SATA2, special setup needed to install?

detz · Apprentice Joined: 19 Feb 2004 Posts: 175

My new computer is built and I have windows XP on one 250G and I have another 250G for gentoo...now I'm going to unplug(disabled in BIOS) the Windows drive when I install Gentoo but I need to know if I need to do anything special to install this with an SATA2 drive? Should I put it as the first one, second, does it matter? Does Gentoo support SATA2 or just SATA?

Vulpes_ · Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 9:27 am Post subject:

I think Gentoo supports the SATA Controller, and not the drive itself. Altough I have a SATA drive, but on a SATA2 contoller, and it was supported "out-of-the-box", so I don't think that you should do anything special. Maybe disabling the Win drive is not the best idea, since you have to put Grub to the MBR of either drives, and it should be that drive which the system first tries to boot.

detz · Apprentice Joined: 19 Feb 2004 Posts: 175

Well I'm assuming it will try to boot SATA-1 drive first so I will plug my Gentoo drive in that slot so the MBR is there...shouldn't be an issue. Also, I think the BIOS you can choose which HD to boot so I can just choose the Gentoo drive. I figured Gentoo would work with SATA drives but what about the speed of SATA2, are their special drivers or anything?

Vulpes_ · Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 2:27 pm Post subject:

Just as I said in my previous post: If the (SATA2) controller is supported, and it is supported on many boards by the kernel, then it will work as SATA2. On the other hand, I don't think you will notice any significant difference, because HDD performance is mostly limited by the drive's mechanics, and not the interface.