Wow, never thought upgrading hard drives could be this difficult...
Config was:
Dfi Lanparty UT nF3 250gb
1 gb corsair value ram (pc3200 ddr400) (2x512)
A64 2800+ (newcastle)
Antec TruePower 550w
Geforce 6800 Ultra
Plextor CDRW <-----Secondary IDE Master
Toshiba DVD-ROM<-------Secondary IDE Slave
Prior HD config:
WD 160gb 8mb 7200rpm <-----Primary IDE master (system drive Winxp Home)
--had a 2nd partition capable of booting WinXP Pro 64-bit
IBM Deskstar 80gb (I think 7200rpm, but maybe 5400) 2mb <----Primary IDE Slave
Raid 0
Maxtor 80gb (7200/8mb) SATA
Maxtor 80gb (7200/8mb) IDE (w/sata adapter)
Everything was working fine in this config for months, and then I ran out of storage. I found a great deal on some WD 160gb Caviar SE (8mb/7200) drives, so I went and picked up 3 of them... figureing I'd pretty much double my storage.
Desired Config:
Primary IDE Master: wd 160gb (7200rpm/8mb) (only change from above is getting rid of 2nd partition)
Primary Ide Slave: The NON native SATA maxtor 80gb drive from the prior raid array
SATA 1: Native SATA maxtor 80gb (from prior raid array)
SATA 3-4: the 3 new 160gb WD special editions in Raid 0
In order to get to the desired config I had to shuffle a few things arround...
1. Get data off of the raid array (2x80gb)
2. Get rid of the second partition on my system drive
3. Get all relevant data off of the IBM 80gb drive because it's coming out in the new config (I decided to transfer the 2nd partition of my 160gb system drive to the IBM drive as a backup)
4. Break the raid array into the two drives it represents
To achomplish:
step 1:
I disconnected my Optical Drives, and replaced them with 2 of the new WD 160SE's. I then transfered the data off the raid array to one of them
step 2/3:
-Moved everything from the IBM to the other new WD160SE
-Used Paragon Partition Manager Pro to copy the winxp PRO 64bit partition to the IBM
step 4:
Disabled raid in bios and formatted the two drives independently
thats when the problems started...
Once all of the above was done, and functional... I needed to get all the data that had been put on the new WD 160SE's off of them, so they could be formatted and installed as a raid array... I was able to copy as much data that would fit onto the various other drives in my system, but for some reason...
...The computer started to crash whenever I tried transfering files to my system drive (still the original 160gb wd)...
that had me flustered, and I couldn't figure it out.. I tried updating drivers, and checking connections (even tried new IDE cables). I made shure all drives were working in UDMA mode.
CheckDisk diddn't show any problens, nor did Norton Disk Doctor. So I tried to defrag... and it crashed whenever I tried defragging...
My dad thought it might be the memory because DMA/UDMA is very memory intensive, so I tried each of the sticks idividually, no luck, still crashed on transfers
It diddn't crash on downloads or reads, just when trying to transfer big folders from one drive to it, or on a defrag...
...I only wish that were the worst of my problems...
Frustrated, I decided to ignore the problem, and work arround it... So I get all the data off of one of my new WD160 SE's and replace it with an old 80gb 5400 rmp maxtor that I had laying arround...
...Bios detects something wrong with the S.M.A.R.T. monitoring on the 5400rpm maxtor that I just installed, says to back up all data immediately and drive failure may be imminent... so I power down, and take the drive out (at this point I'm not exacly looking for another problem to solve)
I hook everything back up as it was PRE UPGRADE (i.e. the very first config I have at the top of this post minus the two opticals) and I go to boot:
boots fine till:
"...Verifying DMI Data Pool..."
"DISK BOOT ERROR INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER"
I reboot, and make shure that the system drive is set at the first boot device, it is.
so now for some reason, it isn't even seeing the MBR or something...
I never changed the boot device in this system, and the only thing I can think of is that somewhere when I was messing with the partitions on the System drive It messed up the MBR, but that doesnt really make sense, because It was booting ok untill I decided to add that crappy 80gb maxtor 5400 rpm...
As you can probably tell, I'm frustrated as hell, sorry for writing a book, and thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to read it all...
