Re: 160 Gb drive in a removable caddy give "disk error press ctrl alt del" on boot

Anna,
I'll try out what you suggest and see what happens, although I think over
the last week I have already tried it but it's worth checking.
My copy of XP is a slipstream with SP2 so it always "sees" the whole drive
capacity be it the 120Gb, 160Gb or 250Gb (as secondary) it's just the
ability to boot on the 160Gb. I never tried to boot on the 250Gb as it has
always been a "data" only drive.

I'll post back any results.
Thanks again for your time.
Neil

"Anna" <myname@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"neil" <neilp67_@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Just to ensure we're talking about the same type of component - a mobile
rack that's affixed to a desktop's 5 1/4" bay that has a removable tray
(caddy) housing a HDD -- that's right, isn't it? And if so, you're
working with only a single mobile rack, right?

That is correct..

1. First of all, has this problem just arisen, i.e., has the Seagate
*ever* worked properly while it was installed in the mobile rack or has
it *never* properly functioned while installed in the mobile rack?

The Seagate drive has never worked in the caddy, I thought it was faulty
and sent it back under warrantee but the replacement acts just the same
as the original drive. This made me investigate further by connecting it
directly to the IDE cable and that is when I found out it will boot in
that configuration...

2. And you say that when the removable tray contains your bootable 120
GB HDD it boots & functions just fine, right? Obviously indicating
there's no problem with the rack itself, right?

That is correct..


3. But when you insert your bootable Seagate 160 GB HDD in the *same*
removable tray in the *same* mobile rack, you get the "disk error..."
message you refer to and the drive is not bootable. Right?

I fit it into my second removable tray and that is when I get the boot
error..I have always left the 120Gb drive in what I call my 1st tray,
suppose I could try putting the Seagate in the second tray..


4. But you know there's nothing wrong with the Seagate because it boots
& functions just fine when you connect it as an internal HDD, right? And
when you do this the Seagate is jumpered as Master and is connected to
your Primary IDE connector on the motherboard, right? And your mobile
rack is similarly connected as Primary Master when it's in use? So that
when you connect the Seagate as an internal Primary Master (for testing
purposes), you disconnect the mobile rack's IDE cable connected to the
rack and use it to connect the Seagate, right?

Yes, but I use cable select for either the 120Gb or the 160Gb and when I
have use a 20Gb drive in the second bay.. The 250Gb permanent drive is
also set as cable select...


Think there's any chance that the problem you're experiencing may be in
the HDD jumpering as related to the IDE cable connections/configurations
to the motherboard's IDE channel(s)?

I have tried both cable select & master links.

Anna

P.S.
You indicated in a subsequent post that you think the problem may be due
to the large-drive limitation involving HDDs > 137 GB. But didn't you
indicate that the full disk capacity of your 250 GB HDD is detected in
your system without any problems?

The full capacity has always been seen of all drives it is just a boot
issue not a full capacity issue...


(I note the comment from a responder to your query to the effect that
"Caddys are not that reliable for the larger hard drives (greater than
the bios LBA limit of 137GB.)". That has not been our experience and we
have worked with a wide variety of mobile racks in many, many systems
over the year. As long as the BIOS supports large-drive capability and
your XP OS contains SP1 and/or SP2 at the time you install the OS onto
the HDD, there's no problem with the mobile rack itself not detecting
HDDs > 137 GB. At least we've never once encountered that problem.)

It just crossed my mind that it might have something to do with the 137Gb
limit as the drives I swap that are less than 137Gb do boot, but the
first time I use a drive >137Gb (as a boot drive) in the caddy it
doesn't.

Thanks for taking the time to run through the issues, hoping you can come
up with a resolution.

Neil


Neil:
As I previously indicated, *all* that is necessary for the system to
recognize a large-capacity HDD, i.e., one whose capacity is > 137 GB
(approx.), are two requirements...
1. The XP OS contains either SP1 or SP2 at the time the OS is installed on
the HDD, and,
2. Your motherboard's BIOS supports large-capacity disks. And we know
there's no problem here because you've indicated the system detects the
full capacity of one of your secondary 250 GB HDDs (at least that's what I
think you stated).

That's it. Nothing else. It has nothing to do with the mobile rack itself.

In any event, if it happened that the XP OS that was installed on your
Seagate HDD did *not* contain SP1 or SP2 at the time the OS was installed,
the system would still detect the drive; it just wouldn't detect its full
capacity. It should still boot and function properly except for the
unrecognized additional disk space.

As a test, could you jumper the Seagate as Master (rather than CS),
install it in the removable tray, and ensure the IDE cable is connected to
the Primary IDE connector on the motherboard, and disconnect your second
mobile rack together with any other connected internal HDD? Then attempt a
boot. Same problem?

And, if so, if you uninstalled the Seagate from the removable tray and
installed the 120 GB HDD, jumpered as Master, in the same mobile rack
still connected to the motherboard's Primary IDE connector, it will boot?

And you say, setting aside the removable HDD mobile racks, that the
Seagate 160 GB if *directly* connected to the Primary IDE channel as an
internal HDD will boot & function properly?

Could you detect anything in the motherboard's BIOS settings relative to
boot priority order or some such that might shed some light on this?
Although as you describe the situation (as I understand it) it's hard for
me to conceive that's where the problem lays. But maybe...
Anna



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