Are some HD's just ridiculously tough to get running?
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.)
Comments
I also use NTFS formatted drives with my iBook from time to time and it has no problem mounting them locally through a USB interface. I've never tried to put a NTFS formatted drive into a PM, as I've never had a PM, but I would guess MacOS X doesn't like that. Windows however, has no problems with it. It doesn't let you read it or mount it, but you can use third party apps to do that.
Here's the update:
After the HD setup CD partitioned the new HD and "supposedly" transferred all the files from the old HD (implying I will be able to boot from this relocated OS), pretty much nothing happened after rebooting (yes, I relocated the new HD to the primary master location). No system disk found- yadda, yadda, yadda... Also had to wrestle with the bios settings again to get it to see a HD, at all... What a total buzzkill!
It does appear I would need a bios upgrade to use larger harddrives. So why don't I just go download one? ...because they want $60.00 for their latest, super-duper bios for that motherboard.
To compound my issue, the USB-IDE adapter I use decided it would be a good time to go flakey. So that was giving me plenty of erroneous troubleshooting information to keep me wandering in the dark. I couldn't tell if the HD was just bad, I had something in the bios that needed adjustment, or I was just installing Windows incorrectly (such that it would actually install files to the HD, but not boot). After getting sufficient indication that the USB-IDE adaptor was "a" source of my grief(s), that led me to realize that this other smaller HD I had was, indeed, still useable (as I had just about written it off since it was making very "click of death" sort of sounds whenever I attempted to mount up using the aforementioned faulty USB-IDE adaptor.).
So I throw "ole trusty" (which was actually the first HD upgrade I ever used in my dear ole PowerMac) into the PC, install Windows, and cavalierly get a running system off the ground. It's small enough to work with the old bios, but not so small as to be immediately restriced as soon as Windows resides on it.
Still in the back of my head, "should I get that new bios, anyway, or just get a simple IDE controller PCI card?" That way I could put this new HD to use. Either option costs about the same (would you believe- after pitching me the $60 offer for the new bios, they follow-up a week later with a $30 downloadable bios). So $30 for a totally up-to-date bios (that will allow me to do various other money-pit associated ventures) or $30 for a PCI card...but then I was thinking, the PC was able to access the large HD to install Windows. It just wouldn't boot from it. So now I have a smaller, bootable HD in place. Maybe I could get it so Windows recognizes the big HD on the secondary IDE controller.
...and after a few hours of more bios dabbling (that's what Fri evenings are for, right?
So that is my long convoluted story of a HD that conspired with my own gizmos to foil my every attempt to get a PC running. I may have "lost" a USB adaptor, but I gained back my "ole trusty" HD (glad I didn't disassemble it or throw it across the room in vented frustration). I also learned that even though an old bios may not be able to boot a large HD, you still have a chance of using it as long as you have a running copy of Windows that boots from a different HD (well, plus the HD setup CD boot slipped some sort of mickey into my CMOS that does some sort of "mapping"- your guess is as good as mine that this had its own little part in making this old PC work with a modern, big HD).
So should I invest in some sort of HD cooling fan to blow on the HD's? They just hang there in their mounting chassis with no apparent airflow forced through that area. I worry because they do feel warm, unlike in the PowerMac where they would get some direct airflow bleeding through the underside.