hi there i am currently running 2 IDE hard drives and want to install a SATA drive can this be done with 0ne of the IDE HDD's still set as the master and how do you get windows to recognise the SATA drive. I was originally going to go for SATA but i was told windows had trouble with SATA drives. MY mobo is Asus A8V deluxe the boot priority is currently set to IDE will this effect the installation of a SATA drive.

I have a setup where I have one IDE drive, and one SATA drive. I have had no problems whatsoever with them working together. They were automatically detected, and Windows XP (service pack 2) didn't have any problems with them. As far as I know, there are no issues with SATA and Athlons, and if your motherboard has a SATA socket on it, then you don't need to worry about it. sjd9910 "I have a 386 Pentium." -customer

can this be done with 0ne of the IDE HDD's still set as the master and how do you get windows to recognise the SATA drive. ---------> depends on your motherboard. If the Asus has dual capacity, with the SATA connections, then you only need to set up the BIOS to run the IDE HDD as a master, and the SATA as a slave. I was originally going to go for SATA but i was told windows had trouble with SATA drives. --------> Yes. Windows XP is very primitive that way. It's not impossible so I'm told - you just need to download the right drivers for the controllers as XP doesn't have any. Apples on the otherhand.. MY mobo is Asus A8V deluxe the boot priority is currently set to IDE will this effect the installation of a SATA drive. ---------> Easily switched in your BIOS options. Check your Mobo has dual function PATA & SATA first.