[Solved] Convert working IDE to working SATA?

[mpack]

I also found this :-

http://www.pcuser.com.au/pcuser/hs2.nsf ... 710037991A

So it looks like this isn't a VBox issue. I guess it's a side effect of XP SP2 not being entirely au fait with SATA drives, even when the correct drivers are installed.

[mpack]

Also found this on the web (advice on using regedit to stop SATA drives showing as removeable). I'm at work right now so this is untested by me.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\nvata (nvata64 for those using 64bit windows)

After navigating to this folder, create a DWORD named "DisableRemovable" and set the value to 1

Restart your pc and you should notice the removable icon is no longer there, which means windows no longer detects your SATA hard drive as a removable device but other removeable drives will still be shown.

Actually, thinking about it I'm not so sure about this advice. I have a nasty feeling that "nv" stands for "NVidia" and "ATA" means "ATA" of course, hence the the above advice is probably mbrd chipset specific. Certainly the PC I'm using right now at work is running XP Pro SP2, does have a SATA drive, but doesn't have that "nvata" branch in the registry.

[Sasquatch]

My PC has the nVidia nForce4 SLI chipset, and when I ran XP, it too showed the removable drive icon. I actually tried to 'remove' the device once, nothing happened. It couldn't release the device because it was still in use (duh).
My laptop has the Intel ICH7M controller, and when I had XP on that, it did NOT show the removable drive icon.

The registry setting you found, is for nVidia chipsets only. The driver is called nvata.

[mpack]

Yes, reading around I see the various claims that the icon is harmless, doesn't imply reduced performance, etc. However, it is an irritation to my sense of order to have the OS exhibit a permanent offer to do something which is plainly nonsense! Can't seem to do much about it though: I haven't yet found an Intel equivalent of that "nvata" registry item.

Incidentally, the PC at work (that I used to post the earlier message), and my home PC that I'm using now, are both running XP-SP2, both have SATA system HDDs, neither treat those HDDs as removable.

[Sasquatch]

The systems you work with that don't show it, might have IDE emulation on. Did you need a driver when installing Windows? If not, it's in IDE compatibility mode, where it acts like an IDE controller, instead of full SATA.

To get the icon go away, you might want to check the properties of the controller in the Device Manager. You might be able to change the mode it uses, for hot swappable or fixed mode. Changing it to fixed will get rid of it. I'm not sure if you have that option available (greyed out or not).

[mpack]

The systems you work with that don't show it, might have IDE emulation on. Did you need a driver when installing Windows? If not, it's in IDE compatibility mode, where it acts like an IDE controller, instead of full SATA.

I did not do the OS installation on either of the PCs mentioned, both came with the OS preinstalled by the supplier. Device Manager on my home PC has no mention that I can see of a SATA interface, I don't know if it is supposed to. Just checked the VM, and it lists the Intel SATA controller in the "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" branch. Looks like you may be correct.

[Sasquatch]

You can easily check this. Boot the PC with a Windows XP or 2000 install disc and wait for it to detect the hard drives. If it finds them, it's in IDE compat mode, else SATA.

[mpack]

You can easily check this. Boot the PC with a Windows XP or 2000 install disc and wait for it to detect the hard drives.

Late reply, to let you know that I didn't ignore you. I did try your suggestion, but I was nervous about taking it too far in case I trashed my work PC (the only one where I think it might have true SATA, so the only PC where the experiment means anything). The results were therefore not conclusive.

Trashing my work PC just in order to satisfy my curiousity would not go down well with my employer I think...

[Sasquatch]

You won't trash the computer, if the installer can't find any hard drives. And you won't trash it either, if you don't press any keys if it did detect the hard drives. You have to manually hit enter on a partition to get to the next question, format it or not, so there is plenty of space left to hit F3 to abort the installation.

[mpack]

Final addendum: new PC turned up at work on Friday, so I took a new Acronis image of my old PC and transferred it to the new PC, following the procedure I practiced using VBox, described in this thread. It all went very smoothly: in fact it was much smoother than a normal XP install, and the new PC is now working perfectly. Also, following my experience described here, I decided to stick with IDE emulation mode for the hard disks.

Basically, in a couple of hours I was up and running, all apps workings (no need for reinstalls), compared to maybe a couple of weeks of piecemeal installs last time I had a new PC. Interestingly, XP did prompt for reactivation this time, though it hadn't when I practiced with the VM. Perhaps it could still see the onboard NIC even though it was supposedly disabled in the BIOS. This isn't a problem, I have a legal license, it was simply a fun challenge to try to port the OS without the OS noticing!

VBox was an invaluable test tool in this process. It told me that I could do what I wanted to do (despite dire warnings from IT support), and how best to do it. I would certainly do this again!

[mpack]

However, it is an irritation to my sense of order to have the OS exhibit a permanent offer to do something which is plainly nonsense.

I see that VBox 3.0.4 (just released) has a fix for this problem with the "Safely remove hardware" icon showing for non-removable SATA drives. According to the changelog that is - untested by me so far.