I wonder if anyone can answer this for me. I had a Seagate drive that was
deemed faulty with the above fault so I returned it under warrantee. I
received a replacement that gives the same error at the first boot during
the windows XP setup routine. With the drive in the removable caddy the
error occurs but if I connect the drive to the IDE cables directly the drive
will boot ok. I have a 120Gb drive normally working in the bay and that has
always been fine, my second drive is a 250Gb drive so the bios does not have
a problem with large drives. All IDE cables are 80 pins type.

Any suggestions are welcome.

thanks
Neil

"neil" <neilp67_@_hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Ewm3j.28511$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I wonder if anyone can answer this for me. I had a Seagate drive that was
> deemed faulty with the above fault so I returned it under warrantee. I
> received a replacement that gives the same error at the first boot during
> the windows XP setup routine. With the drive in the removable caddy the
> error occurs but if I connect the drive to the IDE cables directly the
drive
> will boot ok. I have a 120Gb drive normally working in the bay and that
has
> always been fine, my second drive is a 250Gb drive so the bios does not
have
> a problem with large drives. All IDE cables are 80 pins type.
>
> Any suggestions are welcome.
>
> thanks
> Neil
>
>


The caddy or it's base *CAN* fail...

I have about 25 removable drives in a total of three computers and have
found that the caddy or it's base can fail from time to time...

Hi,
I dont think its a failure of the caddy because I can still use the
120Gb drive as normal & if I put in a 20Gb drive into the caddy which
I have fitted the 160Gb previously the 20Gb drive will boot and load
the OS on that disk.
Neil

On 29 Nov, 00:44, "philo" <ph...@privacy.net> wrote:
> "neil" <neilp67_@_hotmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:Ewm3j.28511$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>
>
>
>
> > I wonder if anyone can answer this for me. I had a Seagate drive that was
> > deemed faulty with the above fault so I returned it under warrantee. I
> > received a replacement that gives the same error at the first boot during
> > the windows XP setup routine. With the drive in the removable caddy the
> > error occurs but if I connect the drive to the IDE cables directly the
> drive
> > will boot ok. I have a 120Gb drive normally working in the bay and that
> has
> > always been fine, my second drive is a 250Gb drive so the bios does not
> have
> > a problem with large drives. All IDE cables are 80 pins type.
>
> > Any suggestions are welcome.
>
> > thanks
> > Neil
>
> The caddy or it's base *CAN* fail...
>
> I have about 25 removable drives in a total of three computers and have
> found that the caddy or it's base can fail from time to time...- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

On Nov 29, 5:28 am, neilp <neil...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> I dont think its a failure of the caddy because I can still use the
> 120Gb drive as normal & if I put in a 20Gb drive into the caddy which
> I have fitted the 160Gb previously the 20Gb drive will boot and load
> the OS on that disk.
> Neil
>
> On 29 Nov, 00:44, "philo" <ph...@privacy.net> wrote:
>
>
>
> > "neil" <neilp67_@_hotmail.com> wrote in message
>
> >news:Ewm3j.28511$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> > > I wonder if anyone can answer this for me. I had a Seagate drive that was
> > > deemed faulty with the above fault so I returned it under warrantee. I
> > > received a replacement that gives the same error at the first boot during
> > > the windows XP setup routine. With the drive in the removable caddy the
> > > error occurs but if I connect the drive to the IDE cables directly the
> > drive
> > > will boot ok. I have a 120Gb drive normally working in the bay and that
> > has
> > > always been fine, my second drive is a 250Gb drive so the bios does not
> > have
> > > a problem with large drives. All IDE cables are 80 pins type.
>
> > > Any suggestions are welcome.
>
> > > thanks
> > > Neil
>
> > The caddy or it's base *CAN* fail...
>
> > I have about 25 removable drives in a total of three computers and have
> > found that the caddy or it's base can fail from time to time...- Hide quoted text -
>
> > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

What tyoe if IDE cabke is the "caddy" using? IDE cables for most hard
drives should be the 80 wire / 40 pin Ultra DMA IDE cables.

