Dual hard disk drives on one IDE

I am running 2000pro. I have recently installed an HP dvd200i on the same IDE channel as my MSI CDR/RW drive model # MS-8340. My MSI drive worked great up until the dvd200i was installed. While the dvd200i works fine, my system no longer sees the original MSI drive. In fact, upon boot up, my system runs an auto detect on the IDE channels and only see's one of the two drives. I have selected one as master and the other as slave. I tried using the IDE cable that the motherboard (Amptron K7-810XLM) came with and also the IDE cable that the dvd200i came with. No combination of cable or jumper settings will bring the MSI drive back onboard. Is it possible that my MSI drive has failed??? Or am I missing something else??? ( I have been frustrated with HP drivers before on another system. Please tell me that they did not just do it to me once again. )

Yes, I have tied connecting each drive as being the master and both drives connected with the end connector. In fact, the HP dvd200i will not operate if it is selected as the master, although this is the selection recommened by their installation software. It would only work selected as the slave. The mother board is an Amptron K7-810XLM and did come with a smart cable. HP does not recommend this kind of cable and sent a non-smart cable with the drive. I achieve the same results with both drives no matter which cable I use. Here is something else that I have just learned. I hooked up another cd drive to where the MIS drive was located, and my system recognized that there was indeed another drive on the Primary master. Hmmmm.... sounds like my MSI drive has failed. Would it be possible for an HP driver to fail the MSI drive??? Coincidence maybe??? The MSI cdr/rw is only about two months old.

Similar Messages

How does one SUCCESSFULLY transfer Time-Machine backup to a new (larger) hard disk drive using OSX 10.5.8

I have read a number of articles about how to transfer a complete Time-Machine backup to a new (larger) hard disk-drive. Some of these articles are specifically for OSX10.6 users, which are not applicable to me since I am operating with OSX 10.5.8.
However, I have tried several times to use the Disk Utility 'Restore' function, dragging my old time-machine volume into the 'Source:' box and my new volume into the 'Destination:' box. This works, of sorts, BUT the newly created volume on the new larger hard disk-drive remains the same size as the original volume on the old Time-Machine HDD, with no apparent way of increasing the new volume's size. So I am not really any better off:
E.g. the total capacity of my new HDD is stated by 'Disk Utility' to be 465.8 GB, of which I'm told 228.2 GB is used for the Backups.backdb folder, but only 4.6 GB of free space is actually available. Yet under the 'Partition' tab of 'Disk Utility' it tells me that there is still 236.4 GB of available space.
Does anyone know how to resolve this issue without upgrading to OSX 10.6?

First, how did you prepare your new drive? See:
Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
If you plan to partition this new drive then be sure you create a larger partition for TM than your old volume.
Next, clone your old TM volume:
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4.Check the box labeled Erase destination.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.

Intel Xserve will NOT boot from hard disk drive

I have two Intel Xserves 2.0 QC machines
I have tried to re-install version 10.4.11 OS (don't ask) onto a Hard disk drive that is in a Disk drive caddy and inserted in the machine.
When booting from The installation DVD media
The disk is seen by the "Disk Utility" (the disk is partitioned as GUID boot) and the installation proceeds to the disk.
Once the first pass of the installation is complete and the system reboots, the system shows the folder and ? mark.
If I boot and hold "ALT" key to view all avaialble boot options the Hard Disk Drive does NOT appear as valid boot disk.
It does show, the still inserted Installation DVD.
I CAN boot from an external firewire drive and the Hard disk drive is visible to the OS once logged in.
I have tried different caddy postions (left, middle and right)
I have tried bona fide Apple supplied Disk drives
I have tried various different caddies
I have tried installing Operating System 10.5.* and 10.6.8 server
I have run SMC reset and system reset
But still I cannot boot off from any Hard Disk Drive inserted in a caddy at the front of the system.
Has anyone seen this behaviour?
Is it fixable?
Do I have replace something like the Hard Disk Drive back plane circuit board? Or even the main logic board?
I have now run out of ideas and cannot find any help in discussions or just googling.
ANY help would be very appreciated
Regards
Tony

Antonio Hi !
QC = Quad core or QX as it is written on the "pull out" serial number tab at rear of system
I have 3 late 2006 Intel xserves
On my intial posting I declared 2 were 2.0 machines - when I was trying to be concise
2 of the macines are 2.66 systems and 1 is 2.0 system - all are QX machines
the 2.0 and 1 of the 2.66 will NOT boot from the ADM and disk inside the system - whereas the other 2.66 system will.
I have many different Caddies and these have different product/model number labels
603-9965
603-9545
603-9796
these are marked "intel SATA"
The 80Gb was only one of the drives tested - I have used Seagate 400Gb 750Gb and 1Tb - all of which have been used in systems at one time or another
and as I said the drives ARE visible once the operating system (either installation DVD or external firewire are booted from) - they are just NOT visible when the system is searching for boot media.
Thanks for the guide - I will look through that and continue to try and find an answer

9.2.1 upgrade - hard disk driver prob.

