New pc , old hdd

[pumaf1]

I have just today got a new pc (for me, my mates old pc) spec as follows:

AMD 64 3500+
MSI K8N Neo4H Ver 3
Asaka Cooler
1.25gb ram
pioneer 107d DVDRW
512mb XFX 7300GS PCIX graphics
250gb Samsung SATA HDD
Windows Vista

Now my questions (please bear in mind I work in IT (for 10+years) and this has me stuck)...

1 - I tried to put win xp on the machine as I dont trust Vista yet. the samsung disk wont boot after a successful install of XP. - do i need the 3rd party sata drivers?

2 - If i put a IDE (2 x 80gb 1x250gb) disks into the system am I right in thinking it will try and boot off the IDE? if so how do I change it as I know the SATA disk is a lot quicker!

Thanks in advance!

D

 

[pumaf1]

further to the above I have just tried it on a 80gb sata HDD and the same fault, BUT if i put the windows XP SP2 cdrom into the drive it will boot!

Any ideas greatly taken

 

[raybay]

Yes, maybe. You will usually need to install the SATA drivers that come with your motherboard or system, before you can run a new drive. Don't know what that is, but we have seen dead systems come to life and work right after the SATA drivers. I argued this for a log time before I submitted to no-knothing Guru's dumber than rocks... and they were right... lucky for them.