Quick question on SATA or IDE

TemplarBarna

I'm putting a new pc together and don't fully understand my options around what type of HDD to get...

SATA is new and faster, but I've heard it's not good to have the OS on...why is this??

Are there HDD out there that can be connected either by SATA or IDE...

Could I have one hard drive connected with SATA and the other (an older one from previous pc) conncected by IDE ??

Appreciate your thoughts..

T>

Creamy Goodness

TemplarBarna wrote:

Could I have one hard drive connected with SATA and the other (an older one from previous pc) conncected by IDE ??

yes you can i have mine set up like that

one 36gig raptor SATA drive (houses my OS and Program Files eg.Winamp).

one 120gig IBM IDE drive (houses my mp3's videos games and other things).

stuey

the reason why people say(it think) not to have the OS on a S-ATA drive is incase your pc gets messed up. Going into DOS becomes very hard cause yous dos bootdisk must have the S-ATA drivers as well. I think the only reason then is just incase something happens. Otherwise its no problem.

If you had a raptor as a system disk(ie all installed apllications and stuff) and another hard drive(s) for everything else (i.e my doucments, email, games, install files for applications) it makes your pc a lot easier to restore in case the OS gets messed up

fcukme

I think at one stage maxtor was making a hdd with both connections but i'm not a 100% sure, thats if you can stick the noise of the maxtor drives.

Also i would avoid the 36gig raptor, its the first gen 10,000 model and the 74 gig is much faster. (sorry Cremo) Thats if you afford the price tag.

To be honest SATA is not that much faster yet as the speed of the drives is holding back the connection. It is a lot neater with the smaller cables and this can help airflow if your thinking of overclocking.

The best bet is the 160gig 7,200 WD SATA, much better value for money and partiton it up. There is no problem running IDE and SATA together, but if the IDE is old, it will slow things a bit, but it would be prob alright for storage mp3 , vids etc...

GoneShootin

TemplarBarna wrote:

I
Could I have one hard drive connected with SATA and the other (an older one from previous pc) conncected by IDE ??

Depends on the mobo dunnit ?

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=303313&view=detailed

Storage Controller Serial ATA ( Serial ATA-150 )
Storage Controller (2nd) IDE ( ATA-100 )

TemplarBarna

thanks for the feedback..

The mobo will be Abit IC7

So the current plan is to install a new 200Gb SATA drive and transfer my older IDE drive..

Must find out more about this partitioning stuff....if I partition my 200Gb drive and I have to restore the OS at some stage, does this mean I lose all data on the drive??

neGev

Nope, just the data on the partition you decide to reformat.

TemplarBarna

nice one. thanks.....

next question...do I need special software for partitioning??

jozi

There is special software available for it, partition magic it think it called.
You get the option of making partitions when you install windows.
Dont forget to have your sata drivers ready when installing windows, press F6 (i think) somewhere at the sart of setup when it propts you.

Jozi

fcukme

You can only reformat a partition when installing windows, the program MS provides for free is fdisk. It's alright but any time you need to do anything basic or make more partitions, you'll lose all your data.

Partition magic 8 is much better although its not free. A demo is available that lets you see how things are done but wont actually do them till you part with $$$.

You can install windows on the 200gig and then install and run PM and partition up the hdd without losing data. Also has a lot easier to use if your new to partitioning.

fcukme

One other small point. For a free speed increase install windows on the first partition you create and make it fairly small no bigger than say 15gig(depending on the size of the apps you install, put all your games on another partition).

This results in shorter seek times for the hdd, because all the OS stuff is closest to the physical centre of the hdd. Like a cd-r, hdd fill form the centre out. If you don't partition your OS and apps will be all over the drive and hence longer seek times.

Prior Of Taize

I got S-ATA drivers with my K8N Neo Platinum board and they wont even install...

Im running a 160Gb for Windows, 2x200Gb S-ATA for storage and an extra 80Gb IDE and i have never had a problem.

The only suggestion would be to plug out the S-ATA drives when your installing windows because in my case the drive letters were confuzzled

ViperVenoM

ive just purchased my first sata drive..i hope iim not gonna get all that crap when i come to reinstalling windows

jor el

I just got a K8N Neo platinum too and tried installing Win XP on the S-ATA disk. Press F6 at boot to specify additional drivers and insert the included floppy. It picked up the 200G disk, partitioned and formated it then began to copy all files to the new partition. Then after the reboot I get an error somethjing like 'Error loard operating system' and no more.

I ended up installing on the older ATA133 drive instead, which is not much of a problem I just wanted a clean install on a blank drive.

I didn't think there should be any problem booting from S-ATA but maybe this mobo has.

jozi

You'll have to change some setting in the bios, no experience with msi so cant really help.
I know on abit you have to set the sata priority over ide, my asus is set to boot from scsi drive or boot other device not sure but it works as i only have sata drives.
Try installing it again if you have time and feel like doing it.

Jozi

Prior Of Taize

just dont even bother installing windows on a s-ata drive....

byte

Hmm, I've a new K8N Neo Platinum, and installed OS (XP Pro) on the SATA drive. I just booted from the XP disc and installed it from there. I didnt install Sata drivers though. Maybe I'm missing something?

astrofool

the outside of a hard drive, like a cd, is the fastest point.

Rotation speed remains the same all the time, 7200/10000 rpm, so in one revolution at the centre it covers about say 3cm, while in one revolution at the edge it will cover vastly more (about 25 times more if my geometry is correct, given 1cm at centre and 5cm at edge radius wise).