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


"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


"neil" <neilp67_@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Hi Anna,
I have tried the drive connected to the internal IDE and in the caddy,
using master & cable select but no change. I now have the drive with a
copy of XP SP2 fully installed and if I put it in the caddy I get the
error message "disk read error press ctr alt del" at boot, but if I
connect it to the internal IDE cable using the cable that is normally
connected to the caddy (primary master) then it boots into XP and works
without error.
I did put it into the same tray as my normal 120Gb drive and the error is
the same. Both 120Gb & 160Gb are set to "cable select".

Any ideas
Neil


Neil:
It is indeed a strange situation. Just to summarize...

1. You know there's no problem with your mobile rack & its removable tray
because when you insert the bootable 120 GB HDD (jumpered as Master or
Single) it boots without incident and functions just fine, right?.

2. But when you insert the bootable Seagate 160 GB HDD similarly jumpered as
Master, in the same mobile rack and in same removable tray, it won't boot
and you get that error message. And you're absolutely sure you've properly
inserted that Seagate in the removable tray so that it's making proper
contact with the tray's internal connectors (power & data), right?

I think you mentioned you had two mobile racks - I'm assuming they're the
same make & model. If so, did you try using the second removable tray with
the Seagate?

3. And when you connect the Seagate directly to the *same* IDE cable that
was connected to the rack so that the Seagate is functioning as an
"internal" HDD, it boots & functions just fine. So there's obviously no
problem with the drive itself.

4. And you did check your BIOS just on the off-chance that there might be
some selection/option/element etc. that might impact on this problem?

Assuming I completely & correctly understand the situation as described
above I honestly don't know what to suggest. When we've run into previous
(roughly) similar cases like the one you describe, i.e., no defective
components immediately discerned, the problem was invariably due to
incorrect jumpering of the disk, or improper insertion of the drive in the
removable tray, or use of another IDE data cable which proved defective, or
an incorrect BIOS setting re boot priority order. Although I have to add
that we encountered a (very) few cases where for some unaccountable reason a
non-defective perfectly good HDD would not work in a non-defective perfectly
good mobile rack even though we determined all connections were proper and
all the involved components were non-defective. An extremely rare occurrence
in my experience but it did happen.

Anyway, go over things again and please keep us informed of developments.
Anna


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