Adding a second SATA drive on Dimension 9150

I wish to put my laptop drive momentarily into my Dimension 9150 desktop for the purpose
of copying large files.

Laptop drive is a 80GB Seagate momentus PSD.
It accepts same SATA connectors as 3½" drives.

First time booting I cannot see my laptop drive in the BIOS.
Then i changed the Bios from Auto-Raid ATA to Auto-Raid AHCI.
I am not intending to run a RAID setup, but there are no other options available.

Now Bios shows that my Laptop drive is present on SATA2, while the main drive that I
want to boot from is on SATA0

Boot sequence however doesnot shows that I have 2 drives. Too bad.
But I assume that it will boot from SATA0

Booting starts OK with the usual XP boot picture, but after 2 or 3 secunds it stops with
a BSOD !
Since both drive have a bootable XP on it , I don't know which one is booting.

What have I done wrong ???

"" <> wrote in message
news:flu1dt$ivv$...
>I wish to put my laptop drive momentarily into my Dimension 9150 desktop
>for the purpose of copying large files.
>
> Laptop drive is a 80GB Seagate momentus PSD.
> It accepts same SATA connectors as 3½" drives.
>
> First time booting I cannot see my laptop drive in the BIOS.
> Then i changed the Bios from Auto-Raid ATA to Auto-Raid AHCI.
> I am not intending to run a RAID setup, but there are no other options
> available.
>
> Now Bios shows that my Laptop drive is present on SATA2, while the main
> drive that I want to boot from is on SATA0
>
> Boot sequence however doesnot shows that I have 2 drives. Too bad.
> But I assume that it will boot from SATA0
>
> Booting starts OK with the usual XP boot picture, but after 2 or 3 secunds
> it stops with a BSOD !
> Since both drive have a bootable XP on it , I don't know which one is
> booting.
>
> What have I done wrong ???
>


I'd skip all that and purchase an inexpensive USB external 2.5" drive
enclosure. $20, maybe.

>
> I'd skip all that and purchase an inexpensive USB external 2.5" drive enclosure. $20,
> maybe.
>

Is it not possible to run 2 SATA drives ind a Dell desktop without the use of external
USB ???.

"" <> wrote in message
news:flu3kn$jrb$...
> >
>> I'd skip all that and purchase an inexpensive USB external 2.5" drive
>> enclosure. $20, maybe.
>>
>
> Is it not possible to run 2 SATA drives ind a Dell desktop without the use
> of external USB ???.
>
>
>

Sure it is. Sounds like your machine is aware of the (2) individual boot
records on the drives and is choking in deciding which to boot to.

If I were guessing, I'd say the BSOD was as a result of it attempting to
boot to the notebook drive and gacking on the hal.dll among other things.

You're probably going to have to play with your BIOS settings again and
specifically the boot order of the drives. Technically, if the system looks
at the original (desktop) boot drive first, it should grab it and boot to it
w/no issue larger than maybe a chkdsk on the notebook drive on the way to
desktop.

The enclosure I suggested is a nice tool to have around for just these kinds
of situations (now and in the future), and adds the convenience of being
able to hot plug the notebook drive once you're already booted to desktop.


Stew

You can't change from ATA to AHCI (or vice versa) in the BIOS without
reinstalling XP on the boot drive.

"" <> wrote in message
news:flu1dt$ivv$...
> I wish to put my laptop drive momentarily into my Dimension 9150 desktop
> for the purpose of copying large files.
>
> Laptop drive is a 80GB Seagate momentus PSD.
> It accepts same SATA connectors as 3½" drives.
>
> First time booting I cannot see my laptop drive in the BIOS.
> Then i changed the Bios from Auto-Raid ATA to Auto-Raid AHCI.
> I am not intending to run a RAID setup, but there are no other options
> available.
>
> Now Bios shows that my Laptop drive is present on SATA2, while the main
> drive that I want to boot from is on SATA0
>
> Boot sequence however doesnot shows that I have 2 drives. Too bad.
> But I assume that it will boot from SATA0
>
> Booting starts OK with the usual XP boot picture, but after 2 or 3 secunds
> it stops with a BSOD !
> Since both drive have a bootable XP on it , I don't know which one is
> booting.
>
> What have I done wrong ???
>

> You're probably going to have to play with your BIOS settings again and specifically
> the boot order of the drives. Technically, if the system looks at the original
> (desktop) boot drive first, it should grab it and boot to it w/no issue larger than
> maybe a chkdsk on the notebook drive on the way to desktop.
>

The Dell BIOS setup - I have latest version- is surprisingly unable to change the boot
order between the 2 drives.
Looks like a bios bug, Dell !

