SATA hard drive connection problem

Has anyone ever had a problem with SATA cables when installing new hard drives?
I have an early 2008 iMac with the original 250-Gb Western Digital Caviar hard drive. I installed a new 1-Tb WD Green drive in it yesterday but it will not boot from the new drive. The mac will not even recognized the presence of the drive (flashing question mark). I cloned the original drive and have confirmed that it was partitioned correctly (GUID).
The new drive WILL boot up when connected as an external USB drive with a universal connector.
The original drive will boot up when reinstalled in the iMac, but it is not recognized if I put the new drive in and have the original drive connected as a USB drive.
I started the mac from a DVD and did a clean install of the operating system. I booted with the iMac as a target drive. My Powerbook couldn't see the new drives either.
I went out and bought a new Seagate Barricuda 1Tb drive. The SAME result. Will not boot internally. Will boot as an external drive.
BOTH new drives power up and are spinning. They will both boot the computer when connected using a SATA to USB converter (externally).
MY THEORY is that the SATA connection is at fault. There are no visible defects and all the connections seem tight, but that's the only reason I can think of.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can test the connection? Is there any reason that the orginal drive's SATA connector would not fit the two new drives differently?
HELP!!!

Right if its SATA, use SATA1, go into Bios, Integrated Peripherals (manual page 3-20) - enable PATA IDE and SATA IDE(the via controllers), set floppy to auto. go to ONBOARDPCI controller - P20378 S ATA controller (the promise controller) and set to disabled, EXIT back to main bios screen, then advanced bios features, set boot sequence to floppy, CD, BB1(SATA,if shown, HDD if not), then enable other boot devices, and enable floppy seek.
EXIT and SAVE
Have WinXP CD in CD drive, at first install screen F6, wait for S screen, use both Via SATA drivers for XP, once you have loaded 2 nd one enter - F8 page and setup page, PARTITION and FORMAT, ( format takes secs) then install. When it resets it should show menu with XP on it, and the 25 sec countdown, enter.
One point the SATA drive connections are poor, slightest movement will cause data corruption, or a sharp bend in cable. make sure connectors are fully home squarely on mobo and drive.
Should be OK.
Either email or here if you need help
cheers
jocko

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Sometimes cannot start PC: problem with Hitachi SATA Hard drive and K7N2G-ILSR

I have major problem with my 160Gb SATA Hitachi hard drive and my MSI K7N2G-ILSR motherboard. Sometimes the PC can be started, sometimes it cannot.
After I installed a clean build of Windows XP Pro SP1 onto my new hard drive (as the only hard drive in my PC) and install all the necessary drivers, the system runs smoothly. However, after about 2 to 3 weeks, sometimes when I start the PC, it cannot detect the hard drive and hence it claimes that it cannot find any VMI Pool Data (i.e. no OS detected). What makes it really horrible is that, it is like the lottery everytime when I start the PC. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The highest record was 8 consecutive failures (by resetting or by turning the power off and on again) before I can start the machine properly. Also, the system sometimes just crashes in the middle of operating.
I have already sent the hard drive back to Hitachi. Got the same model of hard drive back as replacement, but the replacement has the same problem, except with the replacement drive the PC can be started eventually after many tries, while with the previous drive it is possible that the PC cannot be started until after a few days later.
Also, it seems that my drive can detect either SATA hard drive or PATA hard drive, but not both. (If I leave my old PATA drive connect in the primary IDE channel, Windows cannot detect the new SATA drive.)
Is my motherboard faulty? Can it only use PATA drive?
My PC's spec is as follows:
AMD Athlon XP 2500+
512Mb PC3200 SDRAM (set to run at 166MHz)
Hitachi 160Gb SATA Hard drive on 1st SATA channel (Model #HDS722516VLSA80)
Sony DVD+-RW drive and Panasonic DVD-ROM drive on secondary IDE channel
Use onboard video (GeForce MX)
US Robotech V92 internal PCI modem
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 Player soundcard
Onboard audio disabled
300W PSU
OS is Windows XP Pro SP1 (with all latest security patches up to date)

Quote
Originally posted by Raven_
Quote
Originally posted by boucher91
Along the same lines the sata drives use more power than the pata drives...
sata usually faster spin rate, pata is slower spin rate...
that is not entirly correct.
many harddrives just come with different ways to connect them.
the only sata drives i now that spins faster is western digital raptors 10k rpm.
all other is running at 7200rpm.
older drives run at 5400rpm
Yes to get the full benefit of RAID, the Raptors are the way to go.Anything else, no significant difference.

