Member Avatar for batcher1

Please help me what to do after i plugged the new seagate barracuda 7200 - SATA HDD 250GB[ST325310AS] as bootable for XP professional OS.
I had got this new HDD as replacement from seagate.
So i need what to do if all i plugged the cables into motherboard, then putting the Windows OS XP professional CD, then guide me what to do by step by step what options should i choose to format,partition and installation.
My motherboard is Intel DG35EC.
I don't know what is Master,slave, primary,...
Just tell me step by step which options should i choose to for partition my hard disk into 4 or 5 partitions.
How to do this, then tell me what to choose whether FAT or NTFS ?
In future i want another OS for dual booting might be vista or windows 7 in D drive[in this same HDD].
So please tell me what to choose the options.
I have only this new sata hdd for bootable

Please guide me.

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Dani AI

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Brief, practical summary (builds on , and ):

SATA is point-to-point so the master/slave concept does not apply, as noted. One important gap is SATA controller mode: if the motherboard BIOS is set to AHCI or RAID the stock Windows XP setup will often NOT see the drive unless the appropriate storage driver is supplied during the text-mode portion of setup (press F6 to load drivers from floppy) or the driver is slipstreamed into the XP CD. Setting the BIOS SATA mode to IDE/Compatibility is the simplest workaround when using an unmodified XP disk.

Step-by-step (install and initial partitioning):

  • Confirm the new disk is detected in BIOS and set the CD-ROM as first boot device.
  • Boot the XP CD. If the installer does not see the disk, use F6 to load OEM SATA drivers or change BIOS to IDE mode.
  • When the blue text-mode screen shows disks and unpartitioned space, press C to create a partition and enter size in MB. Make the XP partition a primary partition and format it NTFS (recommended for the system).
  • Either create additional partitions now or leave space unallocated for later resizing; leaving unallocated space makes later changes safer.

Partition layout notes and sizing tips:

  • MBR allows up to four primary partitions. To have more than four, make one extended partition and create multiple logical drives inside it.
  • Windows must be installed to a primary partition marked active. XP on a BIOS/MBR system cannot boot from GPT — use MBR for this 250GB drive.
  • XP Disk Management cannot shrink the system volume, so resizing C: later normally requires a third-party partition tool. As mentioned, FAT variants are more compatible cross-platform but have limits (FAT32 has a 4GB file-size limit and Windows will not format FAT32 >32GB without special tools).

Dual-boot and final cautions:

  • Install older OS first (XP), then install Vista/Windows 7 into its own primary partition; the newer installer updates the boot manager.
  • Always verify the correct target partition during install, keep backups of important data, and check basic hardware items (SATA cable, power) and BIOS detection if the disk is not visible.

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Member Avatar for finito

In the interest of Free and Open Knowledge I share this with you.

If you have question please redirect them here.

As For FAT and NTFS, I can tell you the benefits of both and cons of both, FAT is the most compatible File System in Existence.

A drive in FAT format can be read in Linux, Mac, and Windows. FAT has a File Size Limit of 4GB, So FAT is the winner if that is compatibility is a concern.

NTFS, NTFS is a great Filesystem if all your work will be in Windows > XP
File size Limit is at 16TB, more info here

Enjoy Please Mark as solved.

Member Avatar for gerbil

seagate barracuda 7200 - SATA HDD 250GB : it is SATA, so no need to be concerned with Master,slave, primary... just plug it into you SATA-1 socket and BIOS will automatically enter it as the number one boot device.
Go with NTFS.
If you wish to make another partition for an extra OS it is simplest to make space for it at Setup, but any free partition manager will shrink you C: drive and make space for it later.

Member Avatar for batcher1

Thanks for ur reply for u both.
Isn't leave space for the rest to make partition in windows XP[after installing Xp, inside XP-installing partition software to make partition for other drives.
During first creating partition for C: [for example 40GB for XP], then leave it for the rest space and install only in "C" partition and then after going inside Xp, install software for Partition software[best 3rd party software download from websites]

OR
make it partition in this setup like C: partition , also make other drives as D:,e:,f:,g:,...

Member Avatar for gerbil

Either way is fine. If you allocate 40GB during Setup for C: and leave the rest as Unallocated you can change this later. USe Partition Wizard [free]. http://www.partitionwizard.com
With that pgm you can make C: larger, smaller [if it is not full], create new partitions in the Unallocated space....

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