Hard drive installing...

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   Long story but will try and leave out the messy details...at least to later:

The desktop has four hard drives.  SATA  Two are bootable for OS's.  (That's the MB specs...only two channels can be used to boot.)

Two Raptors for OS's.
Two Maxtor's for data.

No partitioning of individual drives.

So, bottom line, how many drives can be marked "active" without having any problems?

All four drives show up in Windows (XP) if the BIOS is set to "native IDE" for SATA setup.

If I set the BIOS to AHCI in order to hot swap...I keep losing one of the data drives. Doesn't show up in Windows.  

Drive 2 DATA showed up...(the one that I've been using). It is set "active".

Drive 3 DATA didn't show up. It was also set "active". So I finally used a Seagate tool, wiped it, then reinstalled it in computer management. It now shows up in Windows...but Drive 2 no longer does.

Have I confused you?  

All four drives show up just fine and dandy if I boot from a disk, like Image For Windows, or Spinrite. Just not after booting into Windows.

Just a puzzle.  I'm copying the data over to an external now before I play with the missing drive...but can't figure out what I've foobar'd.  

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Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29296	Quote Reply Topic: Hard drive installing... Posted: 10 Jan 2011 at 1:05pm
	Long story but will try and leave out the messy details...at least to later: The desktop has four hard drives. SATA Two are bootable for OS's. (That's the MB specs...only two channels can be used to boot.) Two Raptors for OS's. Two Maxtor's for data. No partitioning of individual drives. So, bottom line, how many drives can be marked "active" without having any problems? All four drives show up in Windows (XP) if the BIOS is set to "native IDE" for SATA setup. If I set the BIOS to AHCI in order to hot swap...I keep losing one of the data drives. Doesn't show up in Windows. Drive 2 DATA showed up...(the one that I've been using). It is set "active". Drive 3 DATA didn't show up. It was also set "active". So I finally used a Seagate tool, wiped it, then reinstalled it in computer management. It now shows up in Windows...but Drive 2 no longer does. Have I confused you? All four drives show up just fine and dandy if I boot from a disk, like Image For Windows, or Spinrite. Just not after booting into Windows. Just a puzzle. I'm copying the data over to an external now before I play with the missing drive...but can't figure out what I've foobar'd.

Don Watkins Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Admin Group Admin Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 22243	Quote Reply Posted: 10 Jan 2011 at 2:04pm
	Wow, no idea. When you say it doesn't show up it doesn't show up in explorer or explorer as well as disk manager?

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29296	Quote Reply Posted: 10 Jan 2011 at 3:12pm
	It's invisible. To everybody...computer...explorer...disk manager...partition magic. It's gone Jim. (Sorry). I've copied everything over to a USB drive and running a sync program now to make sure everything copied. Did it the old fashioned way and there's always a few stubborn folders. LOL And I downloaded Gpartered to play with. I can't hurt much. The only thing on any of the drives right now is the data drive I just copied...and XP that I reinstalled yesterday. (I swear....once I get everything updated, this time I'll make an image of it...and remember where I put it. HeeHee)

Randy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 22 Mar 2008 Location: USA, Georgia Posts: 15259	Quote Reply Posted: 10 Jan 2011 at 3:54pm
	Sorry to hear of the aggravation. I've never heard of having drives that are limited to being just data.

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29296	Quote Reply Posted: 10 Jan 2011 at 4:13pm
	No. Sorry. I'll have to find the reference to a limit of "x" partitions or drives that can be marked (formated) as a "boot" drive. (With the "boot flag") Evidently there's more to it than that. I used Gparted to remove the boot flag from that disk. Then changed BIOS setting from "native IDE" to "ACHI". The disk, again, is missing once Windows boot. I'm getting ready to wipe it out. If, when AHCI is enable, I look at device manager, disk drives, it says: ATI 1+0 JBOD SCSI Disk Device.

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29296	Quote Reply Posted: 10 Jan 2011 at 4:15pm
	BTW FWIW: Gparted. Cool tool!!! And a GUI!!

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29296	Quote Reply Posted: 10 Jan 2011 at 8:16pm
	Well....pooh. I've spent hours trying this, that, and a few other things to nail it down. I've skipped a few steps I'd planned to do because I is tired.....and I'm throwing the big gun at it now: Windows 7. (I had it installed for a couple of days before starting the fresh reinstalls...)

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29296	Quote Reply Posted: 10 Jan 2011 at 9:45pm
	Interesting. Windows 7...smooooooth as silk with all the drives. No problems. Lots of other stuff but....snooze time.

Randy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 22 Mar 2008 Location: USA, Georgia Posts: 15259	Quote Reply Posted: 10 Jan 2011 at 11:41pm
	Good deal. Glad you got 'er done tonight. Yep, I use Gparted exclusively now for fiddling with partitions. It's been a dependable tool for me.

