I replaced a 360Gb IDE drive on Thinkcentre S50 with 1Tb SATA. But when SATA is enabled in BIOS the CD drive is not recognised so cannot install any operating system on the SATA drive. Tried all combinations in BIOS but will not recognise IDE cdrom

SATA HARD DRIVE - XP INSTALLATION
The problem is that XP installation CD does not have a SATA driver, unless you have a SATA drive on a disk etc. and can install the driver when XP asks for a hard drive driver then, XP cannot detect the hard disk and therefore won't install XP. The FIX. Go into the BIOS and disable the SATA drive (enable IDE emulation), this will make XP think it is a IDE/PATA hard disk. Then you can install XP normally. When Windows has been installed then install all the device drivers (including the SATA driver), then shut down and boot up and got into the BIOS and enable the SATA drive.

SATA HARD DRIVE - XP INSTALLATION
The problem is that XP installation CD does not have a SATA driver, unless you have a SATA drive on a disk etc. and can install the driver when XP asks for a hard drive driver then, XP cannot detect the hard disk and therefore won't install XP. The FIX. Go into the BIOS and disable the SATA drive (enable IDE emulation), this will make XP think it is a IDE/PATA hard disk. Then you can install XP normally. When Windows has been installed then install all the device drivers (including the SATA driver), then shut down and boot up and got into the BIOS and enable the SATA drive.

If you are installing Windows XP then -
The problem is that XP installation CD does not have a SATA driver, unless you have a SATA drive on a disk etc. and can install the driver when XP asks for a hard drive driver then, XP cannot detect the hard disk and therefore won't install XP. The FIX. Go into the BIOS and disable the SATA drive (enable IDE emulation), this will make XP think it is a IDE/PATA hard disk. Then you can install XP normally. When Windows has been installed then install all the device drivers (including the SATA driver), then shut down and boot up and got into the BIOS and enable the SATA drive.

SATA HARD DRIVE - XP INSTALLATION
The problem is that XP installation CD does not have a SATA driver, unless you have a SATA drive on a disk etc. and can install the driver when XP asks for a hard drive driver then, XP cannot detect the hard disk and therefore won't install XP. The FIX. Go into the BIOS and disable the SATA drive (enable IDE emulation), this will make XP think it is a IDE/PATA hard disk. Then you can install XP normally. When Windows has been installed then install all the device drivers (including the SATA driver), then shut down and boot up and got into the BIOS and enable the SATA drive.

The problem is that XPinstallation CD does not have a SATA driver, unless you have a SATA drive on adisk etc. and can install the driver when XP asks for a hard drive driver then,XP cannot detect the hard disk and therefore won't install XP. The FIX. Go into the BIOS anddisable the SATA drive (enable IDE emulation), this will make XP think it is aIDE/PATA hard disk. Then you can install XP normally. When Windows hasbeen installed then install all the device drivers (including the SATA driver),then shut down and boot up and got into the BIOS and enable the SATA drive.

Remove harddrive make sure it is set to master. while hard drive is out boot up computer it will boot to the motherboard. Find the boot menu and set your cd drive as the first device. Save and shut down the computer. Install your hard drive now boot up and as soon as you can insert disk.

Once you reset the bios everything goes to manufactures default settings. You will need to make some changes within the bios. You'll need the help of the manual. See page 3-20.
If your operating system is loaded on to the ATA IDE drive make sure you set bios settings as follows:
Connect the ATA IDE to MB primary master IDE port.
Connect the ATA SATA drive to the MB's first SATA port.

ATA Configuration
Set as, [P-ATA+S-ATA]
S-ATA Keep [Enabled] Set to [Yes] This enables the SATA controller.
P-ATA Keep [Enabled] Set to [Yes] This enables the IDE controller.
On-chip IDE configuration, "ATA Configuration = [P-ATA+S-ATA]".
Next go to Boot menu. Make sure the ATA IDE drive is chosen as boot device three.
First boot device [Floppy] (If you have a floppy disk drive connected.)
Second boot device would be [DVD/CD-ROM] drive. This should be connected to the MB's secondary IDE port & the DVD/CD-ROM drives Master/Slave jumper, set to Master.
Third boot device [ATA IDE drive]
If your boot drive is the SATA drive than set: third boot device to the SATA drive.
(Hard disk drive with operating system loaded on it).
Save your changes & exit the bios.
Keep in mind all ATA SATA drives are seen as Master drives. SATA drives are seen by the SATA controller & in order by their connection to the SATA port number.
Save & exit the bios. The system will auto restart. Windows should start.

need to go in CMOS an
set non raid use sata mode for eSTAT ports in bios

preachw996 has it... you must enable the SATA drive you want to install XP onto as your 1st IDE DRIVE/DEVICE (ie. you are telling BIOS to dummy a SATA drive in to the 1st IDE position).

Only then will you be able to recognise the drive as a boot device.

This is done in BIOS.