SATA drive into Win2K machine

GreatWaves · 16 Dec 2009 at 12:14

Hey,
I have a SATA drive (which has WinXP Pro installed on it) which I want to connect to a Win2K machine to search the drive for some old files. Getting it running again with the mobo that it used to run with is too much work right now (that mobo which is currently shelved has a water cooling block installed on it... would be a lot of fussing to get that running).

The Win2K machine runs on PATA so I presume there are no SATA drivers available in the OS currently. Does the Win2K install disk come with SATA drivers on it? How in general would installing a SATA drive as a secondary drive work out on a PATA Win2K machine?

This is just a temp arrangement to look for files on the SATA drive. From what I remember the WinXP Pro that's installed on the SATA is not pw protected so I should be able to access all the files.

Thanks

El_Watcher · 16 Dec 2009 at 12:23

I can't remember whether you can get SATA drivers for 2k, would depend on the HDD controller.
The easiest way would probably be to get a SATA to USB adapter, wwhich can be bought for sub £30.

GreatWaves · 16 Dec 2009 at 12:29

El_Watcher said:
I can't remember whether you can get SATA drivers for 2k, would depend on the HDD controller.
The easiest way would probably be to get a SATA to USB adapter, wwhich can be bought for sub £30.

Doh, I wasn't thinking in that direction at all, but that could be the best way if in fact I do not end up reviving the water cooling mobo for some time yet.

So like a USB external drive kit with SATA basically... never tried one of those, but I guess that's pretty much plug and play right?

Now that I think of it I recall something about Win2K not having SATA... can't remember.

Thanks for the idea... I wasn't thinking broadly enough.

bledd · 16 Dec 2009 at 12:41

They'll use the same drivers as XP

GreatWaves · 16 Dec 2009 at 13:06

edited... dumb brain burp... tired today

GreatWaves · 16 Dec 2009 at 13:59

edited... was just a brain burp... tired today and not thinking

ed: OK so I can leave my Win2K desktop out of this entirely. With a SATA->USB adapter can just use my Vista laptop for this.