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29296	Quote Reply Posted: 11 Jan 2011 at 3:40am
	Well...not quite done. LOL It looks like I can switch back and forth between "native IDE" and "AHCI" in the BIOS...now that XP and Win7 were installed when AHCI was enabled. But not something that looks like a desirable thing to do. With AHCI...Win7 lists all the HD's as "removable". So I assume that the front SATA connector thing would actually work with Win7. The notion of being able to hot swap HD's is appealing...for backup drives...or recording movies/TV... On the silver lining side....I searched through my hard drive container last night, thinking I had another SATA drive I could throw in....just to make sure it wasn't something with the drive itself. I found an old Maxtor 100GB v1 drive.....and a 1TB Hitachi drive I'd forgotten all about that one...got it over a year ago but never put it in; will now! So I'll play a little more with it just to see if it's worthwhile to leave it as is (AHCI enabled) or to reinstall XP (groan!) normal. Can't see me using it a whole lot...but for some programs....and it's like an old friend.

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29296	Quote Reply Posted: 11 Jan 2011 at 3:48am
	What's strange...this whole wild thing started with Acronis True Image. While going through last years Tax box (plastic storage box)...I found an unopened TI 2010. I can only vaguely remember it showing up while I was doing taxes last year...and shoving it aside till taxes was done. They're done now. HeeHee Short story...I upgraded the installed TI 2009 to the 2010 version. (Installed on the fresh XP install.) But 2010 wouldn't see all the hard drives either. Especially if running from a boot disk or from before Windows starting. (Shock!) So I downloaded the 2011 trial version of TI. Same thing. No idea why. But...if I use the old 2009 TI boot disk...it works just fine and dandy. Conclusion: something is amiss with TI versions newer than 2009s. (Especially since every other boot disk program I have sees all the drives just fine.) Aggravating to be sent down a time-consuming false path by TI.

Randy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 22 Mar 2008 Location: USA, Georgia Posts: 15259	Quote Reply Posted: 11 Jan 2011 at 8:14am
	I've been too chicken to play with the hot swapping even though I have one of those nice little front loading doors I added to my case so I could easily swap out drives. heh, heh... I'm much more of a risk taker with software, hardware not so much.

Don Watkins Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Admin Group Admin Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 22243	Quote Reply Posted: 11 Jan 2011 at 8:22am
	What's a reboot between friends....

Randy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 22 Mar 2008 Location: USA, Georgia Posts: 15259	Quote Reply Posted: 11 Jan 2011 at 12:23pm
	LOL! So true.

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29296	Quote Reply Posted: 11 Jan 2011 at 12:46pm
	A computerized thing put in at work (my old printing place) had a hot swap for it. They kept a backup of the software on it as every-so-often the working one would just up and freak out. Worked pretty nice for changing out drives. Although....they didn't "hot" swap...they still shut off the power. But it still made it nice to change hard drives.

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29296	Quote Reply Posted: 11 Jan 2011 at 2:53pm
	Well. I went ahead and put the Hitachi 1TB in the box after work this afternoon. I should have put it off till a better day. Murphy. Bah. It's in. But I haven't started it yet. Scared to. I might have dinged the MOBO while getting a new SATA data cord installed. Well...I did ding it. The question is if I damaged it. Couldn't get it seating so I used a very long screwdriver to gently push. It slipped. If you hear howling coming from the North in a little bit...it's not the wind....it's me crying.

Don Watkins Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Admin Group Admin Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 22243	Quote Reply Posted: 11 Jan 2011 at 3:24pm
	Ouch...it's something I've done myself from time to time. I continue to be my own worst enemy.

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29296	Quote Reply Posted: 11 Jan 2011 at 3:39pm
	Do you use the same blessings and prayers that I do after it happens..."Oh please please please....let it work...I'll never ever ever never do it again." (Till next time.) So far so good. One of these years if I do another box...LOL

Don Watkins Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Admin Group Admin Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 22243	Quote Reply Posted: 11 Jan 2011 at 4:58pm
	Haha, yup, I've said that little prayer a time or two.

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29296	Quote Reply Posted: 11 Jan 2011 at 7:36pm
	Well...I tried the hot swap. Nothing fancy as I'd reconnect the front panel SATA connector. And I was using a external power supply for the hard drive to be able to gently turn the power on and off inside of unplugging a drive power cord while it's still hot. It sort of worked. Almost. Tried a regular hard drive I'd removed and also an external eSATA device. Having the drives show up after plugging in and powering up was no problem. Disconnecting properly, and quickly, was a hassle. Let's just say the only sure way is to connect and disconnect...between computer shutdowns. My laptop has an eSATA port. It works wonderful. But then it's built into the hardware, so... (So now I'm reinstalling, fresh, normal...no AHCI option and/or floppy disks as needed depending on OS.