I've just bought a Hitachi Deskstar 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive. The one currently have installed is a Seagate 80GB Parallel ATA IDE Hard Drive, when I install both, BIOS recognizes the new HD but when Windows loads up the only Hard Drive running is my old 80GB HD. Using a program called EVEREST which is a system information and benchmarking tool with full hardware & software information, I'm able to see both the 80 and 250gb hard drives but still cannot use the 250gb HD. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
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SATA and IDE pls read 1
- Thread starter jdub05
- Start date
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1
- #2
jdub05,
Format it.
Windows explorer, "My Computer", will not list HD's that are not formatted.
If you are using XP you can use disk management to "initialize" or format this drive.
You can also use the drive mfg's utilities either included with the drive or downloadable from their site.
Once formatted you will see this drive and be able to use it.
Hope This Clears This Up.
rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
Format it.
Windows explorer, "My Computer", will not list HD's that are not formatted.
If you are using XP you can use disk management to "initialize" or format this drive.
You can also use the drive mfg's utilities either included with the drive or downloadable from their site.
Once formatted you will see this drive and be able to use it.
Hope This Clears This Up.
rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
- Thread starter
- #5
jdub05,
This does seem a bit on the low side.
You have 250,000,000 bytes and a MB is 1024 bytes so you should be in the 240 range. I have seen where 8 are reserved for a reason that I do not know. If that is the case then 232 is about right.
Sandra, & other utilities should be able to help you determine if there is 8 out there somewhere.
rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
This does seem a bit on the low side.
You have 250,000,000 bytes and a MB is 1024 bytes so you should be in the 240 range. I have seen where 8 are reserved for a reason that I do not know. If that is the case then 232 is about right.
Sandra, & other utilities should be able to help you determine if there is 8 out there somewhere.
rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
Someday a FAQ will be written about this.
Manufacturers use base 10 math when representing drives sizes. Digital circuitry and programming use binary.
So doing some math:
2^10 = 1KB = 1,024 bytes
1KB * 1KB = 1MB = 1,048,576 bytes
1MB * 1KB = 1GB = 1,073,741,824 bytes
Now, take the manufacturer's 250GB and divide it by the base 2 GB : 250000000000 / 1073741824 = 232.830644, and dropping off the fractional remainder leaves you with 232GB.
So, which would you buy, given two drives at the same price, one listed as 250GB, the other as 232GB?
Manufacturers use base 10 math when representing drives sizes. Digital circuitry and programming use binary.
So doing some math:
2^10 = 1KB = 1,024 bytes
1KB * 1KB = 1MB = 1,048,576 bytes
1MB * 1KB = 1GB = 1,073,741,824 bytes
Now, take the manufacturer's 250GB and divide it by the base 2 GB : 250000000000 / 1073741824 = 232.830644, and dropping off the fractional remainder leaves you with 232GB.
So, which would you buy, given two drives at the same price, one listed as 250GB, the other as 232GB?
- Thread starter
- #9
jdub05.
What did you change?? What is this about using as the only drive???? Did you remove the other drive??
If you did, please post what/how you did this.
when you have a single drive it has to be placed on the cable in the correct position, like the original drive was connected. Secondly, if both drives were functioning correctly, where in this PC did you have the second (250GB) drive installed? On the same cable as the first? Or on the one other cable that might be in your PC?
rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
From working perfectly to BIOS doesn't detect it
Your first post states that BIOS detects it.
What did you change?? What is this about using as the only drive???? Did you remove the other drive??
If you did, please post what/how you did this.
when you have a single drive it has to be placed on the cable in the correct position, like the original drive was connected. Secondly, if both drives were functioning correctly, where in this PC did you have the second (250GB) drive installed? On the same cable as the first? Or on the one other cable that might be in your PC?
rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
- Thread starter
- #11
Well rvnguy, I did as you said and I got the 250gb HD working with my 80gb HD (80gb HD had partition C and D therefore I set the 250gb HD as F drive). That all worked perfectly.
