want to format c, not an option on boot disc

[BC_Programmer]

Excellent, your welcome, congratulations, and good job! 

[Computer_Commando]

Yes it is. But the windows CD is an OS and it does boot and if it doesn't have the drivers to see the SATA drive, it won't.

This is why there is a compatibility option for the SATA ports in the first place; so that older OS's will find them as IDE drives.


Additionally, without SATA drivers, the OS will not function.(unless SATA has been set to compatibility mode) Vista has this support built in; and if I disable compatibility mode on my laptop, it works fine. however, neither of my XP installs will boot if I do that (BSOD: UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME) since they do not have the Toshiba SATA chipset drivers installed.

No disrespect, just want to learn something, am relatively new to SATA.

That's not quite how it worked for me.  On my "old" P4 with new SATA HDD, I booted DOS FDD,  ran Norton Ghost v7.0 and restored entire XP image created from my "new" P4 and stored on external USB/IEEE1394 combo-drive.  It booted right up with no issues, probably since both are similar, but not exact, socket 775 P4's.  Some video and audio drivers needed to be installed, but most everything else, plugged 'n played.

No SATA drivers were required, only DOS drivers for 1394 drive.  I boot to DOS FDD or DOS CD every 2 weeks to Ghost image backup the "new" P4, but sometimes I have to boot twice in order for the 1394 drive to be "seen".  "Old" P4 is about 4 years old; "New" P4 is 1 year old; same for BIOS for both, 4 & 1.

Also, I am using no SATA drivers in Windows XP.  I suppose that's because my BIOS is "handling" it?  I'm on my "new" P4 right now which has an IDE hard drive.

I suspect the issue with your laptop is the Toshiba chipset which is very proprietary compared to VIA, etc.

[BC_Programmer]

everything used by windows is accessed through virtual device drivers. the BIOS is never used past the boot process; the entire Interrupt table is superceded by Windows and it routes the calls (even to BIOS functions directly in DOS programs) to the appropriate Device Driver. This way, windows can handle, for example, multiple DOS programs contending for the serial port, in a consistent fashion, instead of relying on possibly buggy and unexpected behaviour from BIOS routines.


the chipset drivers contain the SATA drivers; If the imaged OS drive had chipset drivers installed, then that would include the SATA functionality.

[fgdn17]

so as BC_Programmer said...xp needs the SATA drivers....

[fgdn17]

No disrespect, just want to learn something, am relatively new to SATA.

That's not quite how it worked for me.  On my "old" P4 with new SATA HDD, I booted DOS FDD,  ran Norton Ghost v7.0 and restored entire XP image created from my "new" P4 and stored on external USB/IEEE1394 combo-drive.  It booted right up with no issues, probably since both are similar, but not exact, socket 775 P4's.  Some video and audio drivers needed to be installed, but most everything else, plugged 'n played.

No SATA drivers were required, only DOS drivers for 1394 drive.  I boot to DOS FDD or DOS CD every 2 weeks to Ghost image backup the "new" P4, but sometimes I have to boot twice in order for the 1394 drive to be "seen".  "Old" P4 is about 4 years old; "New" P4 is 1 year old; same for BIOS for both, 4 & 1.

Also, I am using no SATA drivers in Windows XP.  I suppose that's because my BIOS is "handling" it?  I'm on my "new" P4 right now which has an IDE hard drive.

I suspect the issue with your laptop is the Toshiba chipset which is very proprietary compared to VIA, etc.

because when you ghosted it it also ghosted the SATA drivers that were part of your installed OS...

[Computer_Commando]

everything used by windows is accessed through virtual device drivers. the BIOS is never used past the boot process; the entire Interrupt table is superceded by Windows and it routes the calls (even to BIOS functions directly in DOS programs) to the appropriate Device Driver. This way, windows can handle, for example, multiple DOS programs contending for the serial port, in a consistent fashion, instead of relying on possibly buggy and unexpected behaviour from BIOS routines.


the chipset drivers contain the SATA drivers; If the imaged OS drive had chipset drivers installed, then that would include the SATA functionality.

I'm not a programmer, but I understand the lingo.  I'm a hardware guy (EE), who used to design computers for the SW guys to program.  The funny thing is, the imaged drive has SATA ports, but no SATA HDD attached.  When the initial install was performed it had a SATA CDROM and an IDE HDD and the image was created from this config.

Actually, SATA chipsets are different on the P4's
New P4:  Via VT8237A
Old P4:  Intel ICH6

Main chipsets are different, too.
New P4:  Via P4M890
Old P4:  Intel 915P

So we have Via to Intel, which usually doesn't  "fly" when image transferring.  Maybe I got lucky?   Maybe WinXP SP3 is smart enough to provide generic drivers, like it does for IDE?

BTW, I'm sticking with WinXP, until I see how Win7 plays.  I do not like Vista.

[BC_Programmer]

or SATA was set to "compatibility" the entire time, as opposed to AHCI.

[Computer_Commando]

or SATA was set to "compatibility" the entire time, as opposed to AHCI.

i.e., AHCI as opposed to IDE Emulation (or Compatibility)

That may explain the "strange" BIOS configuration in the "old" P4.

When "On-Chip Serial ATA" is set to Enhanced, PATA & SATA are both enabled.

Standard BIOS Features indicate:
Primary IDE Master
Secondary IDE Master
SATA #1 Master
SATA #3 Slave
SATA #2 Master
SATA #4 Slave

Therefore, Compatibility=Enhanced (that was obvious, LOL)

When "On-Chip Serial ATA" is set to Auto, PATA & SATA are arranged by BIOS.
When "On-Chip Serial ATA" is set to Combined, PATA & SATA are combined.

Don't see any difference in these two except the Features list is different from the "Enhanced".  Computer still boots.

"New" P4 SATA controller is set to IDE (default), only other choice is RAID

Therefore, both P4's are set to Compatibility, which explains why all works the way it does.

Thanks, BC_Programmer!