Randycat99
03-25-2005, 12:54 AM
O...MG! This new HD I got has got to be THE most single pain in the a$$ unit I've ever had to deal with. Now I've upgraded numerous HD's before, and never have I experienced this much static. Usually (IIRC), I just drop it in to my PM, plug in the cables, boot up, and disk utility will be able to see it and then format it.
...but nooooo, this little "piece" refused to be "visible" to MacOS no matter what. No way was I able to format or even get some indication that this drive wasn't defective or something. Now I didn't even buy this drive to use in my Mac, but to throw it in my "beater" PC. Seeing as how I couldn't get it to even recognize it on a controller, that is what led me to try it on my Mac. Alas, I would have to actually do some "work" on my PC to get some results. (This brings up a side observation that perhaps MacOSX has difficulty mounting stock clean HD's or NTFS formatted drives through USB2 or firewire interfaces? Anybody else have similar observations? I've heard that OSX should be able to mount NTFS volumes as read only... No such luck for me, this time.)
So anyways, I'm trying to use the included HD installation CD software...but evidently I got to futz with some BIOS crap before the controller will even see a HD on any controller. It doesn't seem to want to auto-detect jack. So I'm wandering around changing master/slave/cable select jumpers, enabling master this, slave that, etc in the bios...try to enter in all these sector and cylinder settings manually... The computer is just having a ball getting hung up on controller checks or getting all the way to loading the CD software, but still not detecting anything other than the original HD in its master slot. I was beginning to throw the towel in for the night (because actually it was yesterday night when I first took a crack at this, and today I was still not making any more progress than before). So I disable the 2ndary master so it would not hang up the bootup process, and I can boot into the CD app one more time to do some final looking around. Mind you, I specifically made this last setting because I intended to make the new HD "invisible" to the system. Well lo and behold...now the CD app can see the drive on the controller. To this moment, I still have no idea how that is even possible if I explicitly disabled that controller check (and essentially this was the default setting that didn't work the first time I put my hands on this computer, in the first place). Begrudgingly I proceed with HD prep...(things seem to be falling into place far easier ever since)
...but damn, if that was the most pain in the a$$ upgrade experience I've ever had for of all things- a HD?! That should be a simple, no-brainer job. What was all this about? Are some HD brands just very stubborn the first time you take'em out of the box? Was it the pre-formatted NTFS condition that threw things out of whack? Is formatting a new HD in a "PC" just this complicated inherently (assuming you don't boot into Windows- which was another limitation before me). If I could boot into Windows, would it have seen the HD and formatted it lickety-split at a keypress, or would I still have had to screw around in the bios to get the controller to communicate before Windows could do a thing for me? This whole experience has raised a curmudgeon's worth of questions for me, even though I have already pushed my way through the task (currently on its way to completion). ...and it still seems like I would not be able to repeat the same task, as it seems I got where I am now completely by random coincidences. What gives?
(Yeah, I know this is a Mac forum, but make no mistake, there are skilled Windows experts amongst us as a matter of profession. Additionally, a "HD" should be relatively platform agnostic in its use. Yet, all these "rulz" seem to be up in the air this time out, for me.)
...but nooooo, this little "piece" refused to be "visible" to MacOS no matter what. No way was I able to format or even get some indication that this drive wasn't defective or something. Now I didn't even buy this drive to use in my Mac, but to throw it in my "beater" PC. Seeing as how I couldn't get it to even recognize it on a controller, that is what led me to try it on my Mac. Alas, I would have to actually do some "work" on my PC to get some results. (This brings up a side observation that perhaps MacOSX has difficulty mounting stock clean HD's or NTFS formatted drives through USB2 or firewire interfaces? Anybody else have similar observations? I've heard that OSX should be able to mount NTFS volumes as read only... No such luck for me, this time.)
So anyways, I'm trying to use the included HD installation CD software...but evidently I got to futz with some BIOS crap before the controller will even see a HD on any controller. It doesn't seem to want to auto-detect jack. So I'm wandering around changing master/slave/cable select jumpers, enabling master this, slave that, etc in the bios...try to enter in all these sector and cylinder settings manually... The computer is just having a ball getting hung up on controller checks or getting all the way to loading the CD software, but still not detecting anything other than the original HD in its master slot. I was beginning to throw the towel in for the night (because actually it was yesterday night when I first took a crack at this, and today I was still not making any more progress than before). So I disable the 2ndary master so it would not hang up the bootup process, and I can boot into the CD app one more time to do some final looking around. Mind you, I specifically made this last setting because I intended to make the new HD "invisible" to the system. Well lo and behold...now the CD app can see the drive on the controller. To this moment, I still have no idea how that is even possible if I explicitly disabled that controller check (and essentially this was the default setting that didn't work the first time I put my hands on this computer, in the first place). Begrudgingly I proceed with HD prep...(things seem to be falling into place far easier ever since)
...but damn, if that was the most pain in the a$$ upgrade experience I've ever had for of all things- a HD?! That should be a simple, no-brainer job. What was all this about? Are some HD brands just very stubborn the first time you take'em out of the box? Was it the pre-formatted NTFS condition that threw things out of whack? Is formatting a new HD in a "PC" just this complicated inherently (assuming you don't boot into Windows- which was another limitation before me). If I could boot into Windows, would it have seen the HD and formatted it lickety-split at a keypress, or would I still have had to screw around in the bios to get the controller to communicate before Windows could do a thing for me? This whole experience has raised a curmudgeon's worth of questions for me, even though I have already pushed my way through the task (currently on its way to completion). ...and it still seems like I would not be able to repeat the same task, as it seems I got where I am now completely by random coincidences. What gives?
(Yeah, I know this is a Mac forum, but make no mistake, there are skilled Windows experts amongst us as a matter of profession. Additionally, a "HD" should be relatively platform agnostic in its use. Yet, all these "rulz" seem to be up in the air this time out, for me.)