External hard drive connected to my airport extreme will no longer open, when navigating to it in Finder, the Finder window quits and reopens, cannot access hard drive, it is visible in airport utility, since the problem began I have updated firmware

External hard drive connected to my airport extreme will no longer open, when navigating to it in Finder, the Finder window quits and reopens, cannot access hard drive, it is visible in airport utility, since the problem began I have updated firmware on Extreme as well as both of my Airport Expresses. Hard drive is USB connected to Extreme.

Reboot the USB drive.. assuming it is powered.. or unplug and replug a self-powered drive.. (you should not use self-powered drives on AE before the latest model.. always use a powered hub).
Does the drive now appear in finder..
If not reboot both drive and the AE.. it should now appear.
If it doesn't work with direct connection try a powered hub.. that can help.

Ejecting problem on my 2nd SATA Hard Drive Bay Caddy

I am having an ejecting problem with my caddy secondary HD.
Basically every time I close the lid, the secondary HD is ejected or, in case ejecting fails, I obtain an error message..very annoying situation.
How can windows 7 avoid to eject it? Do you know a best practice to configure properly the 2nd SATA Hard Drive Bay Caddy??
Thanks in advance!
Fabio
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Really sorry, I didn't explain properly: I was talking about Ejecting OS side (windows 7 eject my secondary HD when I close my laptop, consequence is that I don't see it anymore in Computer).
ejecting is when you press here
anyway Thanks!!

Installing a second SATA hard drive - Problems booting

Hi,
I currently have one Maxtor 160GB SATA hard drive in my system with my operating system installed. I have another identical hard drive that I'm attempting to install now, into the second of five available SATA ports on my MSI P965 Neo motherboard.
When I plug in the second hard drive, though, Windows will not boot. It gets to the Windows logo screen with the progress animation, but before even the animation can begin, it stops and the screen freezes. This does not fix itself with waiting.
My boot priorities are set to: DVD-ROM, CD-RW, hard risk. The hard disk priorities are also as they should be to my knowledge - although it can be tricky because when ordering, both disks have the same name. I have tried with either one on top of the list, and you cannot remove a drive from the list alltogether.
The SATA cable is in perfect condition. My BIOS is up-to-date.
When I plug the hard drive in when the system is already running, Windows will detect it and files can be written/read flawlessly. As soon as I restart, however, I run into the same issue.
The first HDD, with the OS on it, is in SATA 1, the second HDD is in SATA 4. Ports 3, 6, and 7 are unused.
I'm out of ideas at this point, I don't see any other options that need to be changed.
I'd appreciate any input you can offer - thanks in advance!

I would debug this drive you are talking about which clears off all data and partitions information. Take out the good drive and leave in the dodgy one. Boot to a floppy with this dell win95 boot disc.
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R19775&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=19601
When at the A: prompt: type debug and enter, you get a (-) prompt and then enter the following script exactly:
F 200 L1000 0 (enter)
A CS:100 (enter)
xxxx:0100 MOV AX,301 (enter)
xxxx:0103 MOV BX,200 (enter)
xxxx:0106 MOV CX,1 (enter)
xxxx:0109 MOV DX,80 (enter)
xxx:010C INT 13 (enter)
xxxx:010E INT 20 (enter)
xxxx:0110 (enter)
g (enter)
q (enter)
restart your system.
Now you can put back in your first drive as well, boot up into windows and use the disc manager to repartition and format.
Old school! If you are still having problems I would replace the drive.

