Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of cfourkays
cfourkaysFlag for United States of America

asked on

Dual boot ATA and SATA: Vista and XP

I have a dual boot system, Vista Ultimate/XP Home.
There are 2 ATA IDE Drives, the one with Vista is going bad.
My mobo supports SATA, 4 Ports available.
Has anyone ever dual booted, one ATA and one SATA drive, or am I asking for trouble.
Vista is on the bad drive. I've used VistaBootPRO to set up the original config.
I also have Acronis Disk Director 10 and True Image available.
Right now I can only boot to the XP which was the original C:.
I've got my files from the bad drive backed up so I can do a clean reinstall of Vista.
Pete
SOLUTION
Avatar of twstechserv
twstechserv

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of cfourkays

ASKER

Thanks, I don't mind going into the BIOS.
I think I'm going to try the SATA.
I've installed them as replacements for XP before but never tried installing Vista on one, let alone dual boot.
I can get a Seagate 500GB SATA tomorrow.
Will get back.
SOLUTION
Avatar of nobus
nobus
Flag of Belgium image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
The board ia a MSI K8N Neo4 with the Nvidia nForce chipset.MS-7125
I haven' had any problems with it so far. Its been dual booted all the way back to Vista's RC1 and been chugging right along.
My problem will not be the board, it'll be my lack of experience with SATA.
The last one was installing a replacement mobo on an eMachine.
Didn't realize the SATA/IDE dongle and the HD needed power connectors. Scratched my head for 2 days on that one.
Getting the Seagate SATA today.
Plan is to install the HD, get it working and configed as D: and than booting from the Vista DVD and going from there as I've done before.
It'll be interesting.
Pete
Avatar of mobaar
mobaar

I think everything will run smoothly.  Vista/XP both are pretty good with SATA drivers, and dual booting between those two is a snap.

Like I mentioned, you may have to finagle BIOS but other than that it's a piece of cake.  Good luck.
You were all right.
It works as long as you figure out the right combinations, and I'll assume they differ with each board.
I finally wound up disconnecting the IDE drives, installed the SATA and loaded Vista on it as I would a new install. (Which is basically is.)
I than had to fool around both in Bios settings and jumpers and wound up with this:
BIOS:
IDE Primary Master-None
IDE Primary Slave WD....(XP)
IDE Secondary Master DVD/CD...
IDE Secondary Slave DVD/CD....
SATA 1 Master ST......... (Vista)
SATA 2 Master None
SATA 3 Master None
SATA 4 Master None

Surprisingly, it boots to the Windows Boot Manager where I can choose either OS, as it did before.
Pete
Thanks for posting your solution  - always handy for later people with this problem ..
"always handy for later people with this problem .. "

My thoughts also. Now I have to move over to another unfinished thread with Lee regarding XP wiping out Vista Restore Points.
And I forgot to thank you folks for your help.
Thanks

Pete