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Setting up SATA

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Bar

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Aug 17, 2004
I have 2 200gb SATA hard drives on my new computer is there any special drivers or anything i need? if so when do i install them?

Thanks :burn:
 
No, unless you're running them in a RAID. But you will need to change settings in your BIOS to run either SATA only, or some sort of combined mode if you plan on using IDE drives (HD or CD rom).
 
yup as sucka said it is sometimes an issue with the bios reading it. Also, sometimes windows will read it, but not in my computer. Usually it needs to be formated via adminstrator tools.
 
I have 2 SATA hard drives and a DVD ROM what would you suggest I do?
 
We need to know a bit more about your setup:

1.) What brand of drives are they?

2.) What kind of computer are you running them on?

3.) What kind of SATA controller are you using? (The hardware, either a PCI card or integrated into your motherboard, which reads/runs the SATA devices)

4.) Do you want to use RAID? If you need info regarding RAID, read here .

Hope to hear from you soon,

Odie :)
 
The drivers are usually on your MB CD (unless you're using an add in card). You need to put them on a floppy disk (I've heard you can install them from a virtual floppy drive, but I've never tried it myself). When you boot from your OS CD (Win2k, NT4, or XP, I've never tried using SATA drives with WinME, 98SE, or Linux), you'll see at the bottom of the screen "press F6 to specify additional raid or SCSI drivers". Hit F6 a few times. The setup won't give you any confirmation that you're going to be loading any drivers at this point. You'll reach the screen where Windows asks you if you want to install, and to hit "Enter" if you want to. It should then go to the EULA and ask you to hit "F8", if you agree to the terms of the EULA. Setup should then tell you that you requested to install additional SCSI or RAID drivers, and to hit "S" to specify the driver. Once you hit "S" it will ask you to put in the floppy you made earlier with the drivers and hit "Enter". You must now choose the driver for your particular OS, and hit "Enter". Once it loads the driver, it will ask you again if you want to load more drivers (in case you're installing with multiple SCSI or RAID adapters) or just hit "Enter" to continue with the set up. Once you've loaded the driver, hit "Enter". Setup will then search for a previous version of Windows (incase you're doing a repair of windows or to warn you that you're going to overwrite a previous installation). If the drives are blank, just hit "Enter", and continue the install as normal. It'll ask about partitioning, etc...

If setup doesn't ask you for the RAID or SCSI driver, you missed hitting "F6", or the system didn't register the keystroke (reboot and start over from the beginning). If You load a driver, and it tells you that it can't find a HDD, you installed the wrong driver, or the driver you installed is corrupt (DL the latestest drivers for your SATA controller and try again).

hope this helps.
 
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