skinnyjoint

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So currently all of my drives are ide ATA, I am building a new rig soon and would like to include SATA but i dont know much about them. CAn i still use existing ide, with SATA?
do i have to install any special drivers or does will SAta drives be picked up in bios?

someone help a noob out plz
 

fredgiblet

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Any good new motherboard will have between 2 and 6 SATA connectors built in, meaning that the motherboard natively supports them without drivers. Additionally many also have extra ports added on via third-party SATA controllers.

You can use the old style drives with SATA conneectors, but you need to buy fairly expensive adapters. It is a better idea to replace your old drives with newer SATA ones instead. All new motherboards have at least one IDE port still, meaning that you can still have 2 IDE devices.

EDIT: And since to the best of my knowledge there is only two SATA optical drives and both are made by Plextor (and thus are expensive) and both are somewhat older models you will need to reserve at least one IDE port for you optical drive.

EDIT again: If you get a board that has the third-party controller in addition to a built in, make sure that you plug drives into the built-in ports first as the third-party controller will not work without drivers (which you can't install until the OS is running (unless you want to futz around with floppy disks)). The manual should point out which ones are which.
 

SomeJoe7777

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Any good new motherboard will have between 2 and 6 SATA connectors built in, meaning that the motherboard natively supports them without drivers.

Just to be clear, most modern motherboard can have the SATA ports in two different modes (selectable in the BIOS):

Legacy/IDE Mode: In this mode, no drivers are required. Windows treats the SATA drives just like IDE drives. However, in this mode, some native SATA functionality (specifically, NCQ and Hot Swap) is lost.

SATA Native/AHCI Mode: This is the native SATA mode. In this mode, NCQ and Hot Swap are enabled for all SATA devices. However, this mode requires a manufacturer driver. If you're installing Windows onto a drive attached to the motherboard while in this mode, your have to use F6 and a floppy to install drivers during Windows installation.

Some motherboards have a 3rd mode for the SATA controller:

RAID Mode: In this mode, the SATA controller displays a message of it's own during the power-on self test (POST). You can activate the RAID BIOS during POST and define a RAID array with multiple SATA drives. This mode also requires a driver to be installed, sometimes a different driver than the one for SATA Native/AHCI mode.

This switchability only applies to the SATA ports that are native to the motherboard chipset. If the motherboard has an additional SATA controller (Silicon Image, Promise, Highpoint, etc.), that controller always requires a driver. Usually you don't need to install that driver with F6/floppy during Windows installation, because the startup drive is not attached to that controller. You can install drivers for the extra SATA controller after Windows is installed and running.
 

skinnyjoint

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well i guess my question is, if i have a sata hard drive, can i still have ide hard drives all working together? as the mobo im looking at supports both i didnt know if you could only have like one or the other. so either i need all new drives, or i can just slowly buy sata drives....? thanks guys
 

306maxi

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well i guess my question is, if i have a sata hard drive, can i still have ide hard drives all working together? as the mobo im looking at supports both i didnt know if you could only have like one or the other. so either i need all new drives, or i can just slowly buy sata drives....? thanks guys

You can use both :)
 

skinnyjoint

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ok so lets say i keep my os, on an ide then are the satas just kinda plug and play so to speak? theyll be pick up in bios etc whitout a bunch of hassle?
 

fredgiblet

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If your motherboard has native support (like all new ones do) then yes. However, like I said, a lot of new mobos only have one IDE port, which means you will be restricted to one IDE hard drive (unless you pony up the cash for an expensive older-model SATA optical drive).

EDIT: If you are running XP and you switch motherboards you will need to call M$ and get a new activation key.
 

skinnyjoint

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the board im looking at has 2 ide so i should be fine running 4 ides correct?

also what... call M$ and get a new activation key.... why would i need to do this, i would just format and do a fresh install.... are they matching hardware now or somthign?
 

fredgiblet

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If you have 2 IDE then yes you can have 4 drives.

