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Installing WinXP on SATA drives - specific drivers needed?

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by Christer, 2005/08/19.

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  1. 2005/08/23
    savagcl Lifetime Subscription

    savagcl Geek Member

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    From my hands-on experience, here is what i found (weather it holds true for
    all systems????),

    If you have 2 SATA's with 1 primary partition and 7 logicals,
    XP looks at them as basically 1 HD, (Disk0) setup as C Primary, D,E,F,G,H,I as
    logicals. I have only gone to 7 logicals. Larget partitions means less logicals.

    If you have 2 SATA's with 2 primary partitions and 3 logicals on each disk,
    Xp looks at them as 2 HD's (Disk0 and Disk1).

    I see no reason why you couldnt get the drive assignments to be in sequence
    using either scheme. Heres my HD layout - the only reason the "G" is there
    is its the protected partition from OEM, next fresh install and its gone.

    savagcl
     
    Last edited: 2008/09/17
    savagcl,
    #21
  2. 2005/08/23
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

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    clif,
    there are so many parameters to consider and I'm not surprized that on Your system, the SATA is not detected unless it has a primary partition.

    On a different system, PeteCs, the SATA is detected without a primary partition.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #22


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  4. 2005/08/23
    savagcl Lifetime Subscription

    savagcl Geek Member

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    True!

    example 1 above msg only has 1 primary with 2HDs.

    clif
     
    savagcl,
    #23
  5. 2005/08/29
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

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    A quote from one of my previous posts in this thread:

    I used my old IBM 60GXP (PATA not SATA) to check the impact of different partition types and cluster sizes on the performance of Ghost. A side effect is that I have verified that WinXP doesn't change drive letters for existing partitions like the old Win9X systems did. The partitions on the IBM 60GXP became F: and G: regardless of them being logical partitions within an extended or primary partitions or one of each. I missed the opportunity to make the primary partition on the IBM 60GXP active but I don't think that would have changed anything.

    Christer
     
    Last edited: 2005/08/29
    Christer,
    #24
  6. 2005/08/29
    savagcl Lifetime Subscription

    savagcl Geek Member

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    hrister,

    A clarification -

    Assuming 2 physical SATA HD's...

    1 Primary on Disk0.
    All logical partitions will belong (linked) to Disk0 (up to 7 logicals i think is max). Can be sequenced in drive letter assignments
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    2 Primaries, 1 on each HD (Disk0 and Disk1).
    All logical partitions will belong to the Primary located on same Disk (0 or 1)
    but can still be sequenced in drive letter assignments.
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Mixing a PATA and a SATA????????????????
    I have no idea what the scheme would be (sorry i cant help more).
    ----------------------------------------------------------------

    My drive letter assignments layout:
    DISK0:
    C (pri), D, E, F, G(FAT32, Hidden Recovery partition)
    DISK1:
    H (pri, FAT32), I, J, K, L

    Not much help for mixing drive types but,
    savagcl
     
    savagcl,
    #25
  7. 2005/08/29
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

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    clif,

    The way I understand it, a Primary is a Primary and Logicals "belong" within an Extended.

    Primary and Extended never meet, unless You are using Partition Magic which makes a mess of the nomenclature. There is no such thing as a "Primary Extended" and PM labeling unpartitioned space as Primary is also adding to the confusion.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #26
  8. 2005/08/29
    savagcl Lifetime Subscription

    savagcl Geek Member

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    Christer,

    True about the extended containing logicals.

    I use Acronis Disk Director to setup the Primaries, Logicals, not PM.
    The 2 primaries i have are the ones that show in the MS Disk Manager. I'm
    assuming that if MS says Primary, thats what they mean (but, who knows) :)

    savagcl
     
    savagcl,
    #27
  9. 2005/08/29
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

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    clif,
    I believe that Microsoft use the correct nomenclature, well, in this case at least ...... :eek: ...... !

    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #28
  10. 2005/09/15
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

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    By me in an earlier post:

    Yesterday, I installed a new system with two SATAs. The one on channel 1 has one primary and one extended with a logical. The one on channel 2 has an extended with two logicals.

    I got away with it ...... :cool: ...... or rather without it ...... :p ...... and my faith in SATA has been restored!

    Christer

    By the way, the "partition naming convention" discussion came up at RADIFIED in PARTITIONS: Partition Magic. Scroll down to replies by Dan Goodell for an excellent explanation.
     
    Christer,
    #29
  11. 2005/09/15
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    Interesting thread.
    I myself have installed xp on satas w/out any issues.
    I only ever use one primary partition, the os partition.
    Sunsequent drives always are just extended w/ logicals within it.
    I've been lucky in that the stock xp sata controllers have always worked w/ the sata drives I installed on, oem systems that I wiped and installed fresh.

    I did however have an issue once with Norton Ghost 2003 being unable to work properly using a Ghost boot floppy. I had to enter a switch -NOIDE in order for Ghost to save the image to a partition on a sata drive.

    On another note, what are the advantages of sata over ide?
     
    TonyT,
    #30
  12. 2005/09/15
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

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    As I understand it, the (current) performance advantages are small (insignificant?). If You are "performance oriented ", be careful when choosing model. I once had the opportunity to compare a Hitachi 7K250 PATA with a Seagate 7200.7 SATA. It was not even a contest. The Hitachi PATA easily outperformed the Seagate SATA. (This was while setting up a new system, transferring data from the old. Large number of files of varying sizes.)

    On the positive side:

    - The cables can be longer.
    - The cables are thinner and are a lesser obstruction to airflow.

    On the negative side:

    - The cables and connectors are less sturdy and have to be handled carefully.
    - SATA drives prompt a higher degree of creativity during installation. (People do have "all kinds" of problems.)

    On the neutral side:

    - SATA is the future, PATA will be phased out in due course.
    - The price premium for SATA is history. Maybe a few percent but not enough to be a deciding factor against SATA.

    I usually recommend:

    - Building a new system, SATA
    - Upgrading an older system that has PATA, stick with PATA.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #31
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