Caddys are not that reliable for the larger hard drives (greater than
the bios LBA limit of 137GB.)

Hi,
The cable in the caddy is an 80 wire as is the cable from the IDE connector
on the motherboard. I was beginning to think it was something to do with the
137Gb limit, but I wondered if anyone could confirm that.
The box identifies the caddy as ATA33/66/100/133. I can't quite understand
why it will allow files to be copied to it but not boot.

thank for the feedback
Neil
"smlunatick" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:af58c0c0-5876-4d3c-8e4f-(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Nov 29, 5:28 am, neilp <neil...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>> I dont think its a failure of the caddy because I can still use the
>> 120Gb drive as normal & if I put in a 20Gb drive into the caddy which
>> I have fitted the 160Gb previously the 20Gb drive will boot and load
>> the OS on that disk.
>> Neil
>>
>> On 29 Nov, 00:44, "philo" <ph...@privacy.net> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> > "neil" <neilp67_@_hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>
>> >news:Ewm3j.28511$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>> > > I wonder if anyone can answer this for me. I had a Seagate drive that
>> > > was
>> > > deemed faulty with the above fault so I returned it under warrantee.
>> > > I
>> > > received a replacement that gives the same error at the first boot
>> > > during
>> > > the windows XP setup routine. With the drive in the removable caddy
>> > > the
>> > > error occurs but if I connect the drive to the IDE cables directly
>> > > the
>> > drive
>> > > will boot ok. I have a 120Gb drive normally working in the bay and
>> > > that
>> > has
>> > > always been fine, my second drive is a 250Gb drive so the bios does
>> > > not
>> > have
>> > > a problem with large drives. All IDE cables are 80 pins type.
>>
>> > > Any suggestions are welcome.
>>
>> > > thanks
>> > > Neil
>>
>> > The caddy or it's base *CAN* fail...
>>
>> > I have about 25 removable drives in a total of three computers and have
>> > found that the caddy or it's base can fail from time to time...- Hide
>> > quoted text -
>>
>> > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> - Show quoted text -
>
> What tyoe if IDE cabke is the "caddy" using? IDE cables for most hard
> drives should be the 80 wire / 40 pin Ultra DMA IDE cables.
>
> Caddys are not that reliable for the larger hard drives (greater than
> the bios LBA limit of 137GB.)

Neil,

I often experience this or something that sounds like it could be your
problem. When I introduce a "new" HD via my swap
tray + caddy system, my ASUS Bios can / occasionally / often decides
to change the listed order of my boot drives in BIOS setup (under
Boot / Drive Priority).

So in goes the caddy, boot, BIOS sees the new drive and sets it as
the primary boot device in position #3 (after my floppy and CD which
it leaves alone) and then refuses to boot from it giving me an error
message to replace with system disk or drive and then restart.

So I have to do into BIOS and rearrange my list of HDs and then
into Boot Priority and select my boot HD again for position #3.

That works until I introduce a "new" drive into the swap tray at
some point and then ASUS Bios gets all confused again and I have
to go in and set up the drive list and then the boot priority again.

So investigate that possibility to see if there is something helpful
in my experiences.

kda
--------------------------------------

On Thu, 29 Nov 2007 02:28:28 -0800 (PST), neilp <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Hi,
>I dont think its a failure of the caddy because I can still use the
>120Gb drive as normal & if I put in a 20Gb drive into the caddy which
>I have fitted the 160Gb previously the 20Gb drive will boot and load
>the OS on that disk.
>Neil
>
>On 29 Nov, 00:44, "philo" <ph...@privacy.net> wrote:
>> "neil" <neilp67_@_hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>
>> news:Ewm3j.28511$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> > I wonder if anyone can answer this for me. I had a Seagate drive that was
>> > deemed faulty with the above fault so I returned it under warrantee. I
>> > received a replacement that gives the same error at the first boot during
>> > the windows XP setup routine. With the drive in the removable caddy the
>> > error occurs but if I connect the drive to the IDE cables directly the
>> drive
>> > will boot ok. I have a 120Gb drive normally working in the bay and that
>> has
>> > always been fine, my second drive is a 250Gb drive so the bios does not
>> have
>> > a problem with large drives. All IDE cables are 80 pins type.
>>
>> > Any suggestions are welcome.
>>
>> > thanks
>> > Neil
>>
>> The caddy or it's base *CAN* fail...
>>
>> I have about 25 removable drives in a total of three computers and have
>> found that the caddy or it's base can fail from time to time...- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> - Show quoted text -

