I have a clone of my HD from my old computer [not sata] ...I tried to install it in my new sata HD computer....no matter how i set the jumper It did not recognize it even if it was alone in the PC. How do you set up master and slave on a sata???

My goal is to copy the 40 gig drive to a 40 gig partition on a 160 gig HD. Then copy a fresh xp version on a 20 gig partition ..then partition the rest and put vista on it. My new computer came with xp and i got a free upgrade disk for vista which i havent used yet.

This way I can use vista, but go back and boot from xp if i need to, and Boot or browse my old files and programs. Can i clone the old HD in a separate partition...how would i do this, in what order?
thanks in advance.

im noty sure exactly where you are going with this but i would just get a external hard driver and use it to put my other stuff onto my new computer it would seem alot easyer for me witch you probly have and if you have copy your files into your main drive then cut them to the new partion

I'm not exactly sure what you are doing either but as far as SATA goes there is no master slave. There is only one SATA drive per SATA channel so there is no master slave jumper. For IDE, depending on who made the drive, there may be no jumper or just a master jumper if it is all by itself. If the jumper settings aren't listed on the drive you may have to look it up on line. If you are using an 80 wire 40 pin IDE cable you could try setting the jumper to cable select. If there is another drive on the same cable it will have to be set to cable select too.

Why should I copy my files to an external hard drive when I have a copy of them on another internal hard drive????

shouldn't i be able to put it in my new computer and see it as another drive?

. I know how to set the jumpers..the new computer would not see it???
Can you mix drive types?

Yes you can mix drive types, you can have SATA and IDE drives in the same PC. Incorrect jumper settings can cause an IDE drive not to be seen by the BIOS, so that is why I mentioned it. Plus you asked about SATA master slave settings. The boot drive whether IDE or SATA is set in the BIOS. Do you have any other IDE drives in that PC? Is the IDE controller enabled in the BIOS?

Oh, good question..maybe the ide isnt enabled I will check thanks...
the reason I was asking about the partitioning is that when i have imaged a drive on a larger drive I lose the the extra space...am i doing it wrong? If i image a 40 gig on an 80 gig the drive just shows 40 gig after the image?