SATA Setup questions

[JawZ]

What cluster size should I select? The Seagate Disc Wizard gives me a few choices...default/512 bytes/1 KB/2 KB/4 KB....I have chosen 4 KB....this will be a WinXP install using NTFS.

TIA

PS.....this is a 120GB SATA drive and I will partition into 20GB partitions.

[RoundEye]

4k is the default. Any larger and you'll have to use Norton's to defrag the drive.

[JawZ]

Thanks RE.....now I'm having new problems. This is a new comp from the ground up. I did the disc wizard setup, partitioned the drive, set the cluster size and attempted to install WinXP. It says that there is no hard drive being detected. I'm not going to run a RAID setup on this....I'm just using one SATA drive. When WinXP first starts it asks for a RAID driver....on my third attempt I decided to go in there just to see if it will allow me to install the drivers for the SATA HDD.....where do I get them? The BIOS also doesn't say anything about the HDD although it is recognized in the first boot screen. I can see the drives model number. Since it isn't an IDE device, when I enter the BIOS...there are of course no other IDE devices other than the CD-RW drive which is set to Primary/Master.

Hmmmmmmm

[Humboldt]

What kind of connection is it if it's not IDE? What's SATA?

Sorry I can't help but am curious now:)

[RoundEye]

Go to the mobo's site, download the drivers and put them on a floppy. Press F6 at the start of the install and put the floppy in the drive. It'll guide you from there.

[RoundEye]

I'm in the process of setting up my two new Raptors in a raid zero right now. :D

[JawZ]

Well....I'm done. Whew!

I got the drivers from the Silicon Image site and it was pretty easy from there on out.

I can't believe the speed of this thing!

:D :D :D

I'll be throwing up some benchmarks this weekend.

Transferring all my crap from the old comp to the new is gonna be fun.....LOL

Now that I have it all together and working....it's time to tweak and mod a bit. I need to get some rounded IDE cables because I want to maximize the airflow in the case and clean it up a bit. I also need to buy a DVD-ROM or a DVD-RW drive....forgot to buiy it when I was building this thing.

It is extremely quiet....I'm liking this Sonata case.;)

[JawZ]

Originally posted by Humboldt
What kind of connection is it if it's not IDE? What's SATA?

Sorry I can't help but am curious now:)

Serial ATA...it's a new interface boasting new data transfer speeds.....theoretical 150MB's per sec although it aint happening right now. This is new technology and it's still in it's infancy.

[Cypher]

UOD
Also right click C:\ in windows, go to properties and hit the hardware tab. Highlight the SATA drive on the list and hit the properties button. Hit the SCSI properties tab and make sure you untick:
_Disable tagged queuing.
_Disable synchronous queuing.
These should only be ticked if you begin to experience performance issues with your drive. That sould yeild a little more speed/performance for you if they needed t be unticked. Also the Uber BIOS 1002sa has a modified SATA driver built into it.
Well hope this helps. Keep crankin' out them tunes.:D

[JawZ]

Originally posted by cyPHer_138
UOD
Also right click C:\ in windows, go to properties and hit the hardware tab. Highlight the SATA drive on the list and hit the properties button. Hit the SCSI properties tab and make sure you untick:
_Disable tagged queuing.
_Disable synchronous queuing.
These should only be ticked if you begin to experience performance issues with your drive. That sould yeild a little more speed/performance for you if they needed t be unticked. Also the Uber BIOS 1002sa has a modified SATA driver built into it.
Well hope this helps. Keep crankin' out them tunes.:D

Thanks brother!!!!!

I must admit...I have been living in the dark ages of technology for some time now. I think I will start upgrading at least once a year to keep up with all the new stuff. This system just rocks!:D