Can I boot XP from IDE with SATA present?

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I have an 80GB WD IDE HDD that I would like to use as my boot/C: drive (yes I need a big one - many large design/video programs), a 4GB WD IDE HDD for critical file backups, and a 250GB Maxtor SATA HDD that I'd like to use only for storage/My Documents - I do a lot of graphic design and video capturing/editing.

The system came with the 250GB SATA as the only/OS drive, and I know I could partition the 250 GB into C: and D: and use D: for video storage, but I want to maximize data transfer speed from capture/editing applications to disk, and reading/writing from 2 places on 1 physical drive won't do that. Plus, I'd like to keep all 250GB in one partition to simplify my storage filing system.

All the drives are functional in my current config:

Prim SATA 0: 250GB
Prim SATA 1: <NONE>
Prim IDE 0: 80GB
Prim IDE 1: 4GB
Sec IDE 0: 16X DVD+/-RW
Sec IDE 1: 8X DVD+R

The problem: my Dell Dimension 8300 BIOS (v.A07) lists SATA HDDs before IDE in the configuration, and the Boot Sequence is TOO basic to set IDE as first boot - choices are either "BIOS Configuration" or "USB Device".

Question: There is an F12 option at boot to choose the physical drive to boot from :) , but will this be required at every startup in order to bypass the SATA drive? :confused:

It's time to clean off my system and start anew, but I just wanted to know before I start installing WinXP.

Thanks to anyone who can help.
 
Thanks.
First, I understand why you're talking about using smaller partitions, and I'll take that into account with the 80GB drive. But the fact remains that I'm not concerned so much about seek time with 40GB files, as the time saved by not regularly reading, applying effects and writing a new file to the same physical drive during one process.
Second, the 4.3GB drive is only used as a stage for DVD backup.
Third, any suggestions about the question?
 
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