What is the ideal multiple hard drive setup mixing PATA and SATA?

[sygyzy]

Hi,

I currently have 4 PATA drives on my system and will be migrating at least 2 of them over to my new build which is listed here.

1. Is it better to have PATA or SATA as the primary boot drive? I have read plenty about difficulties with getting Windows to detect SATA when it's the Windows drive. Is this true? Some combination of when to load drivers, which drivers to load, loading SATA from the Windows install or after, having a floppy available, etc. All very confusing.

2. In a system with both PATA and SATA, is it true that SATA is treated as an add-on controller, and thus loaded after the initial bios load. For example, in my current (PATA only system), I have 2 drives connected to a Promise PATA IDE controller card. The comptuer doesn't load/recognize these drives until the BIOS has finished loading the native, onboard PATA devices.

If this is true, what is the optimal drive setup? Does this pose any problems?

3. Is it better to have a large hard drive or a small fast one for the boot drive? Many people get 74GB Raptors. I assume this is for the speed. There is very little space, however. So what is the strategy here? Load only Windows on the drives, purposely limit space, and store all other data on secondary drives? Then at worst, you only lose 74GB worth of data instead of 250GB? Are there any real cons of having a large HD for the primary?

4. Assuming I transfer over 3 or more PATA drives, how would this work? Would I have to introduce a PCI Controller card to support the additional drives, since the A8N-SLI only suports 4 devices and 2 of them will be my optical drives.

5. Which SATA ports should be used on the A8N-SLI? I remember reading that there are problems with some ports. Are these effectively non-usable then? If this is true, it limits my system to only 2 SATA drives then, right? That means if I wanted to add more I'd have to also add a SATA PCI Controller, or maybe one with mixed PATA and SATA.

Thanks for your time and sorry for all the questions. I am hoping at least a few can be answered.

 

[Bobthelost]

1) I haven't had any trouble myself.

2) I don't think so.

3. to get the best performance you load your OS on one drive, then your applications on a second and your data files on a third. There are no real reasons not to use a large primary disc over a smaller one, but if you've got the space you will use it and this may hamper performance in some occasions.

4) Presumably yes.

5) Not sure, but you should be able to use all of them, just that two might be faster than the others. (different controller etc.)

 

[sygyzy]

bobthelost - What was your process, briefly, in using a SATA drive as your primary?

Copied SATA drivers to floppy and installed during setup?

 

[DBSX]

1) Since I have the same (similar) motherboard (Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe) I can tell you the process is simple. Hook up the SATA drive to the nVidia controllers. Install Windows as usual. There is no other setup steps required. If, however, you use the additional Silicon Image ports (IF YOU EVEN HAVE THEM), you will need to press F6 when the Windows installer tells you to and have the driver floppy available. You can make this floppy from the driver CD.

2) Not unless you attach them to the Silicon Image ports.

3) I guess that depends on if you want space or not. Many newer drives are huge and very fast. I have a Raptor as my primary, but don't feel it is much faster in everyday use. If I install more than 74GB of applications, I am installing too much . I keep my data on seperate drives anyhow, mainly for my own organizational purposes.

4) Yes. Alternatively you may be able to find PATA to SATA converters and use some of the SATA ports. I tried this, but the converter I had doesn't work with the nVidia or Silicon Image controllers. So I plan on replacing the one PATA drive in the near future.

5) Not as far as I know, but then I only have 2 SATA drives so far. Also, the Deluxe board has a total of 8 SATA ports, so either way, I should be set.

\Dan

 

[sygyzy]

Originally posted by: DBSX
1) Since I have the same (similar) motherboard (Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe) I can tell you the process is simple. Hook up the SATA drive to the nVidia controllers. Install Windows as usual. There is no other setup steps required. If, however, you use the additional Silicon Image ports (IF YOU EVEN HAVE THEM), you will need to press F6 when the Windows installer tells you to and have the driver floppy available. You can make this floppy from the driver CD.

2) Not unless you attach them to the Silicon Image ports.

3) I guess that depends on if you want space or not. Many newer drives are huge and very fast. I have a Raptor as my primary, but don't feel it is much faster in everyday use. If I install more than 74GB of applications, I am installing too much . I keep my data on seperate drives anyhow, mainly for my own organizational purposes.

4) Yes. Alternatively you may be able to find PATA to SATA converters and use some of the SATA ports. I tried this, but the converter I had doesn't work with the nVidia or Silicon Image controllers. So I plan on replacing the one PATA drive in the near future.

5) Not as far as I know, but then I only have 2 SATA drives so far. Also, the Deluxe board has a total of 8 SATA ports, so either way, I should be set.

\Dan

Dan

1. What do you mean "if I have" the SI ports? They are on every A8N-SLI board. I am confused by your comment. The nVidia ports are natively supported?

2. If this is not the case, then how are the drives ordered? Without messing with Disk Management in Windows, and with all ports (PATA and SATA) populated, what order would the disks appear in?

3. If you could do it over, would you get a larger (slower) drive instead of the Raptor?

5. Interesting you said there isn't a problem but in #1, you talk about sticking with nVidia. I guess that sort of answers my question.

Thanks!

 

[DBSX]

1. SI = Silicon Image. The "basic" A8N-SLI does not have the Silicon Image SATA ports. (I missed the part of you title that said you had the Deluxe) According to the Asus only the A8N-SLI Deluxe and Premium versions have the SI SATA ports. I assumed you had the "base" A8N-SLI board. The SI ports will be the red/orange ports. The nVidia chipset based ports are black. Regardless, use nVidia ports are supported natively. Use them for an easier (no floppy required) Windows install.

2. Depends on your BIOS settings. If you have SATA set to boot, the SATA1 drive will appear first, follewed by SATA2 etc. Then by PATA. At least AFAIK. They may be assigned drives differently by Windows. When I install Windows, I only connect the boot drive, install, then connect any other drives. I then assign drive letters myself (I am a bit weird in how I organize my data/drives).

3. Probably not. I like keeping my data on a seperate partition anyhow, so this is probably a better solution for me. Keeping the data on a seperate drive all together is really a better option in my opinion. If I had to pay retail price, I probably would have just gotten a 60-80GB drive for the OS/programs, and not the Raptor.

5. In #1 I advise you to stick with nVidia only since you seemed concerned with the installation of extra drivers during the Windows install. If you choose to use the SI (red/orange) SATA ports for your boot drive they will work without any issue, you will just need to have a floppy during the Windows install, and do the "F6 thing".

\Dan