Running XP Pro SP1
I have a mobo Intel D865PERL and suports SATA and Raid.
If i hook up my hard drives with SATA connections do i have to install
special drivers ?
No, but there may be other issues if you have already installed XP
while using the "normal" UIDE interface and now wish to use S-ATA
instead (for the installation's boot and/or system volumes).
I bought a adapter to convert IDE to SATA connections , not a permenent deal
but thought i could try the sata thing with my old hard drives.
I would NOT gratuitously change the HD interface of an existing XP
installation. I can't see the gain (it's lot like your old HDs will
become UIDE150 or hot-swappable) but I can see the pain.
Anyway my pc boots up and recognizes the drives ok BUT it takes a long time
to boot up.
Lucky to be alive, I'd say - I'd half-expect XP to lose the plot in
various ways, such as:
- WPA deciding your IDE controller had changed
- PnP redetection staorm
- invalidadtion of UIDE timing assumptions
- mis-enumeration of volumes and drive letters
I did not install any special drivers.
Have 1 gig of memory and 2.4C CPU.
Remember that the ability to hot-swap S-ATA hard drives (i.e. connect
and disconnect when PC is running, or even when "off" but still
plugged into mains power) requires:
- use of S-ATA data connection
- use of S-ATA power connection
- use of S-ATA hard drive
Specifically, if you use the old legacy translucent-white
yellow/black/black/red power connector to the HD, you CANNOT safely
swap in/out the HD while system is mains-powered, even if all other
S-ATA criteria are met. Note also that use of both S-ATA and legacy
power connectors on the same HD at the same time is documented to risk
blowing the HD up. Don't go there ;-)
If OTOH you were talking about building a new XP system using an S-ATA
drive (or legacy UIDE HD connected via S-ATA), the following applies!
[Drivers]
Earlier motherboards based on Intel's 845xx series motherboards
sometimes came with S-ATA, but this used 3rd-party chipset add-ons, so
extra drivers were needed. In my case, the motherboards I used had a
Promise chip added that offered S-ATA, or S-ATA + RAID 0/1.
Intel's 865xx chipsets differ in that S-ATA is now part of the Intel
chipset's core functionality. If you have installed Intel's chipset
drivers (starting with the .inf business) you have S-ATA support.
[BIOS / CMOS]
Before you let XP's Setup even smell the system, you need to make sure
your UIDE controller identities are sorted at the BIOS level.
Typically there will be BIOS/CMOS settings that go about:
- whether S-ATA is instead of, or in addition to, "normal" UIDE
- whether S-ATA operates as "normal", RAID 0, or RAID 1
Typically you'd connect the first S-ATA to your boot HD, leave the
Primary UIDE connector unused, and hook up your optical drives to the
Secondary UIDE connector. That way, the "UIDE Primary" would be your
HD on the S-ATA, and your "UIDE Secondary" would be the "normal"
Secondary UIDE channel. Keep the "normal" UIDE Primary unused.
[Disk prep]
I'd use BING or similar to prep the HD, as this is quicker and more
compitent (FAT32 > 32G support, aligns FATxx volumes correctly so
subsequent conversion to NTFS doesn't strand you with 512-byte
clusters) than XP's disk prep tools, and avoids the capacity issues
faced by MS's Win9x disk prep tools.
The idea is; you want to be certain that the correct HD is seen as the
"first" HD in the system at the BIOS bootability level, before XP gets
to smell the HDs or install anywhere. Else you could be in for a
world of pain; C: is seen as F: and can't be changed, etc.
When you use BING etc., make sure you explicitly set the primary as
active in MBR partition table, and that MBR system boot code is
present. Unless you need BING (or whatever) as a boot manager
(applies to multiple primary partition scenarios), don't "install" it;
just use it as a partitioning and imaging tool from diskette.
I ususally meet the above criteria via FDisk /MBR and Sys C: (assuming
C: is FATxx, either to stay that way or for conversion later).
[Installing XP]
Make sure the PC boots the correct HD and partition as "C:", and that
no other removable disks are present (especially bootable ones) - not
talking CDs here, but LS120, Zip, Jaz, USB flash, that sort of thing.
Make sure nothing other than 1.44M and CD are ahead of the boot HD in
CMOS Setup's boot order. This avoids problems later.
If BIOS cn boot HD, you can install XP with confidence. In the case
of non-RAID 865xx S-ATA, you definitely don't need to do anything when
the XP installation process prompts you about extra drivers required
to manage the boot drive. Just carry on and install XP, and once XP
is running, use the mobo's driver CD to install the Intel-specific
drivers, starting with Intel's .inf utility
So far I've built 865G and 875P systems using non-RAID S-ATA as
boot/system hard drives, using the approach outlined above, and one
system that used a non-RAID S-ATA HD for boot/system plus an
additional pair of S-ATA HDs as RAID 0 for data/workspace.
Touch wood, I've had none of the ghastly "my C: drive is seen as F:
and I can't chantge it!!" horror mileage I've read in the newsgroups!
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Dreams are stack dumps of the soul
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