Another thing is it possible to move my old 80gb HD to another PC without formatting and losing all my data? or would I have to use like say norton Ghost to save all my data from my old 80gb HD to my 250gb HD? and does this transfer windows XP as well and my 250gb HD the primary drive? And how can I partition my new HD?
Ok now back to the first part of the question. So once my new HD was up and running I thought I could disconnect my old PATA IDE 80gb HD and setup my new SATA 250gb HD as the only HD on my PC. When I did this BIOS cannot recognize any HD on my system. My old 80gb HD uses a black IDE cable the new 250gb HD uses a red SATA RAID cable which I have connected to RAID SET 01 on my motherboard it also has RAID SET 02 available on the motherboard which is not in use.
What I basically want is to use my new 250gb Hard Drive as the only HD on my PC. I want to move the old 80gb HD to another computer without losing any data. Is this possible? Or is my best bet burning all that I need onto a CDR and format my old HD? But i'd still need help on setting up my new HD. Hope this contains all you need to know. Once again Thank you.
Another thing is it possible to move my old 80gb HD to another PC without formatting and losing all my data? or would I have to use like say norton Ghost to save all my data from my old 80gb HD to my 250gb HD? and does this transfer windows XP as well and my 250gb HD the primary drive? And how can I partition my new HD?
Ok now back to the first part of the question. So once my new HD was up and running I thought I could disconnect my old PATA IDE 80gb HD and setup my new SATA 250gb HD as the only HD on my PC. When I did this BIOS cannot recognize any HD on my system. My old 80gb HD uses a black IDE cable the new 250gb HD uses a red SATA RAID cable which I have connected to RAID SET 01 on my motherboard it also has RAID SET 02 available on the motherboard which is not in use.
What I basically want is to use my new 250gb Hard Drive as the only HD on my PC. I want to move the old 80gb HD to another computer without losing any data. Is this possible? Or is my best bet burning all that I need onto a CDR and format my old HD? But i'd still need help on setting up my new HD. Hope this contains all you need to know. Once again Thank you.
dub05,
Setting new SATA drive as only drive:
You can remove the PATA drive. In the Sys BIOS you will have to find the settings to use the SATA as the boot device.
You also have to set the Boot order in BIOS.
You will have to install the OS to this drive and when prompted early in the setup of XP press "f6" to load the sata drivers to allow XP setup to use this drive. During the setup you can select less than the complete drive to install XP to and this will create the first (primary) partition. Once you have XP up and running you can go to computer management > disk drives and finish addig one or more partition to the unused space on this drive.
The 80PATA drive's data can be either copied to the 250 or to another HD on another system. It will not boot to XP when moved due to MS anti piracy prevention. You will either have to decide which HD to load your current copy of XP to and obtain another License for another OS for the other.
If this was working with the two drives, I would expect that BIOS recognized the SATA drive. When the PATA is removed the SATA should still be recognized by BIOS if the settings in BIOS for the SATA are correct.
rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
Setting new SATA drive as only drive:
You can remove the PATA drive. In the Sys BIOS you will have to find the settings to use the SATA as the boot device.
You also have to set the Boot order in BIOS.
You will have to install the OS to this drive and when prompted early in the setup of XP press "f6" to load the sata drivers to allow XP setup to use this drive. During the setup you can select less than the complete drive to install XP to and this will create the first (primary) partition. Once you have XP up and running you can go to computer management > disk drives and finish addig one or more partition to the unused space on this drive.
The 80PATA drive's data can be either copied to the 250 or to another HD on another system. It will not boot to XP when moved due to MS anti piracy prevention. You will either have to decide which HD to load your current copy of XP to and obtain another License for another OS for the other.
If this was working with the two drives, I would expect that BIOS recognized the SATA drive. When the PATA is removed the SATA should still be recognized by BIOS if the settings in BIOS for the SATA are correct.
rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
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