It should work; worst case you will need a diskette that you insert during the XP installation (where it holds up to let you install disk drivers) to have the SATA controller (not the drive) drivers available during install. Newer versions of XP (SP2/3) have more drivers in their builds than "base" or SP1 builds though, and it may not be an issue at all. If the board has "SATA Emulation" options in the BIOS that may eliminate the problem as well (just set it to IDE and it should work). As far as new drives and whatnot, I think the reliability thing is somewhat overblown anymore - WD and Seagate still make good drives, but there will be a fail rate with anything; anymore I think all you hear about with "user reviews" is the bad experiences though.

As far as adding a new drive, I'd think 40GB shouldn't be a big problem for Windows XP unless you're installing more modern games that eat up a few GB a piece. You might just add in another 40GB or two (you said you have a few of them) and be okay though.

Also, what do you mean by "stuck"?

You will most probably need to provide SATA drivers during installation. Possibly they came on the CD that shipped with your motherboard.

To force enchanced HDD mode in Xp w/o reinstall:
1) force all yours "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" drivers to "Standard dual-channel IDE controller".
2) reboot, go to BIOS, set enchanced mode, reboot again. Boot Xp. This *censored* OS booting ok w/o any registry teaks or reinstalling...
3) update drivers for "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers".
Tested with Asus P4P800 SE and Acer Aspire 5920G...

Thanks for the replies - this is pretty much telling me what I wanted to know - that I don't want to mess with it

The drivers I don't understand - if you need a driver for it, then how can you even boot with it initially?

ncmark wrote:

Thanks for the replies - this is pretty much telling me what I wanted to know - that I don't want to mess with it

The drivers I don't understand - if you need a driver for it, then how can you even boot with it initially?

SATA is "usually" converted to look like IDE drives in BIOS. Unless your are planning to build a SATA RAID, you should not need a floppy drivers disk during XP install. The only "drivers" you might need would be enhanced drivers that will load "in" XP. Much like installing enhanced Video Card drivers. XP works fine, and can boot without them, but install them and it performs better. Again, the only time you would need a floppy (or CD-ROM I guess,) drivers disk, is if you are installing a RAID configuration.

BEWARE: Some modern SATA drives won't work directly in older SATA controllers. Some of them have a jumper that selects lower speeds (1.5 gbps instead of 3 gbps) to allow them to talk with SATA 1 controllers.

FeedingDragon wrote:

SATA is "usually" converted to look like IDE drives in BIOS. Unless your are planning to build a SATA RAID, you should not need a floppy drivers disk during XP install. The only "drivers" you might need would be enhanced drivers that will load "in" XP. Much like installing enhanced Video Card drivers. XP works fine, and can boot without them, but install them and it performs better. Again, the only time you would need a floppy (or CD-ROM I guess,) drivers disk, is if you are installing a RAID configuration.

+1. If the BIOS is providing IDE emulation (which most do) it should be completely transparent to the XP installer, there will be nothing to "mess with." If you need RAID or the controller isn't providing emulation it may need a floppy run during the XP installation (which XP even provides a pop-up message for; it's very painless and very simple) - just as you would for some stand-alone SCSI or PATA controller cards. XP may alternately have the drivers already available during install, especially if it's a more common controller and you're using a later version of XP (SP2 or higher). For example the SATA ports on my A8N-SLI didn't require any intervention for XP SP2 to install - everything "just works" out of the box once it's set to IDE emulation (one setting in the BIOS). IMHO simpler than PATA having to adjust jumpers and whatnot for multiple drives per channel.

obobskivich wrote:

+1. If the BIOS is providing IDE emulation (which most do) it should be completely transparent to the XP installer, there will be nothing to "mess with."

But isn't SATA mode faster than AHCI mode?

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

But isn't SATA mode faster than AHCI mode?

You mean SATA and PATA(IDE)? Yes, SATA is faster. Best PATA speed is UDMA-6 (UDMA-133) mode with approximatedly 133 MB/s burst data rate. Most Intel controllers force you to UDMA-5 with 100 MB/s.
SATA-1 have 150MB/s burst data rate. SATA-2 - 300 MB/s. SATA-3 - 600 MB/s.
Plus SATA1.0a devices are supporting NCQ, this technology adds the speed too.

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

But isn't SATA mode faster than AHCI mode?

Technically yes, but very few mechanical drives (especially those smaller than 1TB or older than a year or two) are going to sustain >100MB/s. It would be a bottleneck for most modern SSDs though, if that's a concern. Of course go with the fastest compatible mode your hardware/software supports.

Zup wrote:

BEWARE: Some modern SATA drives won't work directly in older SATA controllers. Some of them have a jumper that selects lower speeds (1.5 gbps instead of 3 gbps) to allow them to talk with SATA 1 controllers.

Excellent point!

To avoid having to load a SATA driver there is usually an option in the BIOS to run it in IDE mode. I do this on my Pentium 4 motherboard. It runs a modern SATA HDD and using XP you don't even need to worry about size limitations. I usually create a 32GB or 64GB partition because that's all I need.