How to make my SATA drive C:\ ?

[jcarle]

What a lot of you are forgotting is that even though you can often set the boot order, it will not change the order in which Windows detects the controllers, which can sometimes be an issue for installing on a drive connected to a controller which is detected in a secondary or tertiary position.

[DeaDruiD]

migrate.inf is the key

[cyberloner]

having that problem before too... no solution... IDE always the 1st one...

same thing is happen to intel board as well...

sata harddisk is using stimulate ide mode and always second....

[Maxwellg18]

what i would recommand doing is if the install of windows is on the IDE hdd is use norton ghost and copying everyhting to the SATA hdd there is a good chance that the directory eill change because windows boot off of %system root% if the sys root is on the SATA it may change the drive to C:\ instade of it being D:\

if that don't work i'd follow everybody tip of unplugging the IDE hdd and install windows onto it

[jcarle]

what i would recommand doing is if the install of windows is on the IDE hdd is use norton ghost and copying everyhting to the SATA hdd there is a good chance that the directory eill change because windows boot off of %system root% if the sys root is on the SATA it may change the drive to C:\ instade of it being D:\

if that don't work i'd follow everybody tip of unplugging the IDE hdd and install windows onto it

That's lot of work when simply unplugging the IDE drive is a garanteed solution. There are no BIOS settings to control controller detection order by Windows so the only way to force it to go on the drive you want is to make no other drives available. Also, note that disabling IDE in the BIOS will make the SATA controller become first and may cause the drive to become unbootable if you enable the IDE controller afterwards. That's why it's important to only unplug the IDE drive instead of disabling the controller as this will allow Windows to see the IDE controller as first, see no drives, detect the SATA controller as 2nd and install knowning that it's on the 2nd controller from the get-go.

[mara-]

what i would recommand doing is if the install of windows is on the IDE hdd is use norton ghost and copying everyhting to the SATA hdd there is a good chance that the directory eill change because windows boot off of %system root% if the sys root is on the SATA it may change the drive to C:\ instade of it being D:\

if that don't work i'd follow everybody tip of unplugging the IDE hdd and install windows onto it

That's lot of work when simply unplugging the IDE drive is a garanteed solution. There are no BIOS settings to control controller detection order by Windows so the only way to force it to go on the drive you want is to make no other drives available. Also, note that disabling IDE in the BIOS will make the SATA controller become first and may cause the drive to become unbootable if you enable the IDE controller afterwards. That's why it's important to only unplug the IDE drive instead of disabling the controller as this will allow Windows to see the IDE controller as first, see no drives, detect the SATA controller as 2nd and install knowning that it's on the 2nd controller from the get-go.

This is not true, I have in my ASUS motherboard option to force SATA disk to be first detected by Windows.

Cheers

[jcarle]

This is not true, I have in my ASUS motherboard option to force SATA disk to be first detected by Windows.

Cheers

Okay, then it's exceptional. I've never heard of that before. What motherboard do you have?

[ricktendo]

I have asus also, what I do now is go into my bios and disable the IDE drive (this does not stop windows setup from seeing it, it works too)

[mara-]

I have ASUS P5LD2-X/1333 and here are some screen shot's:

Here I choose Hard Drives:

And then as 1st drive I select my SATA disk and Windows will assign it letter C:\ on the installation of Windows.

Cheers

[runningwithscissorsstudios]

Okay, forgive me if I am misunderstanding you here, but isn't it a driver issue that is stopping XP from installing on your SATA drive?

First of all, have you slipstreamed your xp disk to include SATA drivers for your mobo, or do you have a floppy disk with your SATA drivers on it so you can let XP utilize your SATA drive? Your BIOS may recognize your SATA drive, but XP doesn't necessarily have the ability to install onto a disk it doesn't have the drivers for the controller for.....this is why you press F6 during XP installation to install SATA drivers at the early stages of XP installation. You can also slipstream your SATA drivers onto the XP disk so you don't need a floppy to do this, but this is a bit more advanced, it is easier to just get a floppy drive. I know that's a dumb idea, floppy drives are a thing of the past, but that's how microsoft wants you to do it with XP.

You should be able to specify to install onto your SATA drive AFTER XP has the drivers for your SATA disk.

As for making your SATA disk drive C, can't you just edit your boot.ini file? If all else fails, just remove your IDE drive and install with only your SATA drive present. That HAS to work.

Good luck!

[mara-]

You totally got it wrong. He does not have problems with drivers. Problem is that Windows during installation always attach C:\ to IDE drive and not to SATA.

As for making your SATA disk drive C, can't you just edit your boot.ini file?

No way you can do that.

Cheers

[jcarle]

I have ASUS P5LD2-X/1333 and here are some screen shot's:

Here I choose Hard Drives:

And then as 1st drive I select my SATA disk and Windows will assign it letter C:\ on the installation of Windows.

Cheers

Um... okay, you've proved to me that I was right. There are NO BIOS OPTIONS TO CONTROL THE CONTROLLER DETECTION ORDER. You have it very clearly in your screenshot in big bold white letters, it is the BOOT DEVICE PRIORITY, it does NOT control the order in which Windows will detect controllers. This is very apparent on older motherboards where the SATA controller was an on-board chip and not part of the southbridge where as modern motherboards have it the other way around, SATA in the southbridge and IDE on on-board chips.

[mara-]

No, no, I just selected wrong on picture. I choose option under that, the option "Hard Disk Drives". Maybe you are right about detection, but when I choose here as first drive my IDE disk, Windows Setup will assign C:\ to it, and when I select as first drive my SATA disk, Windows Setup will assign C:\ to SATA.

Cheers

[flywelder]

Hello, I need advice on if i should choose a SATA drive to replace my parallel IDE hard drive.

today is Friday 10-10-08. I am facing the reality that I need a larger hard drive than the 30 gig I am currently using, as updates to programs and virus protection ect, are eating up the hard drive space and I have left, only 12% free.

I read all the posts I could find on the SATA drive issue becoming the C drive. I am still at a lost to the question of, can I make a SATA drive be the C drive or not. ..............

and will I be able to then make the current C drive ( the 30 gig) become a second or slave drive.

For I would like to buy a new 500 Gig Western Digital SATA HDD. that is on mark down this week end, before the sale ends this weekend, and i would like to install it, to be my main drive ( drive C ), and just copy over the files from the 30 gig to this new drive.

Or is my only and best option for me, to order a 320 Gig IDE hard drive and forget modernizing to a SATA drive?

My mother board is a MSI, V class, model PM8M-V. It has two IDE ports and two SATA ports. Currently, I am using both IDE ports and none of the SATA ports.

note: that i am not a computer guru, just a home owner who turns the computer on, and serfs the web and attempting to update his desk top computer.

Can i do what i want without much hassle and technical. experience? How would i go about this ( what steps would i follow?)

Thanks all, I greatly appreciate your individual help, and I await your replies.