SATA hard drive problems with k8n neo4 plat

Helo , I am hoping someone can help me with this. I have read Fafner's thread on installing a sata hard drive on the neo4 mb but the only utility program I found on wd site is called " lifeguard11 for windows". Is this the right utility to use to partion my hard drive? I burned it to a cd and and my computer will post but will not boot from that cd. I have followed the instructions that came with the mb and used the floppys at F6 but it won't countinue to install windows after that.
Also I'm not sure how to enable sata in the bios. Do I go to integrated peripherals/sata devices config. and at the top of the screen it say's RAID Enable. Do I enable that and then enable sata1 raid? I am only using one hard drive. Thanks for help you can give.
k8n neo4 plat/bios v6.00 pg
amd 3800+
western digital 74GD Raptor
evga 6600gt
light-on cdr
floppy drive
ocz modstream 520 p/s
highspeedpc test bench

Quote from: roller on 27-March-06, 08:33:35
Helo , I am hoping someone can help me with this. I have read Fafner's thread on installing a sata hard drive on the neo4 mb but the only utility program I found on wd site is called " lifeguard11 for windows". Is this the right utility to use to partion my hard drive? I burned it to a cd and and my computer will post but will not boot from that cd. I have followed the instructions that came with the mb and used the floppys at F6 but it won't countinue to install windows after that.
Also I'm not sure how to enable sata in the bios. Do I go to integrated peripherals/sata devices config. and at the top of the screen it say's RAID Enable. Do I enable that and then enable sata1 raid? I am only using one hard drive. Thanks for help you can give.
k8n neo4 plat/bios v6.00 pg
amd 3800+
western digital 74GD Raptor
evga 6600gt
light-on cdr
floppy drive
ocz modstream 520 p/s
highspeedpc test bench
My system is similar to yours, if your just using the one Raptor you don't need any special drivers, your mother board will detect the Raptor with out any special settings. I hooked my Raptor up to SATA 1 (look on pg 2-2 of your book for the location) If your only planing on installing one operating system on your hard drive, such as windows XP pro, Windows will format and partition the drive for you.
If your having problems booting from a CD make sure you change the boot order in the BIOS (under advanced bios features pg. 3-8 of your manual) so that CD is before HD. For example, mine is set up for: First boot device = Floppy drive, Second boot device = CD Rom, Third boot device = hard drive, and etcetera. if your using more than one hard drive such as an IDE drive make sure you set the "hard disk boot priority" on the same page to the hard drive you want to boot from.
Once that is done put your Windows CD in the CD drive and reboot, Windows will guide you through the rest.

E-sata external Drive connected via usb2 or firewire 400 on MacBook

Does it make sense to Use a e-sata external drive connected via USB2 or firewire400 to my Macbook ,since i dont have a port for a e-sata drive on this MacBook(MacBook black)
thanks

nandinigolf wrote:
would it be good to change my internal HD with a seagate 500 Sata 7200 rpm 32 mg buffer size (2,5").To change hard disk is very easy on this machines.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/ST95005620AS/
I actually have mounted a 250 hd 5400 hitachi on this machine
Sometime i got a msg while i work with my music program saying Disk running too slow
thanks
Well, yes, it's always a good idea to install a higher capacity internal hard disk. You can then get an external enclosure to house your original 250GB hd so that it can be used for backups and/or additional storage.
As far as the "Disk running too slow" message you're getting, I've never had that message and my external hd that has my iTunes library is 5400rpm. I would suggest that the problem is something else including (but not limited to) perhaps that your external hd may be on it's way out or perhaps too full.
How much free space is there on the external hd? Additionally, how much free space is there in your internal hd?
Have you done any software maintenance recently on both internal and external hard disks?
Da Vinci

Trouble w/ SATA hard drive

ok
I bought WD360 which is SATA hard drive.
I connected to SER0.
I works ok, but the problem is that my computer runs it as U5.
I know it because my fast build utility says it's running as U5 mode.
Shouldn't it be U6 or SATA 1 or something?
U5 is Ultra DMA 5 which is 100 mb/s and I think my SATA drive should run a lot faster than U5.
Anybody has the same problem?
M/b : K7N2G-ILSR
CPU : XP1700+
Video : Radeon pro 128MB
Sound : S/b Audigy 2 platinum
Memory : DDR 3200 Samsung 512 MB(256x2 dual channel)
IDE : IDE 1 : deskstar 45GB / deskstar 80GB
IDE 2 : DVD-+RW / CD-RW
SER0 : Western digital raptor 36GB
Win XP w/ SP1

just ignore that as sata has bugger all to do with ultra dma any way
not evan that drives faster than 100mb's any way
its max is about 70

