Is This New Hard Drive Bad -or- What?

Electronics Computer Programming Q&A
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rotatepod
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Is This New Hard Drive Bad -or- What?

Post by rotatepod »

I purchased a SATAII hard drive and enclosure. I now have
an eSATA (external) drive that doesn't work.

The main BIOS setup does not show the drive, but there is a
seperate BIOS utility for creating RAID configurations that lists
the drive as healthy!

I can hear the drive motor spool up, if that means anything.

If I remove the drive from the enclosure and install it as an
internal drive the results are the same. It appears in the
BIOS RAID utility, but is nowhere to be found in XP Pro_SP3. Its
not shown in My Computer, Device Manager, or Disk Management.
As dumb as this sounds, please don't tell me to partition the
drive. Obviously, you can't create partitions if the drive is
not recognized.

I'm not concerned about the money involved, it wasn't that much.
Should I buy a completely new external drive, or just replace the
malfunctioning drive with a new one and use the same enclosure?

I'm strongly motivated to buy a new external drive. The kind where
the drive and enclosure are sold already assembled. I hope you
guys can understand, I just want the darn thing to work!
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Janitor Tzap
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Post by Janitor Tzap »

Well, if this were Win98x...
I'd be looking for the driver disk.

But you say you can't access the drive.
One thing is to use hard drive test & setup software.
You should be able to get it from the drive manufacturers website.

If you can't setup the drive that way, or it just fails the testing.
Then return the drive, and replace it with another drive.

The units that you buy with the drive already in it, and pre-formated.
Are a lot easier to work with. :)

So, if the drive is bad.
It would probably be easiest for you to just exchange it for one of those.


Signed: Janitor Tzap
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MrAl
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Post by MrAl »

Hi there,

Is this the first time you tried a SATA drive with your system?

If so, you may need to copy the drivers to a floppy and then
load during setup. I have read about other people having
this problem too.
LEDs vs Bulbs, LEDs are winning.
rotatepod
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Post by rotatepod »

I've got two internal SATAII drives setup in a RAID 0 configuration.
You're correct, MrAl. During a fresh install of XP you are prompted
to hit a key (F6, if I remember correctly) to install the drivers
from a floppy or CD.

Before anyone tells me about the hazards of RAID 0, I already
know. When two or more drives operate as one (striping) you
increase the odds that one drive will fail. I don't let hard drives
get old. I always replace them long before they fail. Also, I
backup and backup and backup!!

The price on complete eSATA drives is dropping fast. When I
bought my drive and enclosure I did save money. If I search
I can probably find a preassembled model at a good price.
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MrAl
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Post by MrAl »

Hi again,


Sorry that didnt help. I thought you might be experiencing something
different but thought i would mention that just in case.

I see you learned the three rules of using computers already:
1. Backup.
2. Backup.
3. Backup.

Take care...
LEDs vs Bulbs, LEDs are winning.
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jollyrgr
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Post by jollyrgr »

I have to agree with MrAl on the three rules.

On the computers I've dealt with the SATA controller had a different driver than the SATA RAID controller even though both plugged in to the same spot. To go from SATA drive to SATA RAID required hitting F6 then installing the RAID driver when installing XP.
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