Hi all,
System
PowerPC G4 dig audio dual533
768mb ram
40gb HD - 9.1OS
120gb HD - OSX tiger
I have installed a 2nd hand 120Gb HD which I totally erased writing 0's over it then partitioned (1) MacOS extended.
Loaded OSX tiger onto it and all is sweet no problems at all and loving the new interface!
Now the problem is I want to use my Illust9 & Phsop6 on the old 40gb HD which is running OS9.1.
Tried to access one of the progs via Tiger, classic started up and basically hung on the startup screen so I had to cancel it. That is when the problems started.
I booted up the OS9.1 drive and lost use of my enternet300 adsl internet connection. Reloaded adsl software, didn't fix. Also missing Quicktime VR plus tried using Illust9 and got systems error of controls trip extension. A few other things seemed to go wrong as well.
Read somewhere that it was highly rec to upgrade to 9.2.2 to utilise the classic environment effectively.
As I had lost my internet connection on the old HD I downloaded the Mac OS 9.2.1 Update.smi, Mac OS 9.2.2 Update.smi and HardDriveUpdate1.smi files from my Tiger HD.
Back to the OS9.1 HD to install the updates and it comes up with.....
The hard disk driver on the disk "PowerMac G4 Install" cannot be updated with this program because the disk is not an Apple hard disk. Contact the manufacturer of your computer or hard disk to see if you need to update the driver.
After alot of stuffing around I have done the following in this order.
after each one it didn't fix the problem
1. OS9.1 software restore in place
2. OS9.1 software restore clean install
3. Erased HD and initilised 1 part partition using OS9.1 software install CD
then installed new OS9.1 by booting up from install CD
4. Erased HD and initilised 1 part partition using OSX tiger software install DVD from 120gb HD, then installed new OS9.1 by booting up from install CD
thinking this would sort the driver problem but no go.
same problem when trying to upgrade to 9.2.1!!!!!!!!!!!
any ideas?
40gb HD is a IBM-IC35L040AVER07-0
appreciated
PowerPC G4 digital audio dp533 Mac OS X (10.4.5)
PowerPC G4 digital audio dp533 Mac OS X (10.4.5)
PowerPC G4 digital audio dp533 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

OK,
I have Erased the 40gbHD and erased, initilised it with a 1 part partition using disk utility from the OSX tiger on the 120gb HD, then installed a new OS9.1 by booting up from the OS9.1 install CD.
Used the 9.2.1 upgrade which was downloaded from Apple.
Followed thier instructions in the read me file by
turning extensions to 9.1 base
make sure file sharing is off (wasn't on in the first place)
then restarted
no other apps running and straight into starting the upgrade
started the install process
unchecked the option to update driver
starts to install goes for about 6% and then the box comes up with......
This version of Mac OS can not be installed over the localized version of Mac OS on the disk named "XXXXXXX XXXXX".
Please choose a different destination disk, or perform a clean installation.
SURELY IT CAN"T BE THIS HARD TO UPGRADE FROM 9.1 to 9.2.1 to 9.2
COME ON APPLE help me out here!!!!! FFS!
can't do a clean install, haven't got the disks!!!!!

Hard disk drive is full

hi to all experts,
i have ides ecc 6.0 installed on my 250 gb hard disk drive, it is full and it has only 13 mb free space available, how to delete unwanted data

Hi,
first stop sap.
if you already add new HDD then as temporary workaround remove virtual memory assign to your D drive if you have two partition and assign virtaul memory to new HDD.
and on future add data file for tablespace on this newly added HDD.
you can also move redo log file on different partition
1. Create new redo logfile groups in the new location.
alter database add logfile group 3 'filename','filename' size 100m;
2. Alter system switch logfile till the the new one is current and the old one is no longer active.
3. Alter system drop logfile group 1;
4 Delete old redo log file.
regards,
kaushal

