Help with a geeky HD query please?

[swee'pea99]

Ok, got a new (to me) PC off ebay. A real monster - Dell T3500 - damn thing weighs more than my car. Anyway, the spec is as follows:

• Intel Xeon E5630 Socket 1366 LGA
• 12 GB of DDR ECC RAM
• Radeon ATI FirePro 2260 Graphics
• 500GB (2 x 250GB) hard disks in Raid 0
• PCI RAID storage controller - up to 8 additional drives

Now I've been trying to transfer HDs from my old PC to this one. Ideally I'd like to install two more, alongside the two it came with: a 320Gb WD, and a 500Gb Maxtor. Both of which were running fine in the old (Asus) PC. The odd thing is, the new PC will only see the WD, not the Maxtor.

I plug the WD in, turn on, there it is - a new E drive. I plug the Maxtor in, nothing. I can feel it buzzing. Power's getting in, the data ribbon is the same one that worked with the WD drive, but it doesn't appear. I've tried using different connectors and swapping both around, but however I play it, I get the same result: the WD shows up; the Maxtor doesn't.

Needless to say I'm way out of my comfort zone on this kind of thing. I generally just work by trial & error, and generally get there in the end. (That's how I ended up with 3 HDs in the old Asus.) But this one's got me baffled.

And thoughts and advice much appreciated.

 

[midlife]

Buy a cage and run it externally, transfer the data over to one of the hard drives in the PC?

Shaun

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Have you checked in the BIOS to make sure that something isn't disabled

 

[Rezillo]

Have you checked in the BIOS to make sure that something isn't disabled

That, and checking the jumper on the drive for master and slave, assuming these are IDE drives from your 'ribbon' description.

 

[Deleted member 23692]

Is it not visible in Disk Management or Windows Explorer or both?

 

[swee'pea99]

Buy a cage and run it externally, transfer the data over to one of the hard drives in the PC?

Thanks, yes, that's definitely plan B if I can't get the thing sorted. It would just be neater if I could get it all in t'box.

Have you checked in the BIOS to make sure that something isn't disabled

Nope. Not sure what I'd look for. I would've thought that anything that disabled the Maxtor would also disable to WD. No?

That, and checking the jumper on the drive for master and slave, assuming these are IDE drives from your 'ribbon' description.

Nope - these are all SATA drives. Though it may be significant that the connectors at the end look slightly different.

The WD looks like this:

The Maxtor like this:

(Apologies for crap pics...still getting to grips with new teckernolojy)

Is it not visible in Disk Management or Windows Explorer or both?

Neither. It just doesn't exist.

Thanks again.

 

[drummerbod]

I reckon the Maxtors dead - when did you last use it?

 

[mybike]

Have you taken the WD out & plugged the Maxtor in?

 

[Deleted member 26715]

As the PC boots hold the Delete key down, but as it's a Dell that might be F2 read at the bottom of the screen. Then look in th menus to where the hard drives are & make sure they are on Auto

 

[Rezillo]

It's probably a server board with ECC ram and a Xeon cpu. There can be multiple combinations of enabled and disabled drive interfaces with these, so as mybike says, first try it on the working connector used by the WD drive. If it works, then it is a mobo config issue with the other connector, if it doesn't work, the drive is either defunct or not compatible with the particular controller being used.

Server boards can have more than one onboard sata controller built in - often the Intel chipset one and a Promise controller, for example. Download the mobo manual and find which sata connectors are for which controller, then try the Maxtor drive on either set. The onboard controllers are usually disabled if hardware raid is provided by an add-in card or you may find just one controller is left enabled, to add non-raid drives. Each sata socket can usually be disabled/enabled in the bios or the whole controller can be disabled by a mobo jumper.

I've got a couple of similar server systems built from Ebay bits - one is currently running Windows Server 2008 as a souped-up NAS

 

[swee'pea99]

I reckon the Maxtors dead - when did you last use it?

I don't think so, unless it got upset at being moved. I used it pretty regularly in the old PC. It's got all my MP3s on.

Have you taken the WD out & plugged the Maxtor in?

Yes. There's a whole bunch of SATA cables inside the beast - I was using a couple, and the WD worked on either, the Maxtor on neither.

As the PC boots hold the Delete key down, but as it's a Dell that might be F2 read at the bottom of the screen. Then look in th menus to where the hard drives are & make sure they are on Auto

Thanks. When the thing's booting up and you get all those intiialising type messages, with the WD drive in, you can see it come up - albeit briefly - with the Maxtor, not. I'll try this tomorrow.

It's probably a server board with ECC ram and a Xeon cpu. There can be multiple combinations of enabled and disabled drive interfaces with these, so as mybike says, first try it on the working connector used by the WD drive. [Tried that.] If it works, then it is a mobo config issue with the other connector, if it doesn't work, the drive is either defunct or not compatible with the particular controller being used. [As above, I don't think it's kaput. Sounds like it must be 'incompatible'.]

Server boards can have more than one onboard sata controller built in - often the Intel chipset one and a Promise controller, for example. Download the mobo manual and find which sata connectors are for which controller, then try the Maxtor drive on either set. The onboard controllers are usually disabled if hardware raid is provided by an add-in card or you may find just one controller is left enabled, to add non-raid drives. Each sata socket can usually be disabled/enabled in the bios or the whole controller can be disabled by a mobo jumper.

[This is all a bit over my head. Like I say, I'm not good at this sort of thing. I just wondered if there might be an obvious & easy answer. Ity's increasingly looking like the answer's no. I suspect I'm going to end up falling back on Shaun's original suggestion and getting one o' these from fleabay.]

I've got a couple of similar server systems built from Ebay bits - one is currently running Windows Server 2008 as a souped-up NAS

You see...I don't even know what that means. Might as well be in Welsh.

Thanks all. If anyone has any 'obvious & easy' suggestions, do pass 'em on.