Adding a Hard Drive

[MJ_KC]

This is a message primarily intended for USMC1.

I recently added an external 320 GB USB hard drive that works great. There is plenty of bandwidth for transferring files and the best thing is that I can move it to another computer simply by unplugging it and moving it to the other computer.

I tried installing an internal 250 GB drive and between the bios and Windows XP, the computer was just having too many problems. this was a 2nd drive that I removed from my older computer, where it worked just fine. The drive would show up OK in my newer computer, but it was like the two hard drives were fighting one another for control.

[Corky]

Did you make sure your second internal drive was set up as a slave drive using the jumpers on it?

[MJ_KC]

This drive has its own interface card and was already setup and working in my older computer and all files had been deleted. There shouldn't have been any conflicts when it went from one Windows XP computer to another, but it did not work properly. XP insisted on assigning this add-on drive as drive 0 and the "C" drive as drive 1.

This gave priority to the wrong drive and when I tried to manually force XP to swap the designations, both drives quit working.

In the end, I had to get out my restore DVD and go into the bios and set it to boot from the DVD drive. After this, I was in no mood for more experimenting. I didn't lose any data or program installations, so that was a good thing.

The new 320 GB USB drive was only $140 plus tax, and it worked on the first try. It was up and usable in about 2 minutes.

[PascoDoug]

Originally posted by MJ_KC:
This drive has its own interface card and was already setup and working in my older computer and all files had been deleted. There shouldn't have been any conflicts when it went from one Windows XP computer to another, but it did not work properly. XP insisted on assigning this add-on drive as drive 0 and the "C" drive as drive 1.

I would have put the second drive on the secondary IDE cable (usually where the cd-rom/dvd drive is). Back when I was working as a computer tech, this was actually recommended, to reduce conflicts. Hard drives from different manufacturers sometimes don't get along with one another on the same channel. I would have also deleted the old partition and created a new fresh one to format.

If it was an IDE drive it shouldn't need its own interface card. That's probably the root of your problem - the interface card was fighting with the built in HD controller on the motherboard.

[MJ_KC]

The 320 GB primary drive is actually two 160 GB drives connected via a SATA interface that makes it look like one drive. The 250 GB drive wouldn't have gotten along too well if I had hooked it into their interface.

The computer has a DVD-ROM drive and DVD-R drive on the factory IDE interface. That is why I used the interface that came with the 250 GB drive. The computer would recognize both drives just fine, but it slowed down the computer like there was a conflict over which drive should respond.

The idea of true plug-and-play is not there yet.

[MJ_KC]

The 250 GB drive has never had an operating system installed on it. This drive was only used for file storage and a few programs.

The SATA drives are the primary drives on the computer and are the original drives. They have Windows XP installed on them. In the bios, these drives were set to be the primary boot disk. I only have the factory restore DVD and do not have a separate disk with XP and the drivers.

The odd thing is that the 250 GB drive works fine as a 2nd drive in my other computer, but not in this one. It is seen without any problems, but the is a noticeable slowdown when the 250 GB drive is installed. I can disconnect it and everything returns to normal.

I may give it another try at some point, but right now 640 GB of storage seems to be enough. LOL. 890 GB would be even better though.

[WNYjoe17]

Windows would not make the initial decision of which drive is which. The BIOS would make that decision. I wonder if it would be as simple as the BIOS is an older version that did not like the stuff presented to it. I would research if you would need to flash the BIOS. It might be that is the answer.

Joe

[PascoDoug]

Originally posted by NakedGary:
MJ-KC

I guess I misunderstood your initial post in that you’re using the twin 160's [320GB] externally as the Boot drive.

No, he has two internal 160GB SATA drives (in a RAID to appear as a single 320GB drive) and an external 320GB drive (which I assume is USB2 or Firewire)

[NakedGary]

MJ-KC

I’m really confused now so I pulled my posts until I get a clear idea of Mother Board controllers, drives with separate controllers and the USB2 interfaced drive.

Do I understand correctly the Mother Board has:

A standard 2 channel enhanced ATA/IDE Interface on the mother board with a DVD-ROM, & DVD-R connected to the factory interface.

