My dad's computer has an abnormally small HDD (19GB) and I got him a SATA 200GB WD Caviar for his Birthday. I need to know if it is possible to do like I did my system ( 500GB extended partition used as a logical drive along side a 75GB Raptor partition) I want them to be seen as seperate drives so he loses nothing and still be able to do all the work he does on his computer and still save it. I think that the problem is that the 19 GB HDD is PATA and the one I am trying add is SATA. In my comp>manage>storage drives the HDD isn't visible so IDK what is going on.

You need to list the model or specs of your Dad's computer. I am assuming it has SATA ports? The computer is probably not 48 bit LBA compliant. That means it can't natively use a hard drive larger than 127GB. Look at the link below for more information on 48 bit LBA compliance. Watch the POST screens at start up to see if the SATA drive/s are seen at all by the BIOS. You also need to see if they are showing the FULL capacity. If you have SATA ports and the drive/s are not showing in the BIOS in ANY manner then the problem may be BIOS settings. You may need to Enable the SATA controllers in the BIOS. You do have power connected to the drive/s in addition to the data cable/s? http://www.48bitlba.com/index.htm

Ok ...list of specs ASUS P4PE Mobo (intel chipset) one SATA Port There is no information displayed for the POST I will double check the BIOS settings you mentioned and see. I forgot about those

Ok there isn't a setting that I can find for the SATA enabling. I think that is odd since the box still has the SATA cables in the box for it. I looked at that site and it made some sense. Would it be easier to just get a PATA to SATA adapter?

YOu should be able to see if there are SATA ports on the Motherboard or not. If this is an OEM computer you may need to make changes in the BIOS settings to see the POST screens. Disable fast start and disable any logos.

Yes the machine has a SATA port. I went through all the menus of the BIOS ...BIOS isn't even detecting the HDD. I have been looking for the BIOS upgrade but I dunno which one I need

Below is the link to all the WinXP drivers and the manual for that board. On page 2.2 is a layout of the Motherboard. If you aren't currently running a SATA drive then you need to install the SATA controller drivers. They should be labeled as Promise controllers. That will allow WinXP to see the SATA drive. The BIOS is a different story. No drivers are needed for the BIOS to identify the SATA drives. BTW there should be TWO if there are any. You need to review the section in the manual on BIOS settings. One thing I found is this. If the drive is a 200GB SATA it will be SATA II. The MBoard only supports SATA I mode. Sometimes drives will work without any help. The WD 200GB may have a jumper on it to force SATA I mode. This is necessary for the BIOS to configure the drive. Look at the WD site for more info on that jumper. Link below. http://support.asus.com/download/do... http://support.wdc.com/product/spec... http://support.asus.com/download/do...