A Problem with Adding 2nd Hard Drive to Windows 2000

[Bob]

I have a Dell PowerEdge 500SC server running Windows 2000 Server. (Bios
Revision A03)

It currently has one IBM Deskstar 60 GB hard drive.

I just bought a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 200 GB hard drive (Model 6L200PO).

Both drives are set to "cable select" with the original IBM drive being the
Master, and Maxtor being the Slave.

Upon boot-up, I got this error:

"Boot Record Signature AA55 Not Found
The system did not load because of a computer disk hardware configuration
problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk."

What can I do to resolve this?

Thank you.

 

[Frankster]

I just installed a Maxtor 160Gig second drive into two 500SC servers running
W2K3 in the same config you have (cable select/slave) with no issues.

According to the drive installation booklet you must be running Windows 2000
SP3 or higher (higher meaning XP, Windows 2003, etc).

Did you follow the instructions? By that I mean, did you first physically
install the drive, second, run the installation CD (before trying to access
the drive in Windows!)? The instructions worked well for me. I have the
full 160GB formatted as one drive.

-Frank

 

[Mistoffolees]

I have a Dell PowerEdge 500SC server running Windows 2000 Server. (Bios
Revision A03)

It currently has one IBM Deskstar 60 GB hard drive.

I just bought a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 200 GB hard drive (Model 6L200PO).

Both drives are set to "cable select" with the original IBM drive being the
Master, and Maxtor being the Slave.

Upon boot-up, I got this error:

"Boot Record Signature AA55 Not Found
The system did not load because of a computer disk hardware configuration
problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk."

What can I do to resolve this?

Thank you.

Using a "cable select" ribbon cable to connect the two
hard drives and the drives are positioned accordingly on
the cable? But if using a normal cable, then the drives
must be jumpered as Master and Slave.

 

[Frankster]

Using a "cable select" ribbon cable to connect the two

hard drives and the drives are positioned accordingly on
the cable? But if using a normal cable, then the drives
must be jumpered as Master and Slave.

My Dell 500SCs both came with cable select cables installed.

-Frank

 

[Bob]

That's good news, Frankster!

My Maxtor DiamondMax 10 200 GB hard drive (Model 6L200PO) is an OEM drive.
That means, it came without any instructions or CD. Just the bare drive.


Can you tell me what programs the installation CD contains? Which programs
do I need to run? (I hope I can gather all of those from the Maxtor.com
website.)

My 500SC has bios A03. Do I need any update, or is that revision adequate?

As a test, I installed this same HD on a brand new Dell Dimension computer
(as a slave drive). It runs Windows XP. It had no problem recognizing the
drive and I was able to partition and format it as well. Now, I just need
to make it work on my Dell PowerEdge 500SC.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Bob]

Yup, cable-wise, I think everything is correct. I just don't have the
"installation CD" that you referred to because it's an OEM drive. :-(

 

[Enkidu]

My Dell 500SCs both came with cable select cables installed.

Then the drives should be jumpered as "Cable Select" or
"CS". They should not be jumpered as "Master" and "Slave".

Cheers,

Cliff

 

[Enkidu]

I have a Dell PowerEdge 500SC server running Windows 2000 Server. (Bios
Revision A03)

It currently has one IBM Deskstar 60 GB hard drive.

I just bought a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 200 GB hard drive (Model 6L200PO).

Both drives are set to "cable select" with the original
IBM drive being the Master, and Maxtor being the Slave.

Can you expand on what you mean here?

If it doesn't work the way you have it, you could try (at
your own risk of course) with the drives plugged the
opposite way round, ie the first where the second is and
vice versa.

Cheers,

Cliff

 

[Frankster]

My Dell 500SCs both came with cable select cables installed.

Then the drives should be jumpered as "Cable Select" or "CS". They should
not be jumpered as "Master" and "Slave".

Cheers,

Cliff

Yes, that is true. And that is what I did. No problems.

-Frank

 

[Frankster]

The CD contains, basically, a program that does a registry adjustment to
allow for LBA (large block support - or similar) to allow the entire drive
to be recognized. It also partitions and formats the drive, giving you a
choice of a data drive (what I chose) or a boot drive.