>> "neil" <neilp67_@_hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> > I wonder if anyone can answer this for me. I had a Seagate drive that
>> > was
>> > deemed faulty with the above fault so I returned it under warrantee. I
>> > received a replacement that gives the same error at the first boot
>> > during
>> > the windows XP setup routine. With the drive in the removable caddy the
>> > error occurs but if I connect the drive to the IDE cables directly the
>> > drive will boot ok. I have a 120Gb drive normally working in the bay
>> > and that
>> > has always been fine, my second drive is a 250Gb drive so the bios does
>> > not
>> > have a problem with large drives. All IDE cables are 80 pins type.
>> > Any suggestions are welcome.
>>
>> > thanks
>> > Neil


>> On 29 Nov, 00:44, "philo" <ph...@privacy.net> wrote:
>> The caddy or it's base *CAN* fail...
>> I have about 25 removable drives in a total of three computers and have
>> found that the caddy or it's base can fail from time to time...


"neilp" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:723a58ab-5c63-4a9a-979e-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
> I dont think its a failure of the caddy because I can still use the
> 120Gb drive as normal & if I put in a 20Gb drive into the caddy which
> I have fitted the 160Gb previously the 20Gb drive will boot and load
> the OS on that disk.
> Neil


Neil:
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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

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)?
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?

(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.)

> 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

On Nov 29, 11:54 am, "neil" <neilp67_@_hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> The cable in the caddy is an 80 wire as is the cable from the IDE connector
> on the motherboard. I was beginning to think it was something to do with the
> 137Gb limit, but I wondered if anyone could confirm that.
> The box identifies the caddy as ATA33/66/100/133. I can't quite understand
> why it will allow files to be copied to it but not boot.
>
> thank for the feedback
> Neil"smlunatick" <yves...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:af58c0c0-5876-4d3c-8e4f-(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>
>
> > On Nov 29, 5:28 am, neilp <neil...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >> I dont think its a failure of the caddy because I can still use the
> >> 120Gb drive as normal & if I put in a 20Gb drive into the caddy which
> >> I have fitted the 160Gb previously the 20Gb drive will boot and load
> >> the OS on that disk.
> >> Neil
>
> >> On 29 Nov, 00:44, "philo" <ph...@privacy.net> wrote:
>
> >> > "neil" <neilp67_@_hotmail.com> wrote in message
>
> >> >news:Ewm3j.28511$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> >> > > I wonder if anyone can answer this for me. I had a Seagate drive that
> >> > > was
> >> > > deemed faulty with the above fault so I returned it under warrantee.
> >> > > I
> >> > > received a replacement that gives the same error at the first boot
> >> > > during
> >> > > the windows XP setup routine. With the drive in the removable caddy
> >> > > the
> >> > > error occurs but if I connect the drive to the IDE cables directly
> >> > > the
> >> > drive
> >> > > will boot ok. I have a 120Gb drive normally working in the bay and
> >> > > that
> >> > has
> >> > > always been fine, my second drive is a 250Gb drive so the bios does
> >> > > not
> >> > have
> >> > > a problem with large drives. All IDE cables are 80 pins type.
>
> >> > > Any suggestions are welcome.
>
> >> > > thanks
> >> > > Neil
>
> >> > The caddy or it's base *CAN* fail...
>
> >> > I have about 25 removable drives in a total of three computers and have
> >> > found that the caddy or it's base can fail from time to time...- Hide
> >> > quoted text -
>
> >> > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
>
> >> - Show quoted text -
>
> > What tyoe if IDE cabke is the "caddy" using? IDE cables for most hard
> > drives should be the 80 wire / 40 pin Ultra DMA IDE cables.
>
> > Caddys are not that reliable for the larger hard drives (greater than
> > the bios LBA limit of 137GB.)- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Check the BIOS so as to see if the 160GB drive is correctly detected.
If the BIOS detects it, the check for the version of XP. You must
have XP with at least Service Pack 1 installed / slipstreamed on your
system before the HD is correctly access.

