Mobile rack problem XP

[Ken]

I purchased a mobile rack and three interchangeable trays for storing
data I don't need very often. I installed it first in my Windows 2000
system and it functions just fine--the disks are recognized when
inserted and the powered up, and I can interchange them at will without
problems.

I recently built a new system based on Windows XP SP3. I purchased a
second mobile rack for that unit with the expectation that I could use
the mobile hdd's in either workstation.

On the XPstation I have a C: drive active partition, a D: DVD writer, an
E: partition (on the same drive as the C: drive) and an F: drive on its
own partition (separate drive). I have 6 SATA connectors on my Intel
DP35DP mb with the DVD writer on the first, disk 0 on the second, disk 1
on the third, and the mobile rack on the fourth (as they appear in the BIOS)

When I insert the tray/drive into the internal mobile rack into the XP
unit, one of two things happens:
1. the drive is not recognized
2. the drive is recognized but my drive letter for my DVD writer is
reassigned from D: to G: drive.
3. the mobile rack is not recognized in the BIOS as existingMobile

I thought it was the cables, but that is not an issue. I thought it was
the connectors, but those are not the issue. It is not the units, as
both mobile racks work in the Win2K station without problem. Thinking
it might be data written to the hdd by Win2K that was causing the
problem, I reformatted the disks, but that did not help.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Is there something that needs to be
changed in the BIOS of the new Intel motherboard? Is this a problem
with the mobile rack that is installed in my XP machine? (the unit in
the Win2K machine is IDE and in the XP machine it is a SATA connection)

Thanks

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I purchased a mobile rack and three interchangeable trays for storing data
I don't need very often. I installed it first in my Windows 2000 system
and it functions just fine--the disks are recognized when inserted and the
powered up, and I can interchange them at will without problems.

I recently built a new system based on Windows XP SP3. I purchased a
second mobile rack for that unit with the expectation that I could use the
mobile hdd's in either workstation.

On the XPstation I have a C: drive active partition, a D: DVD writer, an
E: partition (on the same drive as the C: drive) and an F: drive on its
own partition (separate drive). I have 6 SATA connectors on my Intel
DP35DP mb with the DVD writer on the first, disk 0 on the second, disk 1
on the third, and the mobile rack on the fourth (as they appear in the
BIOS)

When I insert the tray/drive into the internal mobile rack into the XP
unit, one of two things happens:
1. the drive is not recognized
2. the drive is recognized but my drive letter for my DVD writer is
reassigned from D: to G: drive.
3. the mobile rack is not recognized in the BIOS as existingMobile

I thought it was the cables, but that is not an issue. I thought it was
the connectors, but those are not the issue. It is not the units, as both
mobile racks work in the Win2K station without problem. Thinking it might
be data written to the hdd by Win2K that was causing the problem, I
reformatted the disks, but that did not help.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Is there something that needs to be
changed in the BIOS of the new Intel motherboard? Is this a problem with
the mobile rack that is installed in my XP machine? (the unit in the
Win2K machine is IDE and in the XP machine it is a SATA connection)

Thanks

I have had some mobile racks that were marginal. Sometimes the
disks inside were recognised, sometimes they weren't. These days
I use external USB cases. They always work and I can connect/
disconnect them while Windows is up and running.

If you intend to stick to mobile racks then you should examine the
boot messages generated by your BIOS. Does it recognise the
disks?

You can resolve the drive letter issue by running diskmgmt.msc
from the Start/Run box and assigning a letter of your choice to
the mobile rack disks.

 

[Ken]

Pegasus (MVP) said the following on 5/17/2008 11:12 AM:

I have had some mobile racks that were marginal. Sometimes the
disks inside were recognised, sometimes they weren't. These days
I use external USB cases. They always work and I can connect/
disconnect them while Windows is up and running.

If you intend to stick to mobile racks then you should examine the
boot messages generated by your BIOS. Does it recognise the
disks?

You can resolve the drive letter issue by running diskmgmt.msc
from the Start/Run box and assigning a letter of your choice to
the mobile rack disks.

Were you using external USB racks or separate powered cases for each
hdd? I was hoping to just have one device for each computer so that I
could exchange info. How does the exchange rate of info compare
between a USB connection and USB 2.0? It would mainly be for exchanging
large (4.5GB) files between computers for burning DVDs or playing videos
over my LAN with VidLAN.

