Who stole my D: drive?

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Rickles

1387 posts

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Topic # 108805 5-Sep-2012 21:27

Recently I installed a 16GB SSD hard drive in my Asus EeePC netbook .... this is the model that came originally with a 4GB C drive soldered to the motherboard, and a removable 8GB D drive (on a mini PCI-e card).

My first experiment to increase storage was to insert a 16GB CF card into a mini PCI-e adapter, changed the BIOS to make this the primary (C) drive, and reinstalled WinXP. This worked perfectly fine and even retained the original 4GB C drive renamed as the drive D, but the data transfer speeds were just too slow, particularly for boot up.

I then replaced the CF card with a 16GB SSD drive, reinstalled WinXP, etc etc, and the thing goes like a rocket, plus heaps of room.

HOWEVER, I am now missing the 4GB SSD. It is not identified in the BIOS, it is not found by using GPARTED, nor under Disk Management of XP.

Can anyone shed light on where my D drive has gone?

I've updated the BIOS, checked that all disk drive controllers, and all drivers are operational.

The new SSD module is shown in the BIOS as 'SATA Master'. The 'IDE Master' and 'IDE Slave' entries report "Not Detected".

Perhaps the hardwired 4GB SSD is automatically disconnected when a SATA drive is used as primary Master?

R.

ChevronX

275 posts

Ultimate Geek

Reply # 682109 6-Sep-2012 08:11

BIOs upgrade? Also make sure that it is securely plugged in.

"The Atlantis base, brings greetings from the pegasus galaxy, you may cut power to the gate!."- Dr Weir (Rising) New Zealand · Luke.Geek.NZ

Rickles

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Reply # 682111 6-Sep-2012 08:16

Morning Luke,

BIOS is the latest available, and remember the 4GB SSD is soldered to motherboard.

R.

ChevronX

275 posts

Ultimate Geek

Reply # 682113 6-Sep-2012 08:20

Very strange (considering it is also missing from the BIOs). I am assuming there are no drivers missing to do with the HDD controllers? Do any drives or partitions appear in Drive Management? (Right click Computer, Manage, Drive Management).

To be honest that's the end of my experience, considering Gparted or the BIOs doesn't pick it up. Hopefully someone else can help you out if the above tips do not help! Would be interesting to know the cause of this.

"The Atlantis base, brings greetings from the pegasus galaxy, you may cut power to the gate!."- Dr Weir (Rising) New Zealand · Luke.Geek.NZ

Rickles

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Reply # 682117 6-Sep-2012 08:28

Ha ha ha, strange indeed ... call Mulder & Scully !! The Asus EeePC forums talk a lot about replacing the SSD drive for larger storage and swapping it to be the C: drive, but no mention of the remaining 4GB drive.

Yup, ensured all drivers are installed and working properly etc.

I might try pulling the 16GB SSD module out and seeing if the 4GB drive returns ... that might tell me it's an auto cut-out "thing".

R.

ChevronX

275 posts

Ultimate Geek

Reply # 682119 6-Sep-2012 08:36

Let us know, what occurs!

"The Atlantis base, brings greetings from the pegasus galaxy, you may cut power to the gate!."- Dr Weir (Rising) New Zealand · Luke.Geek.NZ

bagheera

261 posts

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Reply # 682134 6-Sep-2012 09:18

on a new motherboard that had mSATA the manual said if you have something plug into the msata port then sata port x is disabled - maybe you got the ssd plug into the same bus sata port as the msata and the SSD is winning on which is enable - is there more then 1 sata port in the laptop? try change to another - also look at the manual for the bios and see what config are supported.

gzt

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Reply # 682227 6-Sep-2012 12:01

can you disable the new drive in the bios and see if the 4GB drive magically appears?

Rickles

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Reply # 682346 6-Sep-2012 14:14

Guys,

Tried disabling drive in BIOS, had no effect. Removed new SSD drive and the old 4GB drive reappears (as 'IDE Master') !

Tried various BIOS settings to set the 4GB drive as slave or anything really, but it's undetectable as soon as the new 16GB module is installed.

I suspect the IDE channels are simply blocked if a SATA drive is subsequently utilised?

R.

bagheera

261 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 55

Reply # 682349 6-Sep-2012 14:16

Rickles: Guys,

Tried disabling drive in BIOS, had no effect. Removed new SSD drive and the old 4GB drive reappears (as 'IDE Master') !

Tried various BIOS settings to set the 4GB drive as slave or anything really, but it's undetectable as soon as the new 16GB module is installed.

I suspect the IDE channels are simply blocked if a SATA drive is subsequently utilised?

R.

sounds like it - only real way to know is to look in the manual for the bios and look in the right section.

gzt

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Reply # 682353 6-Sep-2012 14:24

Can you set the sata as slave? with hdd jumpers?

I would not expect it to make any difference here but you never know..

Rickles

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Reply # 682366 6-Sep-2012 14:38

No jumpers on this module ... it's a Solid State Drive on a mini PCI-e card.

R.