How do you install Vista on a SATA HDD? - Please Help

[SkScotchegg]

Hi there, can you please answer this question, I dont know much about PC's:

How do you install a SATA HDD in a PC and then put an operating system on it?

Do you have to have two SATA's running along side each other, because I've heard thats how you make it raid? and raid is apparently faster then normal HDD's?

In the past I just bought a normal IDE HDD and you just plug it in and it works instantly, but whats the difference with SATA? what else do you have to do.

Am just worried about buying a SATA HDD and not knowing how to install vista on it?

Can I just buy one SATA hard drive or do I have to buy two? Can someone please explain how raid works to me?

Can I just install vista on one or do I have to buy two for Vista to allow me to install the operating system on it?

Thanks in advance,


SkScotchegg

 

[SlyReaper]

Just plug it in, format it, and away you go. I trust your motherboard does have SATA ports on it? If you want RAID, then obviously you'd need more than one drive.

 

[RJC]

You can install Vista on one SATA hard drive very easy, connect the hard drive to the motherboard, set the boot device to cd rom in the BIOS, save and reboot, (insert the Vista disc before rebooting) and Vista should load and detect the SATA drive without any problems, you might need to format the drive, part from that all should be plane sailing.

If you want RAID then you will need multiple discs, link below shows information regards RAID.

 

[Mike1983]

Without getting technical the basic answers are below. This will enable you to do further research if required on RAID if it is of interest to you.

1) You only need 1x SATA HDD, Vista will install straight on it. Make sure you have SATA cables though and your motherboard has SATA inputs.

2) RAID is not a necessity, it is an option if you wish to choose it. RAID is for multiple drives (2 or more) and enables either a) increased performance or b) data redundancy (duplication / "backup") or c) some compromise between the two. Do a search for "RAID" in Wikipedia for more details and to decide if this is the way you want to go. As with above, make sure your motherboard has an onboard controller or you will need to buy a seperate RAID controller card.

Mike

 

[OCdude]

As the above posters have stated - it's that easy...

The only issue you 'might' run in to.. is if you're using a separate SATA controller (i.e. you've installed a separate card, which has SATA ports on it). In that case, you'd need to make sure that Vista detects it and has the appropriate drivers (otherwise you'll need to install those before the install, so that it can detect your drive).

But if you have a semi-new mobo, then it'll all be onboard, so you won't have any issues like that

 

[bledd]

what motherboard do you have?
does it support raid?
do you know if one drive fails in raid, you lose the lot? (how good are you at backing up & not caring if it does go down)


for the record, i've never had a raid fail in about 7 years of using them -that's just luck though