Re: Fitting a SATA disk on pre-SATA motherboard

On Mon, 07 Aug 2006 16:29:41 +0100, Jim Howes <sewoh.mij@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Thanks for your response Jim.

[snip]

Is he expecting to boot from the drive?
If so, the controller card will need an onboard BIOS, which many have, and he
will have to reinstall his operating system (assuming it's windows) as not doing
so will result in a blue screen STOP 0x0000007B Inaccessible_boot_device crash
at startup.
If it's a data disk only, then it's just a matter of loading drivers, and
persuading the BIOS not to try and boot from it.

I think that he will use it as a data disk. Presumably the controller card will come with a disk for the drivers. Is it likely that the BIOS will try to boot from it?

[snip]


Some SATA drives have a receptacle for the four-pin drive power connector, you
can use either (but not both).

It is possible to get adapters which simply change the connector format, and
this will work with MOST SATA drives. The SATA standard supplies 3.3V to the
drive on a fifth wire, as well as the usual two grounds and +5V / +12V. I do
not know of any drives that actually _require_ the +3.3V line, but they will
come, eventually, I expect.

I've seen those converter dongles but it's not always clear whether they are for converting a SATA disk to an IDE interface, or vice versa - or maybe that doesn't matter because they work either way round? I'm concerned that they seem to stick out some way from the back of the disk and may get in the way and be vulnerable when I'm mucking about inside the PC - or even that there won't be enough room for one.

Am I right in thinking that the controller card may be the most elegant, albeit most expensive, option?

Cheers

--
Steve
.

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