How to change BIOS SATA mode (on Dimension 8300) ?

Hi,

I have a Dell Dimension 8300 with BIOS A03 and 1 SATA HD. I also have a problem: Linux can not be installed because most (all?) current Linux distributions do NOT support SATA drives. The best tip that I have found (and one that I found mentioned many times) is to switch the SATA drive to "Compatibility Mode" in the BIOS.

Apparently this SATA Compatibility Mode is a mode where the BIOS pretends to have an IDE drive instead of the SATA drive, at the cost of HD performance. There have been many reports where such a mode switch allowed Linux to be installed on a SATA drive

Now I searched the BIOS of my Dell many many times over and could not find this switch in there, or anything even remotely similar. Yet switching the drive mode is very important for me, because without it I wont be able to get started with Linux.

Newer kernels do support SATA, but Linux install CDs only come with older kernels that do not support SATA. So you have to first be able to install the older Linux successfully, before you can update the kernel as a next step. Once this second step is completed successfully it is then possible to switch the drive back to normal SATA mode in the BIOS.

Please, is the any way for me to switch my SATA drive to "Compatibility Mode" ?