Help with SATA drive

[webe123]

Help with SATA drive

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OK, a few years ago, I purchased a 40 gig Western Digital Raptor 10,000 RPM SATA hard drive for my computer. I used it for a few months, but eventually ended up switching back to a regular Western Digital IDE hard drive, as windows xp does not natively support SATA drives. Now I am going to get a PCI controller card for the SATA drive and just use the drive itself as an extra storage drive.
The one problem I have, is that I still have a previous version of win xp on there, as it was my main drive a few years ago. Here is my question.....

Would it be easier for me to physically unhook my current Western Digital IDE drive and just reformat the SATA first? If I don't then there will be two different types of drives with TWO win xp pro opertaing systems on them at the same time! Is this the best way to reformat the SATA drive so that I can use it for storage?

Also, yes i know that there are SATA controllers on my motherboard, but I would rather use a controller card because it comes with its own drivers. The SATA drivers I got on the net for my motherboard were not that good.

Here are my specs:
System Specs: ATX generic case with Antec 550 watt power supply. ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Motherboard. Western Digital 7,200 RPM 40 gig IDE Hard Drive.(NTFS- file system) AMD Athlon XP 2600 processor.(standard fan and heatsink-Thoroughbred Core-standard speed-NO OVERCLOCK) 1 gig of Samsung DDRAM(PC 2700- 333 mhz....2-512mb sticks running in dual channel mode).Ati Radeon 8x 9600 XT (8x is enabled on motherboard). Soundblaster Audigy 2 sound card. Motorola sb 5100 cable modem (Insight Communications-Cable Connection) Sony DRU 500 AX DVD- RECORDER.(records -R/-RW or +R/+RW and CD-R formats-4x-24x-4x) Sony 52x32x52 CD Burner. Zip 100 internal drive and a generic 3.5 floppy drive. Windows XP Professional Operating System. I also have a HP Deskjet 3520 inkjet printer and a KDS X Flat 17 inch CRT monitor.

[clocker]

I would try just hooking up the Raptor and formatting it thru Disk Management.
Should be fine.

Frankly, I would also use the Raptor as your main system drive...why waste all that speed on a storage drive?

[Virtualbody1234]

I'm quite sure that there are "good" drivers available for the onboard SATA of the ASUS A7N8X-E.

I would also suggest that you use the 10000 RPM drive as your system drive and use the other for storage.

[webe123]

I'm quite sure that there are "good" drivers available for the onboard SATA of the ASUS A7N8X-E.

I would also suggest that you use the 10000 RPM drive as your system drive and use the other for storage.

That is what everybody says, but they have NOT had the BSOD like I have and had to deal with it. Sorry, but my OS is too important to be messed with. Here is someone else who had the same problems I did and they had the latest drivers for the motherboard and the raptor!

http://forums.tweaktown.com/showthread.php?t=18979

[webe123]

I would try just hooking up the Raptor and formatting it thru Disk Management.
Should be fine.

Frankly, I would also use the Raptor as your main system drive...why waste all that speed on a storage drive?

Because I got the BSOD all the time with the raptor! Look at the post above and you can read a link on two other people that had the exact same problem.

[Virtualbody1234]

I'm not a member of that forum so I cannot login.

I don't know of your specific problem. There must be different drivers to try or, as you said, using a PCI controller card could be a solution to try. Even with the 10000 RPM drive as the system drive.

[clocker]

Because I got the BSOD all the time with the raptor! Look at the post above and you can read a link on two other people that had the exact same problem.

If you are having problems with the Raptor then either one of two things is happening.
The drive itself is bad...WD offers a free set of diagnostics you can run to see if this is the case.
Your installation is flawed*.

If your drive will recertify I'd be happy to take it off your hands, my Raptors are a joy and I'd love to have another.


*I cannot access TweakTown either.
I have read of problems with NF2 boards and SATA if you are overclocking...something to do with a failure to lock the SATA/PCI bus speeds or the like, but never had any problems myself.
Perhaps there is a BIOS update that would help.

[Master$hake]

Well you could have slipstreamed your drivers into windows xp, for more info visit www.unattended.msfn.org

or if your looking for a quick solution go to http://www.nliteos.com/ with the nlite method you could have your drivers for all your devices slipstreamed into the windows disk which would solve most of your problems

[lynx]

I have an A7N8X-E with SATA drive, and heavily overclocked, and I have absolutely no problems whatsoever.

There are no known problems with the latest SiI 3112 drivers. If you are trying to use the raid drivers in a non-raid setup you will probably have problems though, you should use the plain IDE drivers.
SiI 3112 IDE Drivers for Windows

My suggestion for the easiest installation is to install these onto your existing system, then use Ghost or Partition Magic to copy your system onto the Raptor. Uninstall any existing SiI drivers first.