Vista - USB hard disks

Apparently, Microsoft has not yet completely figured out the implications of
using SATA in an IDE world.
--
Dale Preston
MCAD C#
MCSE, MCDBA


"Mark Rae" wrote:

> Hmm - yes, but the whole point of the external hard disk harness is
> portability - not much use if I have to reinstall the operating system every
> time I want to put it into a different machine... :-)

Mark, is your system AMD based? Asus Mobo? (Just a guess.)
I also used to have USB problems with my XP system earlier , may be as said,
you should install latest disk controller/ mobo drivers and see, if it helps.

Has anybody tried the reverse? ie a PC having only IDE/PATA and no SATA ,
and using SATA HD in an USB enclosure?


"Dale" wrote:

> Apparently, Microsoft has not yet completely figured out the implications of
> using SATA in an IDE world.
> --
> Dale Preston
> MCAD C#
> MCSE, MCDBA
>
>
> "Mark Rae" wrote:
>
> > Hmm - yes, but the whole point of the external hard disk harness is
> > portability - not much use if I have to reinstall the operating system every
> > time I want to put it into a different machine... :-)
>

"andy" <bogusaddress@bogusaddress.123> wrote in message
news:5s91n2prue7vlqcgt3k3ko0hg6nbaljl4j@4ax.com...

> What happens if you connect an IDE drive to the motherboard (assuming
> there's an IDE interface on the chipset) and boot to Windows XP? Is
> the IDE drive recognized and accessible?

Yes.

"vasu" <vasu@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1F7FC971-3AB3-4DB7-B26F-45EF96C6FB48@microsoft.com...

> Mark, is your system AMD based? Asus Mobo? (Just a guess.)

One of my machines is AMD 64-bit dual-core / ASUS...

> I also used to have USB problems with my XP system earlier , may be as
> said,
> you should install latest disk controller/ mobo drivers and see, if it
> helps.

I'll do a search - thanks.

I am seeing the same issue on my laptop. I have a Compaq NC6320 dual core
laptop with a SATA drive. I can connect a tumbdrive with no problem. I also
have a SATA drive in a usb enclosure that works fine. I have two different
USB enclosures with IDE drives in them and neither will show up. Vista picks
up that it is a USB to IDE controller and recognizes it as a mass storage
device, but asks for a driver then quits.

One of the enclosures is a SimpleTech drive, and the other is a no name with
an IBM laptop drive in it.

I don't get this...

"Mark Rae" wrote:

> "Bill Frisbee" <wfrisbee@comcastx.net> wrote in message
> news:C21FF3A0-27E9-43EB-AE34-6B33BCE0D745@microsoft.com...
>
> > What happens when you launch the disk manager?
>
> It hangs - which is to say, that it doesn't display the disks, and the
> cursor remains as an hourglass.
>
> Incidentally, there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the USB
> drivers, because when I click "Safely Remove Hardware" XP / Vista seems to
> know precisely what sort of device it is: http://www.markrae.com/USBHD2.jpg
>
> So, it looks as if XP / Vista knows that it's a USB mass storage device,
> even knows the make and model of the hard disk in the harness, but doesn't
> know what to do with it next (i.e. assign it the next available drive
> letter) because it's an IDE device and there are no IDE drivers installed...
>
>
>

I had a similar problem. My laptop has SATA drives. Vista would not
recognize my IDE USB drive. Actually, Vista recognized the drive, but would
ask for drivers to continue. I told Vista to search windows update for
drivers to no avail.

I fixed this by plugging in the USB drive before I powered on my laptop.
When the laptop logged in, it installed drivers and the drive was recognized.
Not sure why it only installed the drivers on bootup/login, but it did.

Perhaps this will work for you.

"Mark Rae" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> OK - here's possibly an interesting one...
>
> I have recently purchased a new PC which has two SATA hard drives - no IDE
> drives at all.
>
> Have installed my MSDN copy of Vista Business on it - for development and
> testing purposes, naturally... :-)
>
> I also have a USB IDE hard disk harness which allows me to treat a
> stand-alone IDE hard drive as a USB device.
>
> When I plug the USB hard disk into one of the new PC's USB ports, it
> recognises it as a removable device but, because the machine has no IDE hard
> disk drivers on it, doesn't know what to do with it, doesn't create a drive
> letter for it etc... Windows Explorer (you know what I mean) seems to hang
> for an age while it tries to work out what to do with the new device, then
> displays nothing.
>
> Installing Vista onto a machine with IDE hard disks doesn't display this
> behaviour because it already knows all about IDE hard drives and what to do
> with them.
>
> What's the easiest way round this? Is it simply a matter of copying some
> files from the Vista image into the PC's %SYSTEM32% folder, or is there more
> to it than that...?
>
> Any assistance gratefully received.
>
> Mark
>
>
>

Great find! Thanks for the tip.

