Thread: Can I mix IDE and SATA HDDs

My first post and please I note not the greatest IT minded person!!

I have built up a new PC and purchased a new 200gig ATA hard drive. The OS (XP) is on the ATA drive and runs fine. The problem I have is that I have an 80 gig IDE hard drive from my old PC (this was also on XP) which I have connected to the new PC. The system wont boot and it appears that it is searching the IDE hard drvie for the OS. If I disconnect the IDE HDD then the system boots and runs fine.

In the BIOS it shows the 80 gig IDE hdd as present but as the 1st HDD on the system which can not be changed, I have tried all the settings on the hdd as in master, slave etc but to no avail. All hardware settings are set to auto config

thanks

Usually they can run together in harmony, however you must make sure your mobo supports both at once. Since you built it you have your manual. Look in the manual and somewhere it should say if it will support both at the same time. If it says it will then your in luck, if it says it wont well then you cannot have both on at the same time.

Thanks guys - the motherboard does support both drives but and the problem was in the Bios. It kept showing the IDE drive as the 1st HDD and the SATA as the 2nd (this had the OS on it).

Managed to change the BIOS setting so that the SATA was the 1st and both drives work fine now.

should work?? Maybe a BIOS uppgrade will help