DOES have a "built-in" driver for, and it is happy. This prevents you from taking advantage of a few new features of the SATA (AHCI) device, but it works.
Now to OP's situation. First of all, you may want to check this item, but most systems have this feature. A SATA controller card added to the PCI bus has its own small BIOS and processor system which will include some code to allow its use as part of the boot process. It is considered an extension of the main system BIOS. For that to work, your mobo's BIOS must also have a bit of code to allow it to find and use that BIOS Extension on the controller card.
I expect that the card will come with a drive for it that you must install so Windows can use it. It will include, I'm sure, the driver needed by Windows to use its AHCI devices. IF you plan to use those SATA drives only for data storage, I expect you can simply install the PCI card driver in Windows after the card and HDD are installed. This is the same process as adding any other new device to a running Windows.
However, if you plan to BOOT from this SATA drive, we're back to the same problem for Win XP and earlier. You probably would have to re-Install Win XP and a whole bunch more stuff, using the "F6" key to add in the driver(s) for the card and the AHCI device. OR, as Insert Nickname has suggested, you may be able to set the PCI controller card itself to a "work-around" setting to make the HDD appear to be only an IDE drive.
By the way, the "Slipstream" process is just another way to accomplish making the AHCI driver (and any others you choose) "built in". It is a process by which you create a modified version of the Win (whatever) Install disk that contains all the drivers you want added as "built in", and then burn that as a new Win Install CD that will do the job without using the "F6" key process.
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