Installing SATA using DOS Floppy Boot Disk

[webley]

I am just getting into SATA and would like to just plug it into the ASUS board and then partition and format to FAT32 followed by standard CD DOS XP installation using just a bootdisk and FDisk + Format + install from CXP CD. All to an ASUS A8N5X.

My question is:

1) Will this work or is SATA a strange animal that needs a driver and F6 or something 1st?

2) Will I be able to use a boot floppy on a SATA drive?

3) Will I be able to partition and most importantly format to FAT32 as Seatools and Windows only allow NTFS and I need FAT32 or course for DOS installation.

4) Will I then have access to the SATA drive in DOS as C: etc and be able to place the i386 folder etc into the Active partition and get XP started installing?

This probably seems like trivial stuff, but I'm a newbie to SATA if you can believe that and just would like to know about any snags or big issues before I get there. Thanks enormously for any help and/or acknowledgement that the above will work.

BTW, It will just be a single SATA OS drive, dual partition with NO RAID, simple as I can get it and I know to leave the 1.5 Gbps jumper as its plain SATA. Thanks again, webley

Would it be better to install this to a SATA2 capable board as I have a very stable Epox with SATA2?

 

[webley]

One other thing, with modern Seagate Seatools, is it possible to do a clone from a PATA drive to a SATA drive or will it cause a problem? Both are Seagate Drives of the same size, just PATA currently wanting to Clone to SATA.


I'd prefer a clean install in DOS (FDisk, Format FAT32) but as a backup, a Seatools clone would be ok if it would work.

 

[Dahak]

Cloning from PATA to SATA should not be a problem as long as the seatools allows it. I cant remember if it does.

As for a bootable floppy with fdisk and format, as long as the sata ports are configured as ide it should, I usually don't format fat32 anymore for large capacity drives.

If it does not another option that I started to use is called Gparted. from Here
You can create a bootable cd that works and feels like partition magic but free

 

[John]

I need FAT32 or course for DOS installation.

What for? If you truly want to use FAT32 you can make a 98 bootdisk (bootdisk.com) and format/partition the drive. XP will not let you format during setup or in the OS if the drive is over 32GB IIRC. AnandTech FAQ: FAT32 vs NTFS

You can go into your mainboard bios and see if the SATA controller is in AHCI or native mode. If it allows you to select the latter then you don't need to install drivers during XP setup, and you'll only lose NCQ and hotswap capabilities (not a big deal for some folks). You can simply boot to the XP disc, then partition and format with NTFS. Have fun.

 

[webley]

Thanks all and Dahak for the "Partition Magic Free Clone" So you can switch a SATA drive back and forth from IDE to SATA? Thanks again.

 

[Jiggz]

Not really switch back and forth but make a SATA act like an IDE.