Sata drive on existing WinXP 1

[braddds]

Quick question regarding SATA. Do I need to install any software for my SATA drive(s) under an existing WinXp Pro installation? I've upgraded my system with two new SATA drives (I cloned the old IDE drives to the new SATA drives) and all is working fine. Windows found the new hardware and rebooted.

I'm curious as this is my first foray into SATA drives with an existing OS and was wondering if I needed any other software...I'm not running a RAID so I wasn't sure if I needed to do anything else!?

Asus P4P800 Deluxe
P4 3G
1 gb dual cosair ram
ATI 9800 XT
LG DVD burner
Liteon combo DVD/cdrw
WinXP Pro sp2


Cheers

 

[wolluf]

Obvious answer is - its working, so no you don't need to do anything.

But - its not clear from your post whether you've replaced IDE drives with SATA ones or just added SATA drives to the mix. XP generally needs to have SATA drives supplied on a floppy if you are installing to a SATA drive (I've seen posts which say they didn't need to, so its probably SATA/motherboard specific, but all the ones I've done so far needed drivers). But it seems to see SATA drives from an existing installation ok - though you'd probably be best advised to install the latest drivers for your specific mobo/SATA supplier

 

[braddds]

thx wolluf

Yeah I hear you...if it ain't broke!!! This is the reason that I was asking, since it seems to be working just fine.

And sorry, what I meant was I replaced the IDE's with the SATA's.

I've only installed SATA on two other systems (new OS installs only) and don't think I was even asked for the drivers...at least not during setup! Perhaps they were installed via the MB setup disc afterwards...I just can't recall!

However, if I was to install them (the SATA drivers) would I simply update my existing hardware. The only devices I can see are in the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" ...would this be the "Dual Channel" or the "Ultra Storage controllers", or am I totally off base here? Or do I just run/install the drivers, found on my MB's cdrom, while in windows?

Sorry for all the questions...I just haven't had that much experience with SATA...yet!

Cheers

 

[wolluf]

Sata devices on machines I've installed appear under SCSI and RAID controllers (probably as all are also RAID controllers!)

Seen a few posts on various forums since I posted my last answer which suggest that where there are 4 SATA controllers on a board, the first 2 will be natively supported. And/or SATA on nforce4 boards is natively supported. Do either of these fit your board?

If your mobo CD has SATA drivers, I'd just install them in windows (actually, I'd go to the site and see if there are later versions - I've found SATA drivers are updated frequently).

 

[braddds]

thx again

On the Asus P4P800 Deluxe there are only 2 SATA controllers and I beleive they are Promise SATA/RAID and the VIA/RAID for the IDE channels...at least from what I can find on my MB's cdrom.

Oddly I can not find any SCSI and/or RAID controllers in my device manager...I suppose it is either not needed or not installed!

I'll go to asus and download the updated drivers when they aren't so busy...I keep getting "server too busy" when ever I try!

Will keep you posted!

Cheers

 

[braddds]

As it turns out my SATA controllers are natively supported and require no additional drivers. This would be different if I was running a RAID but at present I'm not! My MB only supports RAID 0 which isn't all that fault tolerant...fast, yes but my DATA is more important than speed!

Thx again for your input wolluf

Cheers