Is it possible to use SATA and IDE drives at the same time?

  • Thread starter Thread starter zalzon
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zalzon said:
On a sata compatible mobo that is.

Anyone know?
Click to expand...

I've read in some of the NewEgg user reviews some people saying stuff like
"Sucks that you can't use Sata and IDE at the same time". Don't remember
which boards though. Guess it's possible they were wrong, but if you're
nervous, I'd call the mobo manufacturer.
 
You should be able to use at least one PATA interface. It depends on the
board. Some will have access to both PATA ports and the 2 SATA port (Intel
boards all seem to use this setup). On a few boards though, it seems that
one of the PATA ports gets disabled when you're using the SATA interface.
You'll need to check the board manual to make sure.
 
zalzon said:
Are you sure? So far it seems to be 2 to 1 with the Yes.
Click to expand...

I'm doing it, so I can say for sure that it works with the Gigabyte GA-8KNXP
v1 with SATA on the ICH5R controller and PATA on IDE1 and/or 2. My C: is a
WD Raptor 37gb on SATA0_SB, D: Maxtor 160gb on IDE1, and various removeable
drives in mobil racks on IDE2. Works great.

One caveat: The ICH5R controller needs drivers, as they are not imbedded in
any Windows OS, so make sure you install them. When installing the drive,
which was previously running with all PATA drives, I followed this sequence:

1. Enable SATA in bios (called "On-chip SATA") here, set to Manual.

2. Booted into XP Pro, at which time the OS found the new hardware and
asked for drivers.

3. Point to floppy or other drive containing the latest drivers. Since the
latest drivers were only available by Gigabyte via an EXE designed as an
upgrade, I used earlier drivers and then upgraded immediately.

4. Clone the old drive to new with Norton Ghost 2003 using latest (Dec.
'03) version (or later) obtained with Liveupdate. Some earlier versions
reportedly will not work with SATA.

5. Mount the drive and boot into Windows.

I had no problem with this procedure, but did when I tried to enable
"On-chip SATA" with the Auto option, in which case WinXP could not see the
controller, possibly because it was remapped through IDE. So, my take on
this is to make sure SATA is mapped through SATA0 or SATA1 (using Manual
option) and the bios is not given the option of deciding on its own (using
Auto).
 
You should be able to use at least one PATA interface. It depends on the
board. Some will have access to both PATA ports and the 2 SATA port (Intel
boards all seem to use this setup). On a few boards though, it seems that
one of the PATA ports gets disabled when you're using the SATA interface.
You'll need to check the board manual to make sure.
Click to expand...

I think this is only if SATA is remapped through IDE, and on the GA-8KNXP it
can be so routed if set to Auto in the bios, although I'm not sure how the
IDE controllers may or may not be populated. The bios description says
"When there is no device to be plugged in IDE1 or IDE2, SATA controller will
remap to IDE controller." I don't know if this means that no drive can be
connected to either or both, and I didn't test it because at the time I
didn't have a SATA drive. Anyway, when I used this option WinXP could not
see the controller, although the drive might have been seen had I attached
it by being remapped through IDE. I've heard that SATA drives work much
better (i.e., faster) if *not* remapped through IDE.

When I set "On-chip SATA" to Manual, WinXP then saw the hardware and all was
well after that. Before my drive was received I tried for three days to get
XP to see the controller, and finally succeeded when I set this option to
Manual.

This board also has an on-board SI SATA controller not on the chipset, but I
haven't tried its functionality yet.
 
Well I've two IDE disks and three SCSI ones, an SCSI cd burner, an SCSI
CD-ROM drive and an SCSI scanner.
The SCSI adapter is an old Adaptec AHA2940UW.
Do you think SATA will works with such a configuration ?
 
Well I've two IDE disks and three SCSI ones, an SCSI cd burner, an SCSI
CD-ROM drive and an SCSI scanner.
The SCSI adapter is an old Adaptec AHA2940UW.
Do you think SATA will works with such a configuration ?
Click to expand...

I'm using an AHA-2930U (same adapter, but not wide) with four devices
(CD-RW, CD reader, scanner, and Zip drive) on a GA-8KNXP mobo. The boot
drive (C:) is a WD SATA Raptor on the "on-chip" ICH5R, and two PATA's are
connected to IDE1. All devices work fine together, and since the zip drive
works I would think a HD would be no different.

I have not tried to boot with a SCSI drive on this system, except the CD-RW,
but the bios has provisions for this, so I have little doubt that this would
work too.
 
Well I've two IDE disks and three SCSI ones, an SCSI cd burner, an SCSI
CD-ROM drive and an SCSI scanner.
The SCSI adapter is an old Adaptec AHA2940UW.
Do you think SATA will works with such a configuration ?
Click to expand...
Probably will. Depends on which SATA controller you add. If you keep IDE as
the boot drive, and there are no conflicts with the SATA and SCSI
controller, it should work. I would cross fingers though ;)

JT
 
zalzon said:
On a sata compatible mobo that is.

Anyone know?
Click to expand...

I am typing this on a computer that booted from a 120 Gig SATA drive
in a removeable SATA drive enclosure. My data files are stored on a 60
Gig PATA drive. I also have CD-writer and DVD-ROM drives installed. I
am using a FIC AU13 motherboard with an Athlon XP 2200+ CPU.
 
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