Thanks
Ken K

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Pegasus (MVP) said the following on 5/17/2008 11:12 AM:
Were you using external USB racks or separate powered cases for each hdd?
I was hoping to just have one device for each computer so that I could
exchange info. How does the exchange rate of info compare between a USB
connection and USB 2.0? It would mainly be for exchanging large (4.5GB)
files between computers for burning DVDs or playing videos over my LAN
with VidLAN.

Thanks
Ken K

I usually use 2.5" disks. They are nice and small and they do not
require an external power supply.

USB1 is painfully slow but USB2 is much faster. It took me 67
seconds to copy a 1 GByte file from an internal IDE disk to an
external disk in a USB2 case. Here are the commands I used.
Note that drive C: should be an NTFS volume.
fsutil file createnew c:\big.bin 1000000000 (creates a 1 GByte file)
timethis copy c:\big.bin U:\ (measures the time to copy)

 

[Ken]

I usually use 2.5" disks. They are nice and small and they do not
require an external power supply.

USB1 is painfully slow but USB2 is much faster. It took me 67
seconds to copy a 1 GByte file from an internal IDE disk to an
external disk in a USB2 case. Here are the commands I used.
Note that drive C: should be an NTFS volume.
fsutil file createnew c:\big.bin 1000000000 (creates a 1 GByte file)
timethis copy c:\big.bin U:\ (measures the time to copy)

I can live with that transfer speed. Thanks

 

[Lil' Dave]

I purchased a mobile rack and three interchangeable trays for storing data
I don't need very often. I installed it first in my Windows 2000 system
and it functions just fine--the disks are recognized when inserted and the
powered up, and I can interchange them at will without problems.

I recently built a new system based on Windows XP SP3. I purchased a
second mobile rack for that unit with the expectation that I could use the
mobile hdd's in either workstation.

On the XPstation I have a C: drive active partition, a D: DVD writer, an
E: partition (on the same drive as the C: drive) and an F: drive on its
own partition (separate drive). I have 6 SATA connectors on my Intel
DP35DP mb with the DVD writer on the first, disk 0 on the second, disk 1
on the third, and the mobile rack on the fourth (as they appear in the
BIOS)

When I insert the tray/drive into the internal mobile rack into the XP
unit, one of two things happens:
1. the drive is not recognized
2. the drive is recognized but my drive letter for my DVD writer is
reassigned from D: to G: drive.
3. the mobile rack is not recognized in the BIOS as existingMobile

I thought it was the cables, but that is not an issue. I thought it was
the connectors, but those are not the issue. It is not the units, as both
mobile racks work in the Win2K station without problem. Thinking it might
be data written to the hdd by Win2K that was causing the problem, I
reformatted the disks, but that did not help.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Is there something that needs to be
changed in the BIOS of the new Intel motherboard? Is this a problem with
the mobile rack that is installed in my XP machine? (the unit in the
Win2K machine is IDE and in the XP machine it is a SATA connection)

Thanks

Since the SATA rack system is being flaky, not the ide one you use on the 2K
system; the ide one is not an issue. There is a 2K problem with NTFS prior
to 2K SP2 for XP.

As far as utilization and connection, I would use the traditional onboard
hard disks, DVD/CD, then, removable media order for connections order.

In XP, I would reassign the DVD to some other drive letter that you probably
will never use. S: or T: for instance. I do this from the git-go
immediately after installing XP myself.

 

[Ken]

Lil' Dave said the following on 5/17/2008 7:56 PM:

Since the SATA rack system is being flaky, not the ide one you use on the 2K
system; the ide one is not an issue. There is a 2K problem with NTFS prior
to 2K SP2 for XP.

As far as utilization and connection, I would use the traditional onboard
hard disks, DVD/CD, then, removable media order for connections order.

In XP, I would reassign the DVD to some other drive letter that you probably
will never use. S: or T: for instance. I do this from the git-go
immediately after installing XP myself.

Actually, I am wrong about the connection of the Win2K system. It, too,
is SATA.

 

[Ken]

Since the SATA rack system is being flaky, not the ide one you use on the 2K
system; the ide one is not an issue. There is a 2K problem with NTFS prior
to 2K SP2 for XP.

As far as utilization and connection, I would use the traditional onboard
hard disks, DVD/CD, then, removable media order for connections order.

In XP, I would reassign the DVD to some other drive letter that you probably
will never use. S: or T: for instance. I do this from the git-go
immediately after installing XP myself.

I am not sure what you mean when you say "I would use the traditional
onboard

hard disks, DVD/CD, then, removable media order for connections

order." Can one choose the order in which the connections are made to
various devices? Where is that done in the BIOS? Thanks