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"IDE and S-ATA"

Right, must be quick.

Just ordered a new S-ATA drive (200GB 7200.7 NCQ Barracuda) to expand upong the measly 40GB IDE I have now. It's got some pretty important files, plus an installation of Windows XP SP2.

Now, how should I set up the S-ATA, and are there different ways?

I want to keep my 40GB, btw.

Try Norton Ghost to transfer Windows.

Coin wrote:
> New question - how would I go about moving my Windows installation
> (create exact copy, including registry and stuff) to the new drive?

With extreme difficulty. I seem to remember various people saying it was impossible or at least very prone to failure. Having said that, I managed to do it recently to a Linux installation, but Linux is more suited to doing things like that.

Coin wrote:
> So removing the 40GB HDD drive would render Disc Access Times faster?

No, as in one on it's own is faster the a standard 7200 drive, as in noticeably faster.

New question - how would I go about moving my Windows installation (create exact copy, including registry and stuff) to the new drive?

ÂLŠ†ÂÎR wrote:
> One on it's own is certainly faster,

So removing the 40GB HDD drive would render Disc Access Times faster?

One on it's own is certainly faster, programs load a hell of a lot quicker, I am always on Counter-Strike maps roughly 10 seconds before most people (in the RAID), certainly far quicker. When you lob two in a RAID 0 though you are on fire. Defragging is electric, as is scan disk and installing Windows was at least twice as quick. They are that good.

BUT...

The massive draw back is obviously storage space. I only have 57GB free and I only have Steam with Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike Source at the moment with a Windows XP Pro rig that is completely gutted. Windows Media Player, Word XP and Quick Time are the biggest programs after that. Little progs like Power-Strip overclocking and Regcleaner are in there too but overall it is a machine that is completely gutted.

That is the only draw back though. The needles haven't broken, they are a lot quieter than people say (I just laid Akasa sound deadening material in the case and around the Hard Drive cage to pretty much eliminate additional noise).

If you are willing to spend the cash, definitely get them, performance wise they are far better than 7200 IDE drives and for gaming you won't get higher frame rates but you certainly get unbelievably smooth gameplay.

Do you think the raptor is worth the cash Ali? Im considering one, but if the speed difference is not that noticeable then i dont think i'll bother.

You don't need the drivers for a SATA driver just to install, login to Windows, for the full functionality of the drive you do. To take full advantage of the Raptor drives I need the RAID drivers installed but on their own as individual drives they boot into Windows and work like a standard IDE hard drive. This is using onboard SATA 0,1 connectors.

Make sure you plug it into the correct socket, i.e. the first non-RAID one.

Then use the motherboard CD to put the SATA Drivers on a floppy disk (again, use the motherboard manual to guide you through this). You may need them during installation if you don't have XP SP1 or greater on the CD.

Boot from the XP CD, and when prompted as the setup is loading, press F8 (I think) to "Install SCSI Devices...." - it's something like that, can't remember the exact wording. It might be F2 or F8, but it's the one that mentions SCSI.

Follow the instructions relating to the floppy disk you created earlier. Then proceed as normal - formatting as FAT32 or NTFS, whichever you prefer.

Sorry about not being entirely sure here, I'm trying to do it from memory and it's been a fair while since I've had to do this.

Cheers.

That it?