SATA vs IDE: which will boot? 1

[whitewater7]

I have a PC running Windows XP on a 20 gig hard drive and I want to connect a SATA drive which also has an operating system on it.(from the same PC) I want the IDE to boot so I can format the SATA drive. Will they conflict , or will the SATA automatically configure itself as a slave?

Long story short: Windows XP formatted the SATA drive as only 131 gig, and the drive is a 320 gig. I hope to use XP Computer management to delete the partition and re-format it to get the full capacity.

Can I proceed without corrupting what I have on the 20 gig IDE drive? Will I get full capacity on the SATA?

THNXS

 

[vacunita]

It depends on the MB. some motherboards that have built in sata ports will automatically make the sata port the primary boot device, if it can't find anything there it will move on to a different port until it finds something to boot from. In your case the IDE drive.

Your best bet is to go into the BIOS and make sure the boot order is set to the IDE first, and then the SATA drive.


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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[whitewater7]

I think my motherboard just says "hard drive" in the boot order sequence, but I'll look.

I don't have a diskette drive on this system, and don't have a working Boot cd to fdisk the SATA.

It's a new motherboard (ECS).

 

[vacunita]

You might need to have the SATA plugged in for it to give you the option. As Some disable that sort of options when there's only one.



----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[whitewater7]

I'm going to try that. I'll be back...
THNXS

 

[whitewater7]

Success!

The IDE booted with the SATA powered up. It stayed at IDE channel 0 while the SATA took channel 1 (master)

I deleted the partition on the SATA and it looks like I will get full capacity.

The boot order in the BIOS still only said "hard disk"

THNXS

 

[Freestone]

Star for you vacunita.

 

[wahnula]

The boot order in the BIOS still only said "hard disk"

Sometimes in BIOS there's a sub-section called Hard Disk Boot Priority where you can define which hard disk is connected where, and specify which to select as "hard disk".

Tony

"...an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind" - M.L. King

 

[vacunita]

Glad you sorted it out lnauman, and thanx for the star Freestone.



----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.