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Well I have been having some issues with my computer locking up so I decided to reinstall windows. I've also been looking at getting one of the new serial ATA hard drives. While at CompUSA I saw the two currently on the market:
Seagate Barracuda 8mb cache 7,200RPM Western Digital Raptor 8mb cache 10,000RPM
Comp-jew-sa sells them in a retail package with a serial ATA PCI card for about $250-$300. I checked newegg.com and bought the WD drive only for $140. It carries a full three year warranty from Western Digital (retail box is a 5 year). It's funny that a serial ATA card cost close to $100 when the Asus A7N8X Deluxe MB is about $120 and it comes with serial ATA (I still highly recommend this board).
I hooked everything up last night and let me just say this sucker is fast..... I installed windows start to finish in 12 minutes! Some reviews talked about a high pitch whine coming from the drive but I haven't noticed it. It's almost as fast as SCSI drives in tests... Review
And Chad I almost bought the Seagate this time because the western is only offered in 36GB - but the reviews weren't all that great for it and it's only 7,200RPM.
posted
Needed yet another hard drive for video files. Stopped by TranMicro and got a Seagate 80gig SATA model 7200.7. So far I like the drive. Not as fast as the WD Raptor but still very fast (bursts to 150mbit/sec).
Last week I also picked up a couple Intel 1000speed network cards ($34) and made a crossover cable to network the two computers I use for DVD ripping. Works over existing copper Cat5 cables. WOW that's fast for file transfer. It used to take about 1 hour to transfer a 9gig DVD file, now it's down to about 3 minutes. Be awhile before a hub is affordable in that speed tho.
Posts: 5484 | From: St. Paul, Mn | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
is it true that you need a working floppy to install a SATA HD on windows XP?
Posts: 486 | From: Eagan, MN | Registered: Oct 2000
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I'm trying to install XP on the puter I helped my friend with. In Bios I see the harddrive, but when I start the install, XP loads the files, and then asks if you want a install, or to recover, Hit enter for install, and it doesn't detect a HD?? Am I missing a step because this is a SATA????
Posts: 2469 | From: Anchorage, AK | Registered: Oct 2001
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1)Load the SATA drivers onto a floppy disk. They are either on the install CD that came with the motherboard or you will need to get them from the motherboards website.
2)Right at the beginning of XP installation - at the bottom of the blue screen it says hit f5 (or f6 I can't remember) to load 3rd party SCSI drivers..... Follow the directions to install the SATA drivers. Windows will then be able to see the drive.
Posts: 5484 | From: St. Paul, Mn | Registered: Apr 2002
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OK that worked. Actually got thru the SATA driver setup. Started installing windows. About 10% was installed and bam!!!! the computer shut down/Monitor reset. Didnt fire back up, green light is still on MB, Pwr button on computer now does nothing????
WTF??
HELP
Posts: 2469 | From: Anchorage, AK | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
Good to hear you figured it out. Are you working today? Or is it another Alaska holiday?
Posts: 5484 | From: St. Paul, Mn | Registered: Apr 2002
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No I'm at work, my friend just had dialup at home, so we did it here, so we could do all the security updates once installed. I was working & doing his install at the same time.
J.
Posts: 2469 | From: Anchorage, AK | Registered: Oct 2001
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Some reviews talked about a high pitch whine coming from the drive but I haven't noticed it. It's almost as fast as SCSI drives in tests... 
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