I just looked at the Maxtor website and I believe the one you want is
"Maxblast 4 For Windows". Have a look yourself.

-Frank

 

[Bob]

Both drives are set to "cable select" with the original

Can you expand on what you mean here?

Certainly. The appropriate jumpers are applied to both IBM and Maxtor
drives to go "cable select". Then using the cable, I connected the one
labeled "Master" to the existing IBM Deskstar drive; I connected the one
labeled "Slave" to the Maxtor drive.

 

[Bob]

Thanks, Frankster.

Does Maxblast 4 for Windows modify the Dell PowerEdge 500SC bios? Does it
modify my original IBM Deskstar boot drive? And finally, does it modify my
new Maxtor drive?

 

[Enkidu]

Certainly. The appropriate jumpers are applied to both
IBM and Maxtor drives to go "cable select". Then using
the cable, I connected the one labeled "Master" to the
existing IBM Deskstar drive; I connected the one
labeled "Slave" to the Maxtor drive.

Ah, OK. Quite often those CS cables only have blue and black
connectors with no other indication.

Cheers,

Cliff

 

[Frankster]

- No modification to the original IBM drive (I have one of these also in
mine)
- No modification to the BIOS (in fact, the BIOS screen will remain adjusted
to No Drive Installed, rather than showing the type).
- It does modify the new drive in the sense that it partitions and formats
it, that's all.

I am one that is usually suspect of drive utilities. In the olden days
(smile!) I used to go to great lengths to do everything manually so as not
to rely on any proprietary format that might not work in another machine. So
I think I understand your concern. I will say however that I have "got over"
those days and now simply make sure I perform suitable backups of important
data so I can recover the data to another machine if/when necessary.

Having said that, I will also say that I really liked the Maxtor Maxblast
software. It worked well and as near as I can tell would work just as well
on any W2K SP3 or above computer. Bottom line, I was happy with it and feel
comfortable that it is sound software.

-Frank

 

[Bob]

Thanks, Frank. I'm downloading the Maxblast software now from Maxtor.com.

Will report back if it works or not. Thanks again.

 

[Bob]

Frank, I'm downloading the MaxBlast 4 Bootable CD .ISO Image File right now.

My Maxtor drive is 200 GB. Do I also need the Maxtor Big Drive Enabler (or,
does MaxBlast 4 already contain it?)?

Link:
http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/m...tware Downloads/ATA Hard Drives&downloadID=11

 

[Bob]

Yes, besides the color-coordinated connectors, the words MASTER and SLAVE
are also printed on the cable ribbon itself. Convenient.

 

[Bob]

One more thing. Because of the struggles that I was having with my Dell
PowerEdge 500SC and this new Maxtor 200GB harddrive, I decided to install
this drive on my newest Dell Dimension desktop computer so that I could
transfer 100 GB of data over to this new drive.

That Dell Dimension desktop computer runs on Windows XP. Unlike the
PowerEdge 500SC, the Dell Dimension recognized the new Maxtor 200GB
immediately. I then used the Windows XP -> My Computer -> Manage ->
Partition hard drive. It formatted the drive fully.

Next, I transferred all of the necessary 100 GB over to this new drive (IT
TOOK HOURS!!!). Afterwards, I removed this drive from the desktop computer
as I plan to re-install it in my Dell PowerEdge 500SC.

My question is, when I re-install this 200GB HD to my 500SC, and use the
MaxBlast 4 software, would I be able to keep all these data? Or, do I have
to re-format, re-partition, re-copy the 100GB of data again?

Thanks!

 

[Frankster]

Since the on-line description says....

"Maxtor's Big Drive Enabler is a one step executable that enables support
for drives larger than 137 Gigabytes in Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 and XP
Service Pack 1."

I'd guess that you might need it. However, XP is now at SP2. So... I
suppose it is entirely likely that SP2 included this type of "fix". So, I
can't be sure. I just used the CD straight out, according to the
instructions, and everything worked. I didn't try to install the drive
"manually" in advance.

-Frank

 

[Frankster]

You're a test pilot Bob! LOL! I have no idea

-Frank