Discussion
Its better because its (a)newer (b)has a nicer cable.
Theres no real performance increase, but its more modern and you dont have to use the nasty ribbon cables anymore 9they kill airflow). Just a nice single 'fiber optic' like cable, and a power lead. SATA has tons more development potential tho.
BUT there could be a few problems.
1st is power, they require a new connector, most modern PSU's have them, and you can easily get a convertor from a molex.
2nd - windows install - used to be a big problem, windows 2000/Xp didnt have SATA drivers, drivers were on CD, needed on Floppy = hastle. But now most motherboards(all?) can pretend the SATA is an IDE drive for windows to install I think. Its either that or use another PC to get the drivers off the CD onto a fdd.
IMo its not realy worth bothering with IDE with new drives.
Theres no real performance increase, but its more modern and you dont have to use the nasty ribbon cables anymore 9they kill airflow). Just a nice single 'fiber optic' like cable, and a power lead. SATA has tons more development potential tho.
BUT there could be a few problems.
1st is power, they require a new connector, most modern PSU's have them, and you can easily get a convertor from a molex.
2nd - windows install - used to be a big problem, windows 2000/Xp didnt have SATA drivers, drivers were on CD, needed on Floppy = hastle. But now most motherboards(all?) can pretend the SATA is an IDE drive for windows to install I think. Its either that or use another PC to get the drivers off the CD onto a fdd.
IMo its not realy worth bothering with IDE with new drives.
Podie said:
2nd - windows install - used ...
Press F6 when the XP Cd boots up... slap in the supplied floppy from the mobo... easy.
Problem is/was very few boards supplied floppys.
Certainly the first one I built didnt.
Bits everywhere, no drivers on floppy etc. managed to get the old windows install onan IDE drive booted on the new hardware and seeing the cdrom enough to dump the drivers onto fdd.
Without that old HDD I would have got precicely nowhere until I found another puter.
I've found that my computer, which I have just built, will not recognise a SATA HDD, unless there is and IDE drive also installed! How stupid is that? I think you need to have 2 SATA drives in a RAID configuration to get them recognised.
I have ended up with 2 x 200Gb drives - one IDE and one SATA directly attached to the mobo SATA inputs. Strangely, it wasn't until I decided to attach my old HDD as well, to transfer my files, that the new BIOS recognised the SATA disc - I took the old drive out again, and the SATA stayed visible.
What's that all about?!!
I have ended up with 2 x 200Gb drives - one IDE and one SATA directly attached to the mobo SATA inputs. Strangely, it wasn't until I decided to attach my old HDD as well, to transfer my files, that the new BIOS recognised the SATA disc - I took the old drive out again, and the SATA stayed visible.
What's that all about?!!
robdickinson said:
robdickinson said:
2nd - windows install - used ...
Press F6 when the XP Cd boots up... slap in the supplied floppy from the mobo... easy.
Problem is/was very few boards supplied floppys.
Certainly the first one I built didnt.
Bits everywhere, no drivers on floppy etc. managed to get the old windows install onan IDE drive booted on the new hardware and seeing the cdrom enough to dump the drivers onto fdd.
Without that old HDD I would have got precicely nowhere until I found another puter.
Hmm… cheap board..? Try something like the Abit NF7-S… IDE and SATA… means you can stick a floppy drive in.
Personally I ALWAYS build PC's with a floppy. For the sake of £5 it makes troubleshooting so much easier down the line.
nubbin said:
I've found that my computer, which I have just built, will not recognise a SATA HDD, unless there is and IDE drive also installed! How stupid is that? I think you need to have 2 SATA drives in a RAID configuration to get them recognised.
The BIOS won't necessarily pick up the SATA drives in the same way as it does with IDE drives… you may need to tinker in the BIOS first (always check to see if there is a newer flash BIOS version).
Podie said:
Hmm? cheap board..? Try something like the Abit NF7-S? IDE and SATA? means you can stick a floppy drive in.
Personally I ALWAYS build PC's with a floppy. For the sake of £5 it makes troubleshooting so much easier down the line.
Actualy the cheap boards need the floppy. Decent ones like my new Asus A8v delux etc can fake it in the bios.
I usualy add a FDD too, doesnt cost much and sometimes its the only way to get stuff working.
But The first SAT install I done was an expensive top of the line MSI board and the drivers only came on CD.
robdickinson said:
Hmm? cheap board..? Try something like the Abit NF7-S? IDE and SATA? means you can stick a floppy drive in.
Personally I ALWAYS build PC's with a floppy. For the sake of £5 it makes troubleshooting so much easier down the line.
Actualy the cheap boards need the floppy. Decent ones like my new Asus A8v delux etc can fake it in the bios.
I usualy add a FDD too, doesnt cost much and sometimes its the only way to get stuff working.
But The first SAT install I done was an expensive top of the line MSI board and the drivers only came on CD.
Take it the XP setup wouldn't let you swap CD then..?
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