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DsastrayFlag for United States of America

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Can I boot from a secondary hard drive that is housed in a cd bay converter?

I have a laptop.

I have a PATA primary drive that currently houses c:\windows, program files, etc.

I replaced my optical drive with a SATA hard drive (using an adapter similar to this).

Can I boot from this (currently secondary) SATA drive? Is it as simple as cloning my current boot drive to the secondary adapter one?

(Does BIOS still recognize that drive bay as an optical device, for the purposes of boot order?)

Finally, can I expect a speed penalty? The current drive is a 7200 rpm pata, the replacement would be a 7200 rpm sata, but connected via er, ATAPI?
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KCarney81

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All right, so if it works, it works? I guess I'll have to see if it works.

Duly noted overdrive79, that's a very useful thing to watch out for.
Avatar of KCarney81
KCarney81

Give more information in your question next time, it will help experts point you in the right direction.  i.e. Model number of your computer and adapter.
You make a good point. Not sure what would be needed... I was able to find the drive caddy:
http://newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=177

Related specs:
OS Name      Microsoft Windows XP Professional      
Version      5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600      
OS Manufacturer      Microsoft Corporation      
System Name      D7RDCP81      
System Manufacturer      Dell Inc.      
System Model      Inspiron 9300      
System Type      X86-based PC      
Processor      x86 Family 6 Model 13 Stepping 8 GenuineIntel ~1994 Mhz      
BIOS Version/Date      Dell Inc. A05, 9/19/2005      
SMBIOS Version      2.3      
Windows Directory      C:\WINDOWS      
System Directory      C:\WINDOWS\system32      
Boot Device      \Device\Harddisk0\DP(2)0x2f10c00-0x1175413800+3      
Locale      United States      
Hardware Abstraction Layer      Version = "5.1.2600.5512 (xpsp.080413-2111)"      
Total Physical Memory      2,048.00 MB      

[C is the original HD]
Item      Value      
Drive      C:      
Description      Local Fixed Disk      
Compressed      No      
File System      NTFS      
Size      69.83 GB (74,981,650,432 bytes)      
Free Space      12.84 GB (13,782,245,376 bytes)      
Volume Name            
Volume Serial Number      1483770A      

Description      Disk drive      
Manufacturer      (Standard disk drives)      
Model      Hitachi HTS721080G9AT00      
Bytes/Sector      512      
Media Loaded      Yes      
Media Type      Fixed	hard disk media      
Partitions      3      
SCSI Bus      0      
SCSI Logical Unit      0      
SCSI Port      1      
SCSI Target ID      0      
Sectors/Track      63      
Size      74.53 GB (80,023,749,120 bytes)      
Total Cylinders      9,729      
Total Sectors      156,296,385      
Total Tracks      2,480,895      
Tracks/Cylinder      255      
Partition      Disk #0, Partition #0      
Partition Size      47.03 MB (49,319,424 bytes)      
Partition Starting Offset      32,256 bytes      
Partition      Disk #0, Partition #1      
Partition Size      69.83 GB (74,981,652,480 bytes)      
Partition Starting Offset      49,351,680 bytes      
Partition      Disk #0, Partition #2      
Partition Size      4.64 GB (4,984,519,680 bytes)      
Partition Starting Offset      75,039,229,440 bytes      



[D is the caddy HD]            
Drive      D:      
Description      Local Fixed Disk      
Compressed      No      
File System      NTFS      
Size      298.04 GB (320,020,967,424 bytes)      
Free Space      182.17 GB (195,605,540,864 bytes)      
Volume Name            
Volume Serial Number      1483770A

Description      Disk drive      
Manufacturer      (Standard disk drives)      
Model      ST9320421AS      
Bytes/Sector      512      
Media Loaded      Yes      
Media Type      Fixed	hard disk media      
Partitions      1      
SCSI Bus      0      
SCSI Logical Unit      0      
SCSI Port      2      
SCSI Target ID      0      
Sectors/Track      63      
Size      298.09 GB (320,070,320,640 bytes)      
Total Cylinders      38,913      
Total Sectors      625,137,345      
Total Tracks      9,922,815      
Tracks/Cylinder      255      
Partition      Disk #1, Partition #0      
Partition Size      298.04 GB (320,020,968,960 bytes)      
Partition Starting Offset      49,351,680 bytes
Worth asking again? I'm happy to award more points and a better grade, if I can get some firm guidance as to whether I should take the plunge and start cloning drives, etc.
(btw, the other partitions on C: are dell diagnostic and recovery partitions.)
Symantec Ghost should make the process relatively painless.  http://www.symantec.com/themes/theme.jsp?themeid=ghost
There are also other free solutions that do the same thing.  Easeus Backup, DriveimageXML.  If that is indeed what you wish to achieve.
Avatar of South Mod
All,
 
Re-grading this question at the request of the author
 
Thank you,
 
SouthMod
Community Support Moderator