Strange goings on with a SATA drive on XP

zovat · 30-03-2005, 12:50

Hi Folks,

I have a bit of a wierd issue with my PC, and thought I would see if any of the forum members had seen (or even better resolved) such an issue before....

System is a self built....

Motherboard is : Nforce 2 M7NCD (Biostar)
I have 1 IDE HDD with win XP on it (built on old system - repaired for new one).
2 IDE media devices (1xDVD+RW and 1xCDRW)
Nvidia FX5700 Gfx Card.
450w Dual Fan PSU
iCute Case (top and side fans)

I recently purchased a Serial ATA raid card and a 160Gb SATA drive to do a re-install on, but I need to keep the data on the old drive....

I cannot get the system to stay up with both the drives active (booted from the IDE drive).

I have installed windows on the SATA drive, and done all the updates etc, but if I try to copy the data from the old IDE drive to the SATA drive, the system powers off...

System seems to be perfectly happy on with disk standalone, or when I am not stressing the SATA drive.

I intend to try booting from the SATA drive, and having the IDE drive as an additional drive, to copy the data, but wondered if anyone had seen this problem...

I dont think it is related to the amount of power required, as I have a 450w PSU (but I could be wrong)..

Any advice/guidance greatly appreciated.

Zovat

30-03-2005, 13:00

So its a pci sata card? have you tried different pci slot in case of a conflict? just an idea

zovat · 30-03-2005, 13:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

So its a pci sata card? have you tried different pci slot in case of a conflict? just an idea

It is a PCI card, and I have tried it in 2 slots

I thought the same, and it seemed to be ok in the second slot, until I strted copying data from one to the other - then it died again...

I works great without the IDE drive attached - but I haven't tried with the IDE attached and the SATA as the boot drive..

30-03-2005, 13:10

have you tried a new ide lead ,again just stating the obvious i guess lol

zovat · 30-03-2005, 13:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

have you tried a new ide lead ,again just stating the obvious i guess lol

It is a new lead, but that one could be iffy - I'll try the old lead, just to be sure - That hadn't occured t me...

Aragorn · 30-03-2005, 13:29

When you installed XP on the SATA disk, did the old drive appear under XP?
I assume you loaded the drivers for the SATA card as well as the drive on the old copy of XP?
How does the system 'power off' - any blue screen or errors in the log files?

zovat · 30-03-2005, 13:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aragorn

When you installed XP on the SATA disk, did the old drive appear under XP?

I did not have it connected at that point, as I did not wish to accidentaly overwrite it..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aragorn

I assume you loaded the drivers for the SATA card as well as the drive on the old copy of XP?

I did indeed

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aragorn

How does the system 'power off' - any blue screen or errors in the log files?

no errors, no BSOD, just a click and no power to the system.

I have to remove the power lead, then replace it and power back up...

It sounds like the PSU, but it is a fairly new 450w supply, and I cannot see it using more than that...

(but as I say, I could be wrong)...

monkey2468 · 30-03-2005, 14:10

Sounds like a psu problem to me.......

zovat · 30-03-2005, 14:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by monkey2468

Sounds like a psu problem to me.......

I'm beginning to thing so

I'll try with the new drive as boot, and make sure the power is shared evenly tonight, otherwise it's time for a new PSU

, and if I get a new PSU, I might as well get a second SATA drive

Aragorn · 30-03-2005, 14:14

I would be more inclined to think it's an incompatibility between Mobo (ATA controller) and SATA card. At the time it dies you are pumping large amounts of data down the ATA channel and up the SATA channel. I'm not an expert on electronics, but I wouldn't think there would any sigificantly different power usage betwee an idle and busy drive and the PSU is able to boot up with all the drives.

The only thing I would suggest at this point is booting of the SATA with both disks plugged in and verify that the same thing happens during the copy. XP 'shouldn't' overwrite anything on the IDE drive.

HTH

Salu · 30-03-2005, 14:24

It could be over demand on the 12v channel of the PSU. If you disconnect your CDROM/DVDROMs does it work then?

zovat · 30-03-2005, 16:12

just booted with the SATA as the boot drive, and am copying the data from IDE to SATA - looks like it might hold up

(It had normally crashed pretty quickly

)

I'm guessing that the monitor S/W installed had some silly settings for the power down thresholds, but I wont be able to tell until later..

zovat · 30-03-2005, 16:58

spoke too soon - darn thing powered down again...

Swapped the power connectors so that the HDs were on different rails...

All seems to be ok now (just copied a load of data over and the system is still running ok...

Florence · 30-03-2005, 17:43

The Sata drive needed to be on a different connection to the IDE one mine has worked fine for the last month on seperate leads.

zovat · 31-03-2005, 09:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kits

The Sata drive needed to be on a different connection to the IDE one mine has worked fine for the last month on seperate leads.

Thats what I thought, but i did it again

....

I'll try sticking the SATA on a lead with only itself, and see if that solves it...