Comparison of SSD with hard disk drives

Attribute or characteristic
Solid-state drive
Hard disk drive
Spin-up time
Instantaneous.
May take several seconds. With a large number of drives, spin-up may need to be staggered to limit total power drawn.
Random access time[45]
About 0.1 ms - many times faster than HDDs because data is accessed directly from the flash memory
Ranges from 5–10 ms due to the need to move the heads and wait for the data to rotate under the read/write head
Read latency time[46]
Generally low because the data can be read directly from any location; In applications where hard disk seeks are the limiting factor, this results in faster boot and application launch times (see Amdahl's law).[47]
Generally high since the mechanical components require additional time to get aligned
Consistent read performance[48]
Read performance does not change based on where data is stored on an SSD
If data is written in a fragmented way, reading back the data will have varying response times
Defragmentation
SSDs do not benefit from defragmentation because there is little benefit to reading data sequentially and any defragmentation process adds additional writes on the NAND flash that already have a limited cycle life.[49][50]
HDDs may require defragmentation after continued operations or erasing and writing data, especially involving large files or where the disk space becomes low. [51]
Acoustic levels
SSDs have no moving parts and make no sound
HDDs have moving parts (heads, spindle motor) and have varying levels of sound depending upon model
Mechanical reliability
A lack of moving parts virtually eliminates mechanical breakdowns
HDDs have many moving parts that are all subject to failure over time
Susceptibility toenvironmental factors[47][52][53]
No flying heads or rotating platters to fail as a result of shock, altitude, or vibration
The flying heads and rotating platters are generally susceptible to shock, altitude, and vibration
Magneticsusceptibility[citation needed]
No impact on flash memory
Magnets or magnetic surges can alter data on the media
Weight and size[52]
The weight of flash memory and the circuit board material are very light compared to HDDs
Higher performing HDDs require heavier components than laptop HDDs that are light, but not as light as SSDs
Parallel operation[citation needed]
Some flash controllers can have multiple flash chips reading and writing different data simultaneously
HDDs have multiple heads (one per platter) but they are connected, and share one positioning motor.
Write longevity
Solid state drives that use flash memory have a limited number of writes over the life of the drive.[54][55][56][57] SSDs based on DRAM do not have a limited number of writes.
Magnetic media do not have a limited number of writes.
Software encryption limitations
NAND flash memory cannot be overwritten, but has to be rewritten to previously erased blocks. If a software encryption program encrypts data already on the SSD, the overwritten data is still unsecured, unencrypted, and accessible (drive-based hardware encryption does not have this problem). Also data cannot be securely erased by overwriting the original file without special "Secure Erase" procedures built into the drive.[58]
HDDs can overwrite data directly on the drive in any particular sector.
Cost
As of October 2010, NAND flash SSDs cost about (US)$1.40–2.00 per GB
As of October 2010, HDDs cost about (US)$0.10/GB for 3.5 in and $0.20/GB for 2.5 in drives
Storage capacity
As of October 2010, SSDs come in different sizes up to 2TB but are typically 512GB or less[59]
As of October 2010, HDDs are typically 2-3TB or less
Read/write performance symmetry
Less expensive SSDs typically have write speeds significantly lower than their read speeds. Higher performing SSDs and those from particular manufacturers have a balanced read and write speed.[citation needed]
HDDs generally have symmetrical read and write speeds
Free block availability andTRIM
SSD write performance is significantly impacted by the availability of free, programmable blocks. Previously written data blocks that are no longer in use can be reclaimed by TRIM; however, even with TRIM, fewer free, programmable blocks translates into reduced performance.[25][60][61]
HDDs are not affected by free blocks or the operation (or lack) of the TRIM command
Power consumption
High performance flash-based SSDs generally require 1/2 to 1/3 the power of HDDs; High performance DRAM SSDs generally require as much power as HDDs and consume power when the rest of the system is shut down.[62][63]
High performance HDDs generally require between 12-18 watts; drives designed for notebook computers are typically 2 watts.

