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[Solved] SATA Hard Drive

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toyotascionxd   11-12-2009 at 12:56:05 PM

The last time I installed a hard drive on my computer was way back in 2001. My hard drive was still connected using an IDE cable. I'm almost done building my own pc. If I install my SATA Hard Drive, do I still need to configure my bios so it would detect my hard drive? It would be great if new the newer motherboards can just detect the hard drive like a USB device.

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Best answer from Paperdoc
The core of this may be something new to OP. Back in 2001 with IDE (PATA) drives predominant, it was still common for the BIOS to ASSUME that the boot drive C: was the Master device on the Primary IDE port, although it probably had a place in BIOS where that could be changed. Now, however, systems so commonly have more than one HDD, and often both PATA and SATA controllers / ports. So it is important that OP go into the BIOS Setup screens and specifically set which HDD unit will be used to boot from. This is NOT the same as getting the BIOS to detect the HDD in the first place. (Oh, by the way, there are times also in BIOS when you MUST be sure that the ports you have connected your HDD to (in this case, SATA) are actually Enabled.) Look for the Boot Priority Sequence settings in your BIOS. I suggest setting the first device to your optical drive, wherever it is connected, and the second to your SATA HDD. In my own machine I have these as 2nd and 3rd choices after a floppy drive 1st (yes, I have one of those!)
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howardp6   11-12-2009 at 01:58:40 PM

What OS are you using? Windows XP does not have native drivers for SATA drives. You have to press F6 in Windows XP setup to load the drivers, if you want to want to to load the drivers via a floppy drive. You can configure the drive in your motherboards BIOS as IDE and not use the SATA drivers. Vista and Windows 7 allow you to load the SATA drivers via s USB flash drive.

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GhislainG   11-12-2009 at 01:59:48 PM

It might work, but since computers can support several hard disks, you often need to configure which one is the default boot unit. You normally want to boot from CD/DVD followed by the hard disk.

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Bronze Storage badge sub mesa   11-12-2009 at 02:20:04 PM

Why wouldn't your BIOS detect your device?

It would always detect your device, just if you are using an ancient operating system like Windows XP it wouldn't know native SATA mode - AHCI. If you use such old operating system, set it to IDE emulation mode like howardp6 said.

Windows Vista and 7 do not need any drivers for AHCI - only if you are using onboard RAID.

------------------------------ ...man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.
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GhislainG   11-12-2009 at 02:53:33 PM

While the BIOS will detect it, you can't be 100% sure that it will set the boot order correctly.

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Bronze Storage badge sub mesa   11-12-2009 at 02:57:10 PM

I can't make up from his story he will have more than one HDD in his new system; he only said he had an IDE (he means PATA) drive in his older system from 2001.

Either way, it will be detected; and simply entering the BIOS would allow setting the correct boot order.

------------------------------ ...man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.
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Bronze Storage badge Paperdoc   11-12-2009 at 03:51:00 PM
Best answer

The core of this may be something new to OP. Back in 2001 with IDE (PATA) drives predominant, it was still common for the BIOS to ASSUME that the boot drive C: was the Master device on the Primary IDE port, although it probably had a place in BIOS where that could be changed. Now, however, systems so commonly have more than one HDD, and often both PATA and SATA controllers / ports. So it is important that OP go into the BIOS Setup screens and specifically set which HDD unit will be used to boot from. This is NOT the same as getting the BIOS to detect the HDD in the first place. (Oh, by the way, there are times also in BIOS when you MUST be sure that the ports you have connected your HDD to (in this case, SATA) are actually Enabled.) Look for the Boot Priority Sequence settings in your BIOS. I suggest setting the first device to your optical drive, wherever it is connected, and the second to your SATA HDD. In my own machine I have these as 2nd and 3rd choices after a floppy drive 1st (yes, I have one of those!)

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