Need help in installing a SATA hard drive with 865pe NEO2

Hello there
I need a help in installing a Sata hard drive ,it is WD 250 GB , my motherboard is 865PE Noe2 , the bios is the latest one
already I got another old hard drive ,not a Sata ,a regular IDE one installed as a master hard drive
I want to install the sata hd as a slave for the IDE hd for now to transfer the files and documents
I already physically installed the Sata hard drive yet the problem is that it was listed in the bios , I followed some of the steps here in the forum mentioned but all what I got is I found it listed as the fourth IDE master , not as the primary IDE slave
in Windows Xp Sp2 it is not listed of course in the windows explorer , but it is there in the device manager
look I am very confused and I tried most of the combinations in the ide configuration in BIOS
what should I do coz I am feeling so bad and stupid ,you can consider me a n00b in this hard drive thing

1st the sata drive cannot be listed as a slave drive to the ide master [key word=ide-can be configured as master OR slave, master IF only 1 hd, master and slave IF 2 hds], on the sata controler you can have master and slave, the ide cable has two connectors for the hds, sata has only 1 hd connector.
are you wanting to install the sata as primary master and move the operating sys to that drive, if so you will need an IMAGING software to move an operating system OR you could do a fresh operating system install to the sata drive then install your programs.

Seagate 300gig sata hard drive not recognized

I'm trying to install a seagate 300gb sata hard drive in my dual 2.0 g5.
I can plug in the two cables and the drive fits in fine, it even spins, however the computer does not recognize that the drive is there.
I've checked the sata in the system profile and tried disk utility but it is simply not there. Could this be a wiring problem or a bad drive? How do I check this?

My guess is that it is a Seagate 7200.9 with SSC on. If that is the case you will need a PC and this tool:
http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/faq/ssc.html

Time Capsule can't backup external hard drives connected to it. Got that.

Hello Apple Support Communities! This is my first post. Hope this finds you all well My first year as an Apple user. I bought a 2-Tb TC and am running my first backup to my MacBook as I write this.
Problem statement: TC can't backup external hard drives connected directly to it, but the ones connected to the Macs that are connected wirelessly to it. Duly noted. However, the Spotlight will reindex the hard drives connected to the Mac and that will take hours; the whole backup will take days. Thus, excluding the hard drives at "System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy tab" will probably help reduce the time of backup, or just ejecting them will do too. That itself has not proven effective coz it's still taking forever (50Gb in 2 days, still going).
Questions:
1) Do I wait until my first backup to my MacBook's internal hard drive is done before I connect my hard drives to my MacBook and attempt another backup? If yes, how do I go about the excessive time Spotlight reindexing takes if I intend to backup my hard drives connected to my MacBook?
2) Is there any other way of speeding up the first-time backup?
*Note: All versions of OS and firmwares are up-to-date. TC is connected to an external wireless router. TC is intended to be used as backup device and / or file server only.
P/S: Apologee if this has already been discussed before, thus, a link to previous discussion thread would highly be appreciated)
- Shook Hashem, Malaysia.

How do I backup the externel hard drives connected to my MB. I was under the impression that that has already been done, because I've read it somewhere in a discussion that said it's done automatically unless I exclude it from a backup, which I didn't. So it's supposed to backup the external hard drivestoo because I had them connected to my MB the entire time during the backups.
By default an external drive is excluded.. the list is odd.. if I plug a drive into the mac.. it immediately is listed as excluded.
This is not the list of included.. this is the list of excluded.. remove it from the excluded list to include it.
It is kind of reverse polish notation in backups.
If I want to enter the Time Machine, should I enter it with the TM turned on or off?
Not sure what the question means. If you use the star wars display and want to recover files then use TM off.. but read up pondini.. how to do restore etc.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
15A in particular on the how to use TM.
When do I uplug the ethernet and use the wireless connection instead?
Once you have finished the main backup you can go back to wireless. The incremental backups are mostly very small.

