Is Debian able to install on a Sata drive? Last I was told, the main installer is old and can't handle Sata drives. I would like to try Debian, I know I can use something like Knoppix but I see that as a short cut and don't want to go that route. Any suggestions?

Yes you can install Debian on a SATA-drive.
With the most recent Sarge installer you have to choose Kernel 2.6 as the boot option, otherwise your drive(s) won't be recognized.
It is however much more convenient to download a recent knoppix (www.knoppix.de, choose knoppix26 as boot option) or kanotix (www.kanotix.de) ISO-image and to run (after entering "su" to become root) knoppix-installer or kanotix-installer and to chhose "Debian".
If you wanna do it the hard way you may want to follow:

http://xtronics.com/reference/SATA-RAID-Debian.htm

Alternatively you may want to compile your own kernel (which is what I did)

Good luck,
Stephan
I

Thanks for the help. The only installer I was able to find last time I looked was the woody one about 4-5 months ago. Time to go look the sarge installer.

Sarge Netinstall 2004-05-18 and 2.4 kernel worked fine with my SATA. I think it depends on the chipset you have. If you're lucky it will be detected.

I have the Intel ICH5 which seems fine for the stock ATA piix driver. Should work with kernel >= 2.4.22.

That's actually the same chipset that I have. Thanks for the name of the installer.

By the way, is there a 64 bit version yet or coming out? If I like Debian enough, I would want to put it on my AMD 64 machine.

Nevermind. Found the answer in a different post.