I run win xp pro with a maxor 40gb drive loade with xp pro sp3.

I added a sata raid 2 port pci host card and then installed a seagate 250gb serial ata drive.

My mb bios does not see the sata but there is a bios chip on the card and the mator with xp can see it in admin tools>computer management>disk management as a ntfs healty and active. I did a quick format from the same tool.

I can't figure out how to load a fresh version of xp pro on the sata drive. What I really want to do is make the sata my bootable with the maxtor as the slave.

I know the sata can't be a slave so I am looking for any help.

Tom

First....the SATA drive can be a slave to the boot drive it is just not called a slave. Windows should be able to see the drive in "My Computer" > explore but will be noted as a mass storage device or removable storage device

In order to use the SCSI add-on card controller to boot from...your computer BIOS must support this. Check your BIOS boot order and see if it is listed as a first boot acceptable device . If the first boot device does not show as an ASCI or SATA then you will not be able to boot from the drive.

thank you lurkswithin for that info...
why can't I load window xp pro from my cd?

Tom

In order to use the installation CD your BIOS (set-up) must be set to use the CD/DVD drive as the first boot item. Then you install the cd in the drive and reboot.....when prompted " hit any key to boot to CD" hit the enter key and allow it to enter set-up and start loading files. at anytime the computer reboots and the hit anykey....prompt shows back...ignor it and let the computer run.