Re: SATA Drive installation by Paul
Paul
Thu Jun 26 21:44:17 PDT 2008
attilathehun1 wrote:
> Well, I'm almost forced into using this SATA drive, it's a SAMSUNG Spinpoint
> SP1614C with a SATA connector. I found out later that it didn't have IDE
> connectors, so I put it into a box and stacked it with other devices in the
> closet. Well, I'm finally using it. The reason I'm forced into using this
> drive is because this new mobo GIGABYTE S-Series GA-EP35C-DS3R has one IDE
> connector and 4 SATA connectors, or 6 SATA connectors and 2 GSATA connectors
> or 3 yellow boxes and 1 purple box connector. I figure the yellow connectors
> each can take 2 cords. So, we have it 6 regular and 2 extra-regular SATA mobo
> connectors.
> I"m loading up, or building a brand new DIY PC. It wasn't supposed to be
> that way, just a Dell 8300 upgrade, but the only thing I'm using from the
> Dell 8300 PC is a couple of expansion card, and maybe an optical drive.
> My question is; do I have to configure anything while the Windows XP Pro
> edition OS is loading up during the initial installation? A brand new drive
> with a operating system that I bought from a PC store for about $150 bucks a
> year and a half ago. So the OS isn't Dell's or HP's or wtf's. The OS is
> bought from Microsoft, I guess.
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
> Thanks, attilathehun1
The simplest procedure would be -
1) Go to Advanced BIOS Features, and change the boot order to
"floppy, cdrom, hard drive". That way, when a CDROM isn't in
the tray, the boot order will automatically go to the hard drive.
The default order shown in the manual, of "floppy, hard drive, cdrom",
doesn't make a lot of sense to me, and it should be fixed.
2) Next, go to Integrated Peripherals and set "SATA Port 0-3 Native Mode"
to enabled. This will use the Microsoft built-in (PCI bus) SATA driver,
which is present in WinXP SP1 or later. The Samsung drive can be connected to
SATAII_0 or SATAII_1. The BIOS doesn't seem to have a setting that
affects SATAII_4 and SATAII_5, but that will remain an issue for
another day. I presume they at least run in Native Mode, if no RAID
is being used.
3) Don't forget to "Save and Exit" as you leave the BIOS, as you want the
changed settings to be saved, before the computer POSTs again.
4) Boot the computer with the WinXP CD and do your install. I'm hoping your
CD in this case, is at least at Service Pack 1 (SP1). If the WinXP CD
doesn't have a Service Pack, then you'll need a new plan. But the CD
you've got, would have to be pretty old, to be missing any Service Pack.
Now, it helps to know what Service Pack is present on the CD. Chances are,
the Windows CD you bought, is recent enough to have some Service Pack
incorporated. If the CD was at SP1, then you'd want to install
SP2 (or SP3) next. Then, I'd insert the motherboard CD, after SP2 is installed,
and install the chipset drivers. Then the video card driver CD can be
installed. After that, it is time to check what is left over or
doesn't look right in Device Manager.
If your WinXP CD has SP2 on it, then you could do the motherboard CD
and its chipset drivers, right after Windows has booted from the hard
drive.
Paul