SATA drives and fresh install

Dutch Guy · 4 Apr 2006 at 12:17

I am thinking about getting two 250Gb Hitachi SATA harddisks to replace the IDE ones I have but I have no floppy drive

Do I need to install the SATA drivers with a floppy or is a XP CD with SP2 slipstreamed also good enough to recognise the harddisks?

Dutch Guy · 4 Apr 2006 at 12:53

Jeff Crawly said:
Depends what SATA controller your going to use as I'm pretty sure nvidia/nforce emulates IDE thus requiring no SATA drivers during XP setup/install.

But even if your controller does need drivers then this can very easily be done still without a horrible floppy drive!! Just goto http://www.nliteos.com/ download nLite and slipstream the relevant drivers with that. Job done

I have a nForce4 mobo so I guess that will work

I will however take a look at the link you posted.

Another question, can I perhaps use Acronis True Image to clone the Windows install from a IDE drive to a SATA as I just reinstalled XP and don't fancy doing it again so soon?

Dutch Guy · 4 Apr 2006 at 13:49

JudgeC said:
Yep, it copies the entire Hard Disk (or Partition) and when it is finished, just unplug your old drive and boot with your new one. You will need to make sure that your SATA adapter is enabled in the BIOS, but other than that it shouldn't require any further action.

That is basically it, I tried Norton Ghost in the past but failed horribly, therefore I think I will try Acronis True Image (not free though

)

But what do I use to delete the old harddisk or can I connect it after a succesful boot of the new drive and format it in Windows?

Dutch Guy · 4 Apr 2006 at 14:05

JudgeC said:
You should be able to plug it in as a second drive and reformat it from windows. As long as you have your new hard disk set as the first device in the boot priority, the fact that you have your old OS disk with a boot.ini as the secondary disk, shouldn't make any difference.

Ah, makes sense.