ATA Drives

[Dimblewoo]

How do I activate my ATA hard drives??

I've got a 200Gb computer with Win-XP SP2 & 2Gb RAM . I mainly use it for my graphic design and now I'm starting on editing videos and 3D modelling (using AutoCAD & 3dsMax 8). The problem is that I'm starting to run out of spaces in my hard drive (HD).

My computer has connections for ATA drives and I've bought 2 two 200Gb HD. But when I go to:

Computer Management > Disk Management

I can only find the HD that are connected through IDE there but not the ATA ones.

How do I go about doing this??

Please any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

Could it be your mean SATA and are the options in the bios enabled?

 

[madmatt]

Right click on the disk number. e.g. Disk 1

This will give you the option to "activate" the disk.

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

He says he does not see them ... dont see how he can activate them

 

[madmatt]

That's what I get for responding when I am tired.

 

[trainmaster77]

so ..when your computer is firing up ..hold down delete ..this brings up your bios ... then there should be a setting to turn on the addational sata ports where your new drives are plugged in. you might even have the option to raid0 them ..but thats a different beast ...not so difficult to do ..but you do get added performance.

anyway ... after you have turned on your sata ports ...in the bios ..usually f10 will save an exit the bios and restart your computer. you may have a bit different setup .. so whatever the function to save and exit ... do it.

then when your os starts back up ..it should notice the extra drives ..and might even try looking for the drivers for them ... and this would be the time to use the included software that came with your hard drives ..unless they are oem ..then of course you would let windows find the necessary drivers ..or you could go to the manufacturers website of your hard drives ...and follow the necessary instructions for installation.