How do i install sata hard drive?

ok, i am using right now my sony dvdrw on ide1 as master and ata hard drive on ide2 as master, booting to the hard drive. i am going to install an sata hard drive and use that as the boot drive, the normal ata as a storage drive only. how will i install the sata drive? do i install it to sata 1 and then durring the install of windows xp tell it to hit f6 for third party scsi drivers and then use the intel sata floppy driver disk that came with my board? it's the MSI-6728 board. or is there anything special i need to do in the bios or what?
oh yeah. what connection for power should i use? my powersupply has sata and normal, so should i use the sata power connector? and then what's this about legacy or something in the bios, or am i wrong?

Well first of all, you dont install the Intel S-ATA Driver Disc unless you are going to create a RAID Array....Go into the BIOS and on the "On-Chip IDE Configuration" Page Set the Options like this.........
On-Chip ATA Operate Mode : Legacy
ATA Configuration : P-ATA+S-ATA
Keep S-ATA Enabled : (Greyed Out Yes)
Keep P-ATA Enabled : (Greyed Out Yes)
P-ATA Channel Selection : Both
Combined Mode Operation (At first you have to set this to P-ATA Channel 1, then switch after you Move Windows to S-ATA)
Configure S-ATA As RAID : No
Then you are Going to have to Install the OS on The SATA and Just Move the Files that you want to save from the P-ATA HDD and then Remove the P-ATA Drive from the "Boot Device" List in the BIOS....
You really should List Your Full System Specs. When you POST...Create a "Signature" with your Forum User Control Panel...........Sean REILLY875

Saving files to a hard drive connected to my Airport Extreme

I just upgraded to Leopard. I am unable to use Backup v 3.1.2 to save files to a hard drive i have connected to my Airport Extreme. Previously, using Tiger i was able to perform this task.
I use Finder and see my airport express network and my external hard drive. However, when i run my backup jobs using Backup the program can not located the external hard drives.

The discussion was helpful. My hard drive connected to my Airport Extreme is now recognized and i can backup files to a folder called 'Backups'. However, i am only capable of saving to this one folder. When i try to create subfolders and select one of them as my location in the Backup program i get an error message; "the selected location is not a valid destination". Any idea how to get around this problem?
Many thanks for the quick response to my previous mail.

My PC cannot see a hard drive connected by usb to my Time Capsule!

Help please.
My PC cannot see my Toshiba hard drive connected by usb to my Time Capsule. I can see the hard drive in Airport Utility. I suspect my problem may be to do with either setting up File Sharing or else mapping............if anyone can help fix this it would be most appreciated! Thanks.

Wins server is useless.. you won't have one..
Did you turn on the guest account with full read and write permissions.. ??
Can you ping the TC ip address??
Is the airport utility on the windows machine??
Do you have a mac to access the drive?
Is it real fat32 or some strange exfat which won't work?
I also wonder if it should not be formatted on directly on the TC.. or on a Mac and formatted GUID not windows type.
Sorry not all of this is logical..
If you can access the internal disk from windows.. how are you doing that??
If the external USB drive is not working.. plug it straight into the windows machine and enjoy faster better and more consistent file copying..
Share it to the network if you want network access.

Two hard drives connected to Airport Extreme. How to include one of them in TimeMachine Backup and use other disc as Time Machine backup disc?

Hi,
the title says it all. I've got an airport extreme and two hard drives connected to it. My idea was to use one as my additional storage (say DISC STORAGE) and the other one as my backup drive (say DISC BACKUP). I would like to backup my mac AND DISC STORAGE together to DISC BACKUP using time machine. My mac has 256 GB HDD, DISC STORAGE is 1 TB big, DISC BACKUP 2 TB. So there are no space issues.
Problem: DISC STORAGE is not included in Time Machine's backup to DISC BACKUP. At the moment, only the mac is backed up to DISC BACKUP.
Does anybody know if and how I can include DISC STORAGE in the backup process?
By the way, DISC STORAGE is not listed in the "exclude from backup" list in Time Machine.
Thanks!
Arne

Unforrtunately, Time Machine cannot backup from a network drive to another drive. Time Machine will only backup a Mac and a drive that is directly attached to the Mac, via USB or FireWire.
You will need to use an application like Carbon Copy Cloner or SupoerDuper to be able to backup from DISC BACKUP to DISC STORAGE.

SATA hard drive connection problem

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