Re: What is Serial ATA?
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That is most helpful. Any comments on ease and simplicity of installation for a first time SATA user?
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I just built a new computer and both hard drives are SATA. I had hell with the first one, but I eventually figured out it was a dead hard drive. After figuring this out, I am using just the second drive while the first gets replaced. Setup of the second drive went pretty smoothly. The only thing to be aware of is if you are planning to boot from the SATA drive, you will need to install the SATA drivers for your motherboard before installing windows. When you boot to the Windows install CD, watch for it to ask you to press F6 to install SCSI drivers. Press F6 here and insert the floppy with your SATA drivers on it. Otherwise, I think it should be the same as setting up a PATA drive. This may not even apply to you since it sounds like you'll be adding it as an additional storage drive.
Power is also worth mentioning. One of my SATA drives had both a SATA-specific power plug and a standard molex power plug. If you drive has both, only connect one or the other. Connecting both can damage the drive. I believe my Maxtor only had the SATA plug on it, but I don't remember for sure. If this is the case, make sure your power supply has the correct plug available.
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