How to Install a SATA Drive in a Windows XP 64 Bit System
Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) hard drives are the most widely used hard drives in the hard drive market. They were made to replace the older Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) hard drives, which were considerably slower. Windows XP 64-bit supports SATA hard drives and installing one onto a system that uses XP 64-bit would actually raise the performance of the computer, given that it has been using ATA drives. Installing a SATA drive is a simple task.
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Instructions
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1
Take a screwdriver and unfasten the screws that are holding the side panels up from the back of the computer case. Remove the side panels and lay the computer case onto its right side, so that the computer internal are facing you.
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2
Locate the hard drive bays in your computer. Every case is different, but the hard drive bays will most likely be stacked by the front end of the computer.
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3
Find your ATA hard drive and unplug the cable from the back of it. Take the screwdriver and remove the screws that are holding the drive in the bay. Remove the ATA drive.
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4
Take your SATA hard drive and put it into a hard drive bay in your computer. Fasten the two screws to the side of the hard drive and check if it is firmly installed. Take the cable that came with the SATA hard drive and connect it to the motherboard. Note that you need a motherboard that supports SATA technology to do this. Check your motherboard for SATA ports to see if it is compatible first (picture in Resources).
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Attach the power connector from the power supply to the SATA hard drive and then close the case by replacing the side panels.
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Turn on your computer and then access "My Computer." You should see a new hard drive in the "Hard Disk Drives" section.
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Tips & Warnings
Hard drives do not need any special drivers or software to be installed as all the necessary programs are in the Windows XP operating system.
