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    eicn2's Avatar
    eicn2 Posts: 2, Reputation: 1
    New Member
    		  
    #1

    Jul 19, 2009, 01:24 AM
    Boot Sata drive from PCI card on Matsonic MS8308EP mobo
    Hi all,

    I have a circa 2003 Matsonic MS8308EP mobo. It's an old board I'm using as a project and I'm trying to make the most of it. I have installed a Sata PCI expansion card which recognises and accesses a 500Gb Sata drive under XP. The OS boots and runs from my existing IDE drive.

    I had loaded drivers into the IDE drive copy of windows XP for PCI card and Sata drive.

    I would like to know if it is possible to boot from this Sata drive even though my current Bios doesn't show the Sata drive, it is usable once XP has booted and loaded from existing IDE drive. My mobo Bios boot options are IDE, cdrom, SCSI, network, USB FDD.

    I might be trying to put the "cart before the horse" as the Bios can't point to PCI Sata card until XP drivers are loaded and XP can't load until PCI Sata drive is recognised located.


    Any help greatly appreciated.
    Many thanks.:)
    Scleros's Avatar
    Scleros Posts: 2,165, Reputation: 262
    Hardware Expert
    		  
    #2

    Jul 19, 2009, 11:05 AM
    Quote Originally Posted by eicn2 View Post
    I would like to know if it is possible to boot from this Sata drive even though my current Bios doesn't show the Sata drive
    Probably, maybe...

    Add-on adapter cards can have their own BIOS option ROM that manages the drives attached to the card which is what you will need for the drive to "show up" during boot. Normally, this BIOS can be enabled/disabled/configured via jumpers on the card itself or through a hot-key that is pressed during the display of the BIOS's boot banner at boot. What adapter are you using? Refer to its documentation.

    Quote Originally Posted by eicn2 View Post
    My mobo Bios boot options are IDE, cdrom, SCSI, network, USB FDD.
    To boot, you may also need to use the SCSI setting as that is what typical add-in adapters were prior to the availability of SATA. During boot, the processor is still operating in real mode. Until the OS loads and switches to protected mode, disk services are provided through BIOS INT 13H. Storage option ROMs hook this interrupt to provide access to the disks they manage.

    All that said, getting very old hardware and very new hardware to play nice together can be a hair pulling exercise. Also, low cost adapters can avoid the expense of a BIOS by using a small software overlay installed on the drive itself which adds additional complexity and more opportunity for things to go awry.
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