Using a Parted Magic boot CD, I have removed the Boot-flag from the laptop drive.

But it doesnot help. I still get a BSOD when booting with 2 SATA drives.

if you plan to do this a lot, get a cheap pci-express e-sata adapter
that is made to have drives inserted after the machine is booted.
so your 9150 is running, you want to plug in your laptop drive, you have
a e-sata cable on the back of the card, with the other end connected
into the mobile hd. buy a e-sata to sata cable.
it works great!

i have not tried to boot with a laptop drive in any of my configs, but i
have done what you're doing with tons of other drives.
that's why i started investing in e-sata technology.


wrote:
> I wish to put my laptop drive momentarily into my Dimension 9150 desktop for the purpose
> of copying large files.
>
> Laptop drive is a 80GB Seagate momentus PSD.
> It accepts same SATA connectors as 3½" drives.
>
> First time booting I cannot see my laptop drive in the BIOS.
> Then i changed the Bios from Auto-Raid ATA to Auto-Raid AHCI.
> I am not intending to run a RAID setup, but there are no other options available.
>
> Now Bios shows that my Laptop drive is present on SATA2, while the main drive that I
> want to boot from is on SATA0
>
> Boot sequence however doesnot shows that I have 2 drives. Too bad.
> But I assume that it will boot from SATA0
>
> Booting starts OK with the usual XP boot picture, but after 2 or 3 secunds it stops with
> a BSOD !
> Since both drive have a bootable XP on it , I don't know which one is booting.
>
> What have I done wrong ???
>
>

"WSZsr" <> skrev i en meddelelse
news:4783650e$0$5000$...
> You can't change from ATA to AHCI (or vice versa) in the BIOS without reinstalling XP
> on the boot drive.
>

That was it.
With SATA operation set back to ATA, everything is working as I want.

All that trouble started because the BIOS was not showing my laptop drive to start with.

One Question remaining:
do I miss some features or performance when running ATA instead of AHCI ?

"Jay B" <> wrote in message
news:478389a1$0$13863$...
> if you plan to do this a lot, get a cheap pci-express e-sata adapter
> that is made to have drives inserted after the machine is booted.
> so your 9150 is running, you want to plug in your laptop drive, you have a
> e-sata cable on the back of the card, with the other end connected into
> the mobile hd. buy a e-sata to sata cable.
> it works great!
>
> i have not tried to boot with a laptop drive in any of my configs, but i
> have done what you're doing with tons of other drives.
> that's why i started investing in e-sata technology.
>
>


Sweet. Hot pluggable also if I understand your post?

yes, it works great hot pluggable.
fyi- none of the onboard sata connectors in dells are hot pluggable.
except for the first time in the optiplex 755, they have esata
connectors on the motherboard in addition to the other.
i strongly advise anyone buying an optiplex 755 to get the esata
connector option. its less than $10 and well worth it.
look for this feature in other future dell systems that came out the
same time or after the 755.


S.Lewis wrote:
> "Jay B" <> wrote in message
> news:478389a1$0$13863$...
>> if you plan to do this a lot, get a cheap pci-express e-sata adapter
>> that is made to have drives inserted after the machine is booted.
>> so your 9150 is running, you want to plug in your laptop drive, you have a
>> e-sata cable on the back of the card, with the other end connected into
>> the mobile hd. buy a e-sata to sata cable.
>> it works great!
>>
>> i have not tried to boot with a laptop drive in any of my configs, but i
>> have done what you're doing with tons of other drives.
>> that's why i started investing in e-sata technology.
>>
>>
>
>
> Sweet. Hot pluggable also if I understand your post?
>
>