If you are doing a fresh install you probably will not have to call M$, if you just dropped a new motherboard in and used your old XP install then the OS would see the changes, assume it was in a new computer, and not work until you jumped through some hoops.
 

skinnyjoint

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o yes fresh install id always format after a new mobo or anything that significant.

i plan on getting the
asus p5nsli 570
e6600
corsair xms ddr2 800 cas4
 

paddyhash

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ok so ive bought a SATA hdd and i already have an existing IDE connected to mah pc. ive connected the SATA hdd to mah mobo but it hasnt as of yet recognise it. so what do i have to do, other than connect it, to make my pc recognise it?
P.S. i am soemwhat of a noob so if you could instruct me in laymans terms then i would be grateful thanx
 

fredgiblet

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I assume you used a converter to get the SATA to plug into the IDE?

Is it showing up in the BIOS?

If it isn't showing up in the BIOS then make sure everything is plugged in firmly. Also, some of the SATA drivse ahve jumpers that switch between 1.5Gb and 3.0Gb, if you have a jumper you might try to switch it.

Right-click on My Computer, click on Manage, and go to Disk Management. There shoud be 3 drives listed (first HD second HD and CD\DVD). Right-click on the new one and partition and format it (I can't post more detailed instructions because I don't have a fresh disk handy).

Let me know if any of this helped (or if it didn't).
 

paddyhash

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i didnt use a converter. my motherboard already had SATA plugs on it. my IDE drive was already plugged in and i plugged the SATA drive directly into the motherboard. it didnt show up under disk management. as for the jumper i think it does have space for one but it didnt come with a jumper so im not sure if i need one or not. it didnt show up in the bios but it did show up in the raid setup but i dotn have two sata drives so i couldnt cahnge any of the settings. if it helps i have a A7V600 mother baord and i bought a maxtor 6L300s0. thanx for the help
 

fredgiblet

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i didnt use a converter. my motherboard already had SATA plugs on it. my IDE drive was already plugged in and i plugged the SATA drive directly into the motherboard. it didnt show up under disk management. as for the jumper i think it does have space for one but it didnt come with a jumper so im not sure if i need one or not. it didnt show up in the bios but it did show up in the raid setup but i dotn have two sata drives so i couldnt cahnge any of the settings. if it helps i have a A7V600 mother baord and i bought a maxtor 6L300s0. thanx for the help

Do you have the RAID drivers installed? If your SATA controller is a RAID controller then you will need to install seperate drivers for it. Go to your motherboard manufacturers website and make sure you have the drivers.
 

skinnyjoint

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during the f6, of installing drivers will these come off my mobo's cd? or will i have to have a floppy. the only floppy ive had for yrs is a usb one, would the suffice or will i have to break down and buy a crappy floppy drive
 

fredgiblet

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during the f6, of installing drivers will these come off my mobo's cd? or will i have to have a floppy. the only floppy ive had for yrs is a usb one, would the suffice or will i have to break down and buy a crappy floppy drive

50/50, depends on the motherboard. If it doesn't work you don't need to buy one, just borrow a friends for a day or so, I can't imagine them missing it.
 

skinnyjoint

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cool thanks, i havent narrowed down a mobo yet so i guess ill just have to get back to this later. got about 2 weeks before i order waiting to see if those 590's come out
 

Robovski

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Samsung make a SATA DVD writer now.

It's here (towards the bottom) Samsung SH-W163A/BEBN Black SATA 16x16 ±R Dual Layer DVDRW Writer (UK shop £25.25 inc VAT)http://www.advancetec.co.uk/acatalog/INTE_WRS.html

I bought one so I can ditch IDE on the new mobo.
 

MonicaT

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I'm so glad I found this topic because I was wondering if I could use my current hdd's with my new mobo myself.

The new board is Gigabyte GA-965G-DS3 and my current hdd's are Maxtor 92049U6 and WDC WD800JB-00JJC0. So can I use these (or at least the Maxtor which is my C drive with just Windows on it) with the new mobo until I can upgrade to new SATA drives?
 

skinnyjoint

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i am suppose to be ordering a ds3 soon as well, and youll want to format your hdd, to do a reinstall well i would anytime your switching out somthign that major
 

MonicaT

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Yeah, I was planning on doing the format/fresh install thing if I could use the drives. It would really help if I could use them because I'm buying all the hardware a piece at a time. Being able to use the old drives means I wouldn't have to wait until I get the new drives before I could upgrade the mobo/cpu.