Quick HDD Question

OOAgent · Mar 27, 2007, 10:04 PM

im new to SATA, just got my first one in the mail, Western Digital. im about to format it, one of the reasons i bought it was for Vista, which i'll be getting next week. i want to format it as a boot drive for next week and keep XP on my current drive IDE drive. then the Data Lifeguard Tools program tells me: "All partitions containing data on the old boot drive will be migrated to the new drive." will i be able to still boot from this drive afterward? like through BIOs? thanks in advance.

Judas · Mar 27, 2007, 10:39 PM

Basically,

To keep both drives bootable portions intact with NO interaction is to probably install the drive, and then disable in the boot order and options for the IDE drive, and set the SATA drive to first boot. Make sure the IDE drive is unplugged BEFORE you start installing vista or vista's boot loader may screw something up you didn't want to happen.

One thing i might add, you MAY want to set the Asus AN8-E's nvidia SATA controler to ACIH (ACHI? ..spelling? ).... mode instead of Emulated IDE or Enchanced IDE or IDE mode.

This is meerly a suggestion so that you can take as much advantage of the SATA controller (using IDE mode results in all the limitations of IDE and disables all the features of SATA)

If you want to boot from the IDE drive again, just go into the bios again and change the IDE drive to first boot.

OOAgent · Mar 27, 2007, 11:04 PM

thank you for your response, just to clarify, format the hard drive as a boot drive and just change the boot priorities in BIOs?

like i said, this is my first SATA drive so im not familiar with the controller. is it found in BIOs? i looked around and didnt find anything. where is it located?

Judas · Mar 28, 2007, 01:27 AM

I beleive on that board it's listed on the first page of the bios, the additional settings may be located at the bottom in which there is a submenu (if i recall right)..

Basically yes, disconnect the IDE drive, set the SATA drive to boot, format/install windows, and when you done, plug the IDE drive back in, then depending on which one you want to boot from, set either as the primary boot hardrive.

Mar 27, 2007, 10:04 PM	#1
OOAgent DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Qrrbrbirlbel Posts: 69 Rep Power: 0	Quick HDD Question im new to SATA, just got my first one in the mail, Western Digital. im about to format it, one of the reasons i bought it was for Vista, which i'll be getting next week. i want to format it as a boot drive for next week and keep XP on my current drive IDE drive. then the Data Lifeguard Tools program tells me: "All partitions containing data on the old boot drive will be migrated to the new drive." will i be able to still boot from this drive afterward? like through BIOs? thanks in advance. __________________

Mar 27, 2007, 11:04 PM	Thread Starter #3
OOAgent DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Qrrbrbirlbel Posts: 69 Rep Power: 0	thank you for your response, just to clarify, format the hard drive as a boot drive and just change the boot priorities in BIOs? like i said, this is my first SATA drive so im not familiar with the controller. is it found in BIOs? i looked around and didnt find anything. where is it located? __________________