I wish I could get my head round the SSD vs HDD with a NLE rig. My builder is trying to persuade me to use a Toshiba 256Gb THNSNC256GBSJ for OS and programs, and it is only NZ$20 more expensive than the 450Gb 10k rpm VelociRaptor I was originally planing to use for the OS. That sounds suspiciously cheap to me, and I am concerned about the finite writes to SSD - mainly because I don't really understand it.
The rest of the new build is
3930K
Gigabyte X79-UD5
8 x DDR3 1600
Coolermaster with 750W PSU
Geforce GTX570
I plan to transfer the drives from my current system as a starting point, and reassess after giving it some use. That means
Either the above SSD or 450Gb 10k Raptor for OS (new drives)
300Gb 10k rpm Raptor (currently used for OS in old box)
150Gb 7k4 rpm Raptor (reserved for Photoshop Scratch in old box)
2 x 1Tb WD Blacks (data drives)
2 x 1Tb WD USB3 externals
I don't know how I would configure the drives in the new box, but have seen Harm's table and will try to follow his advice. It's a dreadful thing to admit, but I don't have a backup strategy, and the above drives are well over half full. Well over! And I am only just getting serious about video, (the rest is mainly CR2 files from my Canon 1Ds3 and 1D4)
I know it must be like banging your head against the wall, but should I avoid that SSD and go with the 450G Raptor? I have read a comment that the WD Blacks don't work well as Raid0. Is that BS or true?
I am about to give the go-ahead so need to confirm the spec.

Satellite M30X - high hard disk drive utilization

After login in Windows XP (SP2), my toshiba laptop is very slow. The hard disk drive light is continuously on for 5 minutes. I've looked at the task manager, but CPU utilization is low and RAM usage is low. There is no program that seems to use a lot of CPU or RAM.
I've actually turned off the paging file to see if the problems due to intensive use of the paging file on the HDD, but problem persists. The model of the laptop is Satellite M30X-113.
I don't know if it's related, but this problem arose around the time that I've taken out a 256 MB RAM module and installed a 512 MB one (making the total ram memory 1024 MB).

Hi
> I don't know if it's related, but this problem arose around the time that I've taken out a 256 MB RAM module and installed a 512 MB one (making the total ram memory 1024 MB).
If this issue has begun after installation of the new memory module then I would say that the new memory module is responsible for this issue.
You could also try to put back the 256MB module to check if the issue still persist.
This would be the easiest way for checking

Can I upgrade MacBook Pro hard disk drive next year?

Hi there! I'm new to the Apple Support Communities!
I am going to buy a new 13" MacBook Pro, 2.5GHz. I am going to buy the base model, with a 500GB 5400 RPM hard disk drive. Right now, I can't afford a 256GB solid-state drive, but I'll have enough for one by later next year. So, I will have done some stuff on my Mac by the time I can upgrade it. I know how to install the drive itself, but how do I transfer my information?
Here are the issues:
1) I don't know how I would make it so I could boot from an external USB.
2) And I don't know how to get all my personal information from one drive to the other.
For "2", I think I could back up my Mac to a hard drive with Time Machine, and then restore from a backup. But Time Machine couldn't back up the whole OS, right? And what would the procedure be anyway? Just turn it on when I'm done the upgrade?
If someone who has done this before could provide step-by-step instructions, I would really appreciate it!
Thanks,
Solid-State Me 

Yes you can replace the hard drive at any time. Purchase a replacement drive from any store you like - newegg or mcetech are good stores (among many others) - and when you purchase the new drive, also purchase a drive enclosure. Then download a program called "super duper" and follow the instructions to use that software. When your drive arrives, put the new drive in the enclosure, plug it in to your computer and run "super duper" with the option to "make the drive bootable" and let it finish. What it's doing is copying your drive onto the new drive. Once the copy is finished, you can shut down your computer, remove the drive, install the new one, and put the original drive into the enclosure. Now you have an external hard drive that is repurposed instead of throwing it away. Keep that drive intact for a few weeks without erasing or adding data to be sure you are happy with the new drive and how it performs. After that, use the drive to store files, backup the internal, transfer stuff, whatever.

Is it possible to upgrade the internal Hard disk drive on the iMac

Is it possible to upgrade the internal Hard disk drive on the iMac?

Yes but it's definitely not advised. If you have a machine newer than 2009 Apple uses drives that have integrated heat sensors. This makes upgrading much more difficult but not impossible. If you have a machine still under warranty then definitely DO NOT do this yourself as you may void the warranty not to mention it isn't for the faint of heart. Take the machine to an AASP to have the work done, you will need to find one in your area willing to do so.
If you are considering a new machine then simply buy the configuation you need.

Dismount multiple external hard disk drives

I have multiple external hard disk drives and was wondering what the command line is that will dismount all of these at once? Note that there is also one external DVD unit as well which I would not want to dismount.
Thanks,
Lyman

diskutil unmount "/path/to/disk";diskutil unmount "/path/to/disk";diskutil unmount "/path/to/disk"
Just replace replace "/path/to/disk" with the path to the mount point, leaving the quotes.
Good luck!

