new SATA drive, WinXP, how to boot?

Using A7N8X

Managed to get Windows XP Pro to install on to new single SATA drive by
removing the IDE drives and finding the files on the motherboard CD, putting
them on a floppy to supply to the XP setup so it could find the drive. The
files I found on the motherboard CD seem to refer to Raid, I have only a
single drive...

After re-attaching the IDE drives and rebooting, I can't get to boot to XP
(always boot to Win98, from the old IDE drive)

Questions:
1. I have seen mention while googling for possible answers, that there
should be a way to install SATA as a single drive, not as RAID... is this
correct, or have I misunderstood? If this is right how do I do it? (I'm not
forced to buy a second sata drive am I? )

2. I thought SATA drives with an os would automatically take priority over
the IDE drives. Is this correct, do I need to so anything in my boot
sequence?