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Modern Serial ATA implementations.

  • 11-08-2008 4:56am
    #1
    SeanW
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,159 ✭✭✭


    About a year or two ago, I upgraded the mainboard on my self-built rig to an nForce 4 chipped board from MSI.

    One of the main things that makes this board so much better than the last one, was the fact that it has Serial ATA channels set up as native IDE channels. Which means that installing Windows onto a Serial ATA hard drive is very easy, no need to mess with driver-floppies, and on the rare occasions that I've had to use bootup-based disk utilities, such as Partition Magic rescue disks, manufacturer HD utilities etc, they work. If I wanted to install an old OS, I could, and finally, at the present time, I do not have the motherboards chipset drivers installed in Windows. Any of them. Don't need 'em.

    But I was browsing Wikipedia not long ago and I found this in the article about Serial ATA.
    Wikipedia wrote:
    In early motherboard implementations of SATA, backward compatibility allowed SATA drives to be used as drop-in replacements for PATA drives, even without native (driver-level) support at the operating system level.
    WTF :confused: :mad: Why the **** would they drop something like that?

    Could someone who has got a new mobo or computer set up in, for example, the past year, enlighten me on how this has changed in the time since the days of the nF4? How is SATA implemented on modern boards?

    TIA


Comments

  • #2
    Cuddlesworth
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,012 ✭✭✭✭Cuddlesworth


    If you want to know why they dropped it, ask Microsoft.

    Tbh, its only very recently I have seen boards lack the ability to emulate an IDE channel on Sata. And with Xp sp2 and Vista both having default sata drivers on board it really only effects older OS installs or cd's.


  • #3
    Stephen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,484 ✭✭✭✭Stephen


    Using SATA in IDE emulation mode like that means you lose some of SATA's fancier features like native command queuing and hot plugging. Plus I imagine it is cheaper to manufacture hardware that only does AHCI mode rather than both.
    If you must install on older version of Windows you can still use the F6 floppy (although who has a floppy drive these days?) mode to get the SATA drivers onto it.


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