BTW: You never mentioned the "caddy" make / model.

Hi,
The drive size is correctly detected in the bios either in the caddy or
directly connected to the IDE cable. The caddy is a "Data-Castle" BT-27 RH
mobile rack. XP is a slipstream copy with SP2.
I'm not sure if that will help at all.

Neil

"smlunatick" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:badaecee-fbc9-4026-a626-(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Nov 29, 11:54 am, "neil" <neilp67_@_hotmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>> The cable in the caddy is an 80 wire as is the cable from the IDE
>> connector
>> on the motherboard. I was beginning to think it was something to do with
>> the
>> 137Gb limit, but I wondered if anyone could confirm that.
>> The box identifies the caddy as ATA33/66/100/133. I can't quite
>> understand
>> why it will allow files to be copied to it but not boot.
>>
>> thank for the feedback
>> Neil"smlunatick" <yves...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>>
>> news:af58c0c0-5876-4d3c-8e4f-(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>>
>>
>> > On Nov 29, 5:28 am, neilp <neil...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> >> Hi,
>> >> I dont think its a failure of the caddy because I can still use the
>> >> 120Gb drive as normal & if I put in a 20Gb drive into the caddy which
>> >> I have fitted the 160Gb previously the 20Gb drive will boot and load
>> >> the OS on that disk.
>> >> Neil
>>
>> >> On 29 Nov, 00:44, "philo" <ph...@privacy.net> wrote:
>>
>> >> > "neil" <neilp67_@_hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>
>> >> >news:Ewm3j.28511$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>> >> > > I wonder if anyone can answer this for me. I had a Seagate drive
>> >> > > that
>> >> > > was
>> >> > > deemed faulty with the above fault so I returned it under
>> >> > > warrantee.
>> >> > > I
>> >> > > received a replacement that gives the same error at the first boot
>> >> > > during
>> >> > > the windows XP setup routine. With the drive in the removable
>> >> > > caddy
>> >> > > the
>> >> > > error occurs but if I connect the drive to the IDE cables directly
>> >> > > the
>> >> > drive
>> >> > > will boot ok. I have a 120Gb drive normally working in the bay and
>> >> > > that
>> >> > has
>> >> > > always been fine, my second drive is a 250Gb drive so the bios
>> >> > > does
>> >> > > not
>> >> > have
>> >> > > a problem with large drives. All IDE cables are 80 pins type.
>>
>> >> > > Any suggestions are welcome.
>>
>> >> > > thanks
>> >> > > Neil
>>
>> >> > The caddy or it's base *CAN* fail...
>>
>> >> > I have about 25 removable drives in a total of three computers and
>> >> > have
>> >> > found that the caddy or it's base can fail from time to time...-
>> >> > Hide
>> >> > quoted text -
>>
>> >> > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> >> - Show quoted text -
>>
>> > What tyoe if IDE cabke is the "caddy" using? IDE cables for most hard
>> > drives should be the 80 wire / 40 pin Ultra DMA IDE cables.
>>
>> > Caddys are not that reliable for the larger hard drives (greater than
>> > the bios LBA limit of 137GB.)- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> - Show quoted text -
>
> Check the BIOS so as to see if the 160GB drive is correctly detected.
> If the BIOS detects it, the check for the version of XP. You must
> have XP with at least Service Pack 1 installed / slipstreamed on your
> system before the HD is correctly access.
>
> BTW: You never mentioned the "caddy" make / model.