Config was:
Dfi Lanparty UT nF3 250gb
1 gb corsair value ram (pc3200 ddr400) (2x512)
A64 2800+ (newcastle)
Antec TruePower 550w
Geforce 6800 Ultra
Plextor CDRW <-----Secondary IDE Master
Toshiba DVD-ROM<-------Secondary IDE Slave
Prior HD config:
WD 160gb 8mb 7200rpm <-----Primary IDE master (system drive Winxp Home)
--had a 2nd partition capable of booting WinXP Pro 64-bit
IBM Deskstar 80gb (I think 7200rpm, but maybe 5400) 2mb <----Primary IDE Slave
Raid 0
Maxtor 80gb (7200/8mb) SATA
Maxtor 80gb (7200/8mb) IDE (w/sata adapter)
Everything was working fine in this config for months, and then I ran out of storage. I found a great deal on some WD 160gb Caviar SE (8mb/7200) drives, so I went and picked up 3 of them... figureing I'd pretty much double my storage.
Desired Config:
Primary IDE Master: wd 160gb (7200rpm/8mb) (only change from above is getting rid of 2nd partition)
Primary Ide Slave: The NON native SATA maxtor 80gb drive from the prior raid array
SATA 1: Native SATA maxtor 80gb (from prior raid array)
SATA 3-4: the 3 new 160gb WD special editions in Raid 0
In order to get to the desired config I had to shuffle a few things arround...
1. Get data off of the raid array (2x80gb)
2. Get rid of the second partition on my system drive
3. Get all relevant data off of the IBM 80gb drive because it's coming out in the new config (I decided to transfer the 2nd partition of my 160gb system drive to the IBM drive as a backup)
4. Break the raid array into the two drives it represents
To achomplish:
step 1:
I disconnected my Optical Drives, and replaced them with 2 of the new WD 160SE's. I then transfered the data off the raid array to one of them
step 2/3:
-Moved everything from the IBM to the other new WD160SE
-Used Paragon Partition Manager Pro to copy the winxp PRO 64bit partition to the IBM
step 4:
Disabled raid in bios and formatted the two drives independently
thats when the problems started...
Once all of the above was done, and functional... I needed to get all the data that had been put on the new WD 160SE's off of them, so they could be formatted and installed as a raid array... I was able to copy as much data that would fit onto the various other drives in my system, but for some reason...
...The computer started to crash whenever I tried transfering files to my system drive (still the original 160gb wd)...
that had me flustered, and I couldn't figure it out.. I tried updating drivers, and checking connections (even tried new IDE cables). I made shure all drives were working in UDMA mode.
CheckDisk diddn't show any problens, nor did Norton Disk Doctor. So I tried to defrag... and it crashed whenever I tried defragging...
My dad thought it might be the memory because DMA/UDMA is very memory intensive, so I tried each of the sticks idividually, no luck, still crashed on transfers
It diddn't crash on downloads or reads, just when trying to transfer big folders from one drive to it, or on a defrag...
...I only wish that were the worst of my problems...
Frustrated, I decided to ignore the problem, and work arround it... So I get all the data off of one of my new WD160 SE's and replace it with an old 80gb 5400 rmp maxtor that I had laying arround...
...Bios detects something wrong with the S.M.A.R.T. monitoring on the 5400rpm maxtor that I just installed, says to back up all data immediately and drive failure may be imminent... so I power down, and take the drive out (at this point I'm not exacly looking for another problem to solve)
I hook everything back up as it was PRE UPGRADE (i.e. the very first config I have at the top of this post minus the two opticals) and I go to boot:
boots fine till:
"...Verifying DMI Data Pool..."
"DISK BOOT ERROR INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER"
I reboot, and make shure that the system drive is set at the first boot device, it is.
so now for some reason, it isn't even seeing the MBR or something...
I never changed the boot device in this system, and the only thing I can think of is that somewhere when I was messing with the partitions on the System drive It messed up the MBR, but that doesnt really make sense, because It was booting ok untill I decided to add that crappy 80gb maxtor 5400 rpm...
As you can probably tell, I'm frustrated as hell, sorry for writing a book, and thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to read it all...