SATA interfaces on the mother board with two separate SATA 160GB drives plugged into SATA sockets on the mother board as a RAID configuration.

The above SATA drives(s) and BIOS are set to be primary default first BOOT Drives with Windows-XP booting as the Operating System.

An external USB2 320 MB Mass Storage device [Hard Drive] was hot plugged detected, and works fine as an external removable mass storage device.

MJ-KC has added another working 250MB internal enhanced ATA/IDE Hard Drive removed from an older computer with it's own PCI slot based enhanced interface ATA/IDE drive controller card and I assume 80 conductor/shielded standard IDE looking flat cable connected directly to the 250MB Hard Drive.

(It's understood that the 250MB drive was used on an older System with Win-XP as a operating system with other Hard Drives as the boot drive, so this 250MB drive was configured and physically jumpered as a slave non bootable drive that never was formatted with a operating system and used for storage and programs. All the files were deleted on this hard drive.)

OK if you agree with the above I'll tell you why I think your having problems with drive identification and slowing down when its connected.

It would be nice to know the Mfg. and model of that 250MB Drive and the make and model of the PCI enhanced controller card, and what system model or type mother board you have. You then could find the specifications of that drive for jumper selection, Interface speed, re ATA/66/100/133 etc. and the cache size, Rotation Speed, and read write performance available on the internet.

Your problem is most likely the enhanced PCI controller card which has its own BIOS which must interface through the PCI buss as a separate controller and boot device to your current mother board. This external controller does slow down the communication and path as compared to your enhanced controllers onboard. Missing drivers and/or files and drive assignment the controller writes could also add to delays and confusion.

Your mother board is newer and already has an enhanced ATA/IDE*133/100/66/33 downward compatible enhance controller onboard. There is no reason to use that slower external controller card that you brought over with the drive.

Turn off your system and unplug it from the wall as most ATX power supplies still are on and active and have logic level control and still supply power to the mother board and PCI bus.

Remove the PCI external Hard Drive controller card and set aside leaving the enhanced 80 conductor flat conductor on the drive. Check the jumpers on the back of the hard drive to insure its set as Slave drive. Now insert the keyed flat cable by itself into the unused channel IDE channel on your mother board or if necessary move the DVD's to the other channel by themselves with the DVD burner set as master, and the DVD-ROM set as slave.

Reconnect the power cord, turn on your system, and immediately go into the BIOS set up Screen. Set the detected drive 1 to auto detect (LBA) and check to see if the DVD's are detected. Exit the screen and Save [usually F10) and reboot. You now should have C: and D: if the SATA drives are separate, or C: drive 0, and D: drive 1. I would immediately set the partition active as non bootable, and re-format the 250MB without a system. It should now come up fast with no hesitation or confusion, and be a little slower but almost as fast as the SATA Primary Boot drives.

Let us know what happens and if the speed and hesitation improves, and you have another 249 MB or so of drive space. It's got to work better, faster, and more efficient this way.

Good luck,

"NG"

[usmc1]

Holy Crap! You guys have just scared the living bejesus out of me--and I ain't scared of a damned thing!

I've got a P3, with a 10 gig HD that's has about 86 to 90% used space, can we spell s-l-o-w? Defrag essentailly says don't bother, i ain't got enough room to work.

So for $100 bucks less if I go to Frys in Dallas I could add a HD, and I was thinking internal--

Eveyone tells me the process is simple and clear and that the in-box software walks you through. Well, I've heard that before.

But, my questions were going to be more along the line of, how does this work? What happens to the data on my current HD, how do the two drives work together, could I leave windows and etc, on my current drive and maybe setup the other drive with Lexus.

Am I preparing to launch my self on a fool's mission and have to take the mess to the GEEK squad to straighten out. I'm ususally fairly quick to pick things up and have added memory, changed out modems, but this I think is more than a tune-up, it seems to be rebuilding the carbuerator.

It's something I'd really rather do myself, just for the learning experience, but, I think I'll need someone to talk me through it if I hit a problem.

Anyway, its a couple of weeks in the future.

But, I got to tell you, you guys paint a daunting picture.