Removable Hard Drive Rack help!!! (aka mobile rack, removable HDD frame, HDD travel tray)

[MrChipMuthabored]

GAH!!

I bought one of those removable hard drive rack setups and have it installed. Well, its not working like I'd hoped. I was hoping that on startup and restart of my system that it would be recognized. Instead, its really on and off, and I can only get it to work if I mess around when I turn the key during bootup.

Some things to note is that its plugged in to a RAID IDE in my KT7A-RAID, its a brand new 60GB Western Digital 5400rpm, and I'm using Windows XP Pro.

Most of the times when I have it plugged in and running, it won't detect by the RAID bios and the XP startup will hang when its doing its "blue status bar thingy" as it goes back and forth...it starts to fade in, then it'll stop. Then after like 2 mins, it'll go into windows, but my drive still isn't detected.

Can any one tell me what's going on? THANKS!!!!

 

[Head]

Something simple to try - make sure the drive is locked - I have one that has a key lock on the front. If the keys - and therefore the drive - are not locked in, you can't get any recognition. The waiting thing you were talking about is likely becasue the system can detect that something is plugged in but can't get any other information. Just a thought - don't know since I don't know what drive tray you have!

 

[MrChipMuthabored]

Yeah, the drive is pushed back and the key is turned on....there are LEDs that turn on. Its just that the drive works inconsistently...sometimes works, sometimes not.

I mean, I was hoping just that it would work normally just as if you plugged in the IDE and power.

Dang.

 

[Head]

Well, if you are looking for a new one, I can tell you where I got mine - works like a charm...just PM me

 

[corkyg]

I have installed about 10 of those puppies in the last year. I have two towers with two MRs each. It is important to get good quality racks and trays. Don't go cheap. The best minimum buy are KF-21s . . . all aluminum. The weakness in all of them is the key switch. Don't apply too much torque . . . it is a 90 degree turn from off to on.

I have spare trays and each rack has two drives. I only use one drive at a time. The others are backups or different OS'. I have ME on one tray and XP on another . . . basically same software, but different OS's.

One thing that helps os to set all the drives as CS (Cable Select) and use ATA 100/66 80 wire cables (They are CS capable. This means a given rack will always be the Master and the other the slave with the trays interchangeable.

Once a week I turn both drives on and use DC 4 to clone the latest drive to its backup . . . then I rotate them and give the last duty "soldier" a week off.

But for running Windows, any version, I only use one drive at a time . . . either Master or Slave . . . makes no difference.

 

[Jesta]

Just a quick note, I had some racks that only seemed to work with ATA33 Drives, whenever I would put the mobile rack on an ATA 100 controller it would not detect the drive. This was a while back so I am not positive that they still make them according to the type of controller you are connecting them to, but just my two cents.

 

[MrChipMuthabored]

Hmm, cable select eh?....sounds like a good tip. I've been setting it to 'master'. I'm just experimenting with them, because in *theory* they are a good idea. But when you can't get them to work everytime, it could get a bit annoying.

 

[Workin']

I haven't had any problems with my drive racks - Lian Li RH40. Not the fanciest, but they are metal and get the job done. Using Maxtor 60GB 7200RPM ATA100, WD 40GB 7200RPM ATA100, and Maxtor 6GB 5400 ATA33 drives.

If you are not using an 80-conductor IDE cable that is likely your problem. If you are using that cable, then maybe the new drive is flaky and should be exchanged. Or the key switch on your drive rack is fudged.

 

[Horsepower]

I have 2 HDD aluminum mobile racks in this machine, and 7 different drives. All of my other machines at least have one for backup. They all work great.

 

[MrChipMuthabored]

No, I'm definitely using a 80-pin conductor rounded cable (who uses the 40-pins now anyways?). Anyways I just read that some Western Digital hard drives are having incompatibilites with KT7, KT7A, KTE boards (raid and non-raid) and its a known issue between VIA and WD. So maybe its that.