Increase the hard disk drive capacity on a MacBook Air

is it possible to increase the hard disk drive capacity from 64 to 128 G? How do I do it?

It would appear Apple does not intend for you to do it.
It might be possible, if expensive.
I would consider an external drive.
increase flash storage on macbook air
Can one upgrade Flash Storage
Re: macbook storage upgrade??
increase flash storage on macbook air

Access external USB hard disk drive with REISERFS Linux filesystem.

I recently bought second-hand an older MBP Pro (2006 model) with Tiger installed, which I use as a desktop system at home and I would like to be able to connect an external IOMEGA 500 GB hard disk drive to it and have read/write access to its contents (mostly video / picture / music files). I spent a while searching on the Internet for solutions - nothing usefule came up. Does anyone in here have any ideas on how to do this? Is it possible at all after all?
P.S.: Apart from this older MBP Pro, I also have a newer model (bought in early 2008) with Leopard installed - I wouldn't mind finding some solution on my problem on that OS instead...

Hi,
The two ways I can see to possibly do it are to network the Linux machine & Drive, then use Samba to access it.
By using the Mac OS X Virtual File System (VFS) capability and writing kernel extensions, you can add support for other file systems. Examples of file systems that are not currently supported in Mac OS X but that you may wish to add to the system include the Andrew file system (AFS) and the Reiser file system (ReiserFS). If you want to support a new volume format or networking protocol, you’ll need to write a file-system kernel extension.
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Conceptual/KernelProgramming/Fil esystem/chapter12_section1.html

Qosmio X500/00X System Recovery (Factory Reset) From Hard Disk Drive or Separate Disk

Hey Guys,
Looking for your advice and any links if any...cheers in advance
My Situation
In December 2009 I purchased a Toshiba Qosmio X500 - Model No. PQX33A-00X00J
At the time I upgraded my purchase from Toshiba Reseller BD4U, going from the standard 1x 500GB Sata drive + 1x 64GB SSD... to instead having 2x 500GB sata drives. I purchased with 3 year onsite next business day warranty, that is is now expired.
It came loaded with MS Win 7 Premium Home Edition - but no disks provided.
My Needs
I need/want to factory reset my PC - its starting to run slow
I need to re-partition from my existing 4x partitions to just having 2
The Issues
Possibly as a result of upgrading the disk drives at time of purchase, I don't believe I have a hidden Recovery partition in order to do a System Recovery from the Hard Disk Drive - see image of my current partitions attached
I don't have Win 7 OS installation disks or Toshiba Driver disks as they should have been installed by Toshiba
My Questions
Do You agree that I DONT have a Recovery Partition - when looking at the partition image? I'm confused on this point coz people say its hidden!?
Given I have no Toshiba Drivers Disk or Windows 7 OS disks - what should I do? I'm thinking of downloading Win 7 (use my product key from sticker under PC) and making a disk/USB (but need to learn how)
Is this where I get ALL necessary Toshiba drivers for my PC from?
Does Toshiba provide a link on its site and instructions on where to get Win 7 from so I can make a recover disk??
Notes
Tried to email Toshiba support but at step 1 of their email process validation failed due to my PC being out of warranty so will call them on Monday instead
THANK YOU THANK YOU, for any help you can give big ro small
Cheers
Rick

WOW, thanks Macius for that great, full and thorough reply...cheers mate
I suspected I didn't have a recovery partition - so thanks for confirming it as I planned to risk it and try! I guess it doesn't really matter why, and it would be futile to go and blame the re-seller or Toshiba at this late stage in the game in hopes they would help...
Yeah, I just went to Microsoft Software Recovery hoping to download Win 7 OS and create a recovery disk but of course Microsoft would NOT allow it due to it being software that was pre-installed on the device blah blah blah (see error image)
And I didn't bother back then in 2009 to create recovery media as you wisely descibed, mostly due to laziness and mentally putting it in the 'too hard basket'...I didn't really understand it - or much about computers at the time.
Re - your Option #2 - thanks for confirming Toshiba drivers. I could/can do this - but don't really want to buy something I already have, perhaps I'll check out ebay or see if a friend has a disk
Re - your Option #1 - I'm currently based in Vietnam and wont be back in Oz till late in the year, so will see if I can find a reliable Toshiba service provider here - but wont hold me breath on this one
I'm thinking that IF Option #1 is a No-Go then - maybe Plan B or Option #3 could be:
Do an Audit of Programs to identify those I don't need and can safely remove - then remove using Control Panel/ Remove Programs tool
Reformat all other drives (not C:// where OS is)
Then use some re-partition software e.g. Disk-Partiton.com
Any final thoughts???
Anyhow - thanks very much again
Rick