Dale

"Ken" <Ken@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:6D97F25C-28BA-4434-B2A0-4246C300BF50@microsoft.com...
>I had a similar problem. My laptop has SATA drives. Vista would not
> recognize my IDE USB drive. Actually, Vista recognized the drive, but
> would
> ask for drivers to continue. I told Vista to search windows update for
> drivers to no avail.
>
> I fixed this by plugging in the USB drive before I powered on my laptop.
> When the laptop logged in, it installed drivers and the drive was
> recognized.
> Not sure why it only installed the drivers on bootup/login, but it did.
>
> Perhaps this will work for you.
>
> "Mark Rae" wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> OK - here's possibly an interesting one...
>>
>> I have recently purchased a new PC which has two SATA hard drives - no
>> IDE
>> drives at all.
>>
>> Have installed my MSDN copy of Vista Business on it - for development and
>> testing purposes, naturally... :-)
>>
>> I also have a USB IDE hard disk harness which allows me to treat a
>> stand-alone IDE hard drive as a USB device.
>>
>> When I plug the USB hard disk into one of the new PC's USB ports, it
>> recognises it as a removable device but, because the machine has no IDE
>> hard
>> disk drivers on it, doesn't know what to do with it, doesn't create a
>> drive
>> letter for it etc... Windows Explorer (you know what I mean) seems to
>> hang
>> for an age while it tries to work out what to do with the new device,
>> then
>> displays nothing.
>>
>> Installing Vista onto a machine with IDE hard disks doesn't display this
>> behaviour because it already knows all about IDE hard drives and what to
>> do
>> with them.
>>
>> What's the easiest way round this? Is it simply a matter of copying some
>> files from the Vista image into the PC's %SYSTEM32% folder, or is there
>> more
>> to it than that...?
>>
>> Any assistance gratefully received.
>>
>> Mark
>>
>>
>>

Just tell it to search your "C" drive and all its subfolders. That's what
works for me.


"Dale" <nospam@nospam.ever> wrote in message
news:Ox6Y9LsJHHA.2236@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Great find! Thanks for the tip.
>
> Dale
>
> "Ken" <Ken@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:6D97F25C-28BA-4434-B2A0-4246C300BF50@microsoft.com...
>>I had a similar problem. My laptop has SATA drives. Vista would not
>> recognize my IDE USB drive. Actually, Vista recognized the drive, but
>> would
>> ask for drivers to continue. I told Vista to search windows update for
>> drivers to no avail.
>>
>> I fixed this by plugging in the USB drive before I powered on my laptop.
>> When the laptop logged in, it installed drivers and the drive was
>> recognized.
>> Not sure why it only installed the drivers on bootup/login, but it did.
>>
>> Perhaps this will work for you.
>>
>> "Mark Rae" wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> OK - here's possibly an interesting one...
>>>
>>> I have recently purchased a new PC which has two SATA hard drives - no
>>> IDE
>>> drives at all.
>>>
>>> Have installed my MSDN copy of Vista Business on it - for development
>>> and
>>> testing purposes, naturally... :-)
>>>
>>> I also have a USB IDE hard disk harness which allows me to treat a
>>> stand-alone IDE hard drive as a USB device.
>>>
>>> When I plug the USB hard disk into one of the new PC's USB ports, it
>>> recognises it as a removable device but, because the machine has no IDE
>>> hard
>>> disk drivers on it, doesn't know what to do with it, doesn't create a
>>> drive
>>> letter for it etc... Windows Explorer (you know what I mean) seems to
>>> hang
>>> for an age while it tries to work out what to do with the new device,
>>> then
>>> displays nothing.
>>>
>>> Installing Vista onto a machine with IDE hard disks doesn't display this
>>> behaviour because it already knows all about IDE hard drives and what to
>>> do
>>> with them.
>>>
>>> What's the easiest way round this? Is it simply a matter of copying some
>>> files from the Vista image into the PC's %SYSTEM32% folder, or is there
>>> more
>>> to it than that...?
>>>
>>> Any assistance gratefully received.
>>>
>>> Mark
>>>
>>>
>>>
>


--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

What? How does searching for the C: drive help with usb drives? Please
explain.

"Hugh Jass" <imnot@home.com> wrote in message
news:458d925b$0$15556$88260bb3@free.teranews.com...
> Just tell it to search your "C" drive and all its subfolders. That's what
> works for me.
>
>

I was having a similar problem. Go through computer management under disk
management and see if you see an unallocated partion. That may be the one
you're looking for. You just have to give it a volume and drive letter. I
know my hard drive that I used had a volume and partition already, but I
think because of changing it from a regular 2.5 hd to using it in an
enclosure with a slightly different controller made it modus incognito <lol>.

"Mark Rae" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> OK - here's possibly an interesting one...
>
> I have recently purchased a new PC which has two SATA hard drives - no IDE
> drives at all.
>
> Have installed my MSDN copy of Vista Business on it - for development and
> testing purposes, naturally... :-)
>
> I also have a USB IDE hard disk harness which allows me to treat a
> stand-alone IDE hard drive as a USB device.
>
> When I plug the USB hard disk into one of the new PC's USB ports, it
> recognises it as a removable device but, because the machine has no IDE hard
> disk drivers on it, doesn't know what to do with it, doesn't create a drive
> letter for it etc... Windows Explorer (you know what I mean) seems to hang
> for an age while it tries to work out what to do with the new device, then
> displays nothing.
>
> Installing Vista onto a machine with IDE hard disks doesn't display this
> behaviour because it already knows all about IDE hard drives and what to do
> with them.
>
> What's the easiest way round this? Is it simply a matter of copying some
> files from the Vista image into the PC's %SYSTEM32% folder, or is there more
> to it than that...?
>
> Any assistance gratefully received.
>
> Mark
>
>
>