Sata master slave settings

[Guest]

Can you have a SATA slave that has an operating system on it? I am just trying to copy files to the master and then reformat, but the "slave" has an OS because I moved it from another computer.

 

[Boxa786]

There is no master or slave for sata, you simply install the first (boot with os drive) in the first sata port, but even then you can choose which hard drive to boot from in bios.

Another option is to press an f key during post bios and choose which hard drive to boot from.

 

[Paperdoc]

Boxa786 is right, there is NO Master or Slave for SATA. Some SATA drives actually have jumpers on them, but do NOT change them unless you know what they are for!

If all you want to do is mount a SATA drive containing both an OS and data as a second drive in a machine that already has an OS in its first drive, just go ahead. The second drive will just be treated as a data storage device UNLESS you specifically go into the BIOS Setup screens and tell it to try to boot from the new second drive.