Arch: Install to & run from External USB Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

I wanted to play with ArchLinux 2009.02, but replacing the existing Debian-Lenny on the laptop's HDD wasn't an option. So I experimented with installing Arch on an external USB Hard Disk Drive.
I have tried to make this "newbie-friendly", so I hope the more experienced will forgive the detail.
Materials:
Three year old Dell Inspiron 6000
CPU = 2.0 GHz Pentium
RAM = 2.0 GB
Internal HDD = 80 GB
Internal CD/DVD R/RW
External USB HDD = Freecom FHD-2 Pro 80 GB
Archlinux 2009.02 install CD
Steps to install:
1. I put the Archlinux install CD in the drive and connected the external 80 GB HDD in the USB port.
2. When the Dell laptop was booted, I pressed F2 to enter the BIOS setup. I edited the boot sequence to the following:
Internal CD/DVD
External USB device
Internal HDD
On the Dell, you can also press F12 to select the preferred boot device for that boot.
3. I started the laptop and the Archlinux installation menu came up and I proceeded with installation following the "Official Arch Linux Install Guide" and the "Beginners Guide".
4. Used km to change to UK keyboard layout and then began the installer script (/arch/setup). I was installing from the core CD so I skipped the network steps.
5. HDD preparation.
This was fairly straightforward with two cautions:
(a) Make very sure that the external HDD (sdb) is selected for the operations.
(b) Remember to set the Bootable Flag for the first (/) partition on the HDD.
I chose 20 GB for /, 2 GB for swap and the remainder for /home.
6. The package selection and installation was fairly straightforward.
7. Configuration of System
This was section was straightforward with one warning:
USB had to be added to the HOOKS in the /etc/mkinitcpio.conf file!
I found this to be essential for my external USB HDD to function as a bootable device. Otherwise I got the same sorts of errors relating to unrecognisable file system types that other people have reported in the forum.
The relevant line from the end of the edited /etc/mkinitcpio.conf file is below:
HOOKS="base udev autodetect pata scsi sata usb filesystems"
8. Installation of GRUB was the other point where caution and/or correction was necessary.
When it asked where GRUB should be installed, I had to select sdb (my external USB HDD) and not any of the particular partitions on sdb. If the root partition sdb1 was selected then the laptop won't boot from the external USB HDD.
The GRUB /boot/grub/menu.lst as written by the installation routine specifies hd(1,0) which doesn't work when you try to reboot from the external USB HDD. When you boot Arch from the external USB HDD, as far as Arch is concerned - at that point in time - the external USB HDD is the first drive in the system. To fix this:
(a) When the Arch boot menu comes up, press e to edit the grub entries.
(b) Change the first line to hd(0,0)
(c) To the end of the kernel line add rootdelay=8
(d) Press b to boot the system with these temporary corrections.
(e) Once your Arch system has booted, edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst to make the above changes permanent.
The relevant portion of my /boot/grub/menu.lst looks like the following:
# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/... ro rootdelay=8
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
# (1) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/... ro rootdelay=8
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img
9. The laptop happily and consistently boots Arch Linux from the external USB HDD when it's plugged in before startup/booting.
Running Arch from the external USB HDD seems as quick as running Debian from the internal HDD.
So if there is a performance penalty associated with using an external USB HDD, my wife and I haven't noticed.
In summary, the three essential points to address during installation to an external USB HDD are:
Remember to set the bootable flag for the first partition.
Add USB to the HOOKS for /etc/mkinitcpio.conf file.
Correct the /etc/grub/menu.lst file.
I hope this is helpful.
Ted

Hi Rookie,
As you say, it is worth remembering the rootfstype= option for the kernel line just in case someone still has problems with GRUB after making all the other changes.
I was working with the most recent Arch 2009.2 release.
I only got messages about unrecognisable file system type when I tried booting with the "stock" or "as-installed" GRUB (before I edited /boot/grub/menu.lst). After editing /boot/grub/menu.lst to identify the drive correctly and add rootdelay, GRUB was able to do the rest and everything worked OK without any error messages.
Best wishes,
Ted

How to save iPhoto file in a separate portable hard disk drive?

How to save iPhoto file in a separate portable hard disk drive?

You want to move the iPhoto Library?
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
Regards
TD

Dual hard disk drives on one IDE

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