Solved Problem with SSD and HD together, DELL T3400

[vangogh]

I inherited a T3400 with core2 quad Q6600, but no HD or OS. Nice machine, by the way, tho' old-ish.

Installed a Cruze 128G SSD and W7 with AHCI set, SSD and DVD on ports 0 and 1. Boot to SSD then DVD. Nice and fast! Old BIOS, 2008 I think. Read bad things about v11 -14 so decided to leave it as is. I believe the BIOS sets AHCI for ALL drives, no distinction possible - all drives are AHCI in BIOS. Hooked up a (two yr old?) SATA WD Green 2TB with data on it (from an Intel mobo with XP OS) and SSD would not show, and not boot. Tried the HD on SATA 2 and 3 ports, but SSD will not boot with ANY UNUSED ports enabled.

DO I assume correctly that if I want to install any HD I will have to initialize under the AHCI setting?

Any help appreciated, I think the answer probably is straightforward...

 

[VistaKing]

Unplug the WD and see if the SSD will boot into windows ?

 

[vangogh]

Sorry - should have mentioned that it is OK with HD unplugged as long as I disable the port it was using. SSD booted just perfect.

 

[VistaKing]

You could do is Mark the SSD drive as active and remove the active from the XP drive inside XPs device manager

 

[vangogh]

The HD is not an OS drive - XP says Layout:Simple/Dynamic/NTFS/Healthy - but not /Active (1.863 TB)

 

[whs]

Aha, You apparently have more than 4 primary partitions on the hdd. So it went to spanned (dynamic). I suggest you fix that first. But how:

1. delete partitions until you have only 4 partitions.

2. Get this pw422 .iso and burn it to CD - you can use it for step #1 too

3. boot with the CD and change the remaining partitions to basic

 

[vangogh]

Sorry, I remember very well installing that HD. and in Disk Management on the XP, it shows one partition only, with the olive green code color which applies to a Simple layout...

Is there some other thing? In Properties Partition style is Master Boot Record (MBR).

If this is the problem, I will not likely be able to use it (it has data, remember - 1 TB full) with changes, and will need another new HD - but with what settings when initializing it?

 

[whs]

I don't know. Then it was made dynamic some other way. I read that from your info: " XP says Layout:Simple/Dynamic/NTFS/Healthy ". And olive is dynamic. Primary is dark blue and logical is light blue.

Look at it with pw422, then you'll know for sure.

 

[VistaKing]

Vangogh

Show us a prnt scrn of the disk management .

 

[whs]

Vangogh

Show us a prnt scrn of the disk management .

I wonder whether he can if his SSD does not boot when the HDD is attached. That's why I suggested to investigate it with the pw422 CD.

 

[VistaKing]

Take a look at inside XP when the SSD is plugged in

 

[vangogh]

Print Screen of Management

Here it is - from the XP comp, of course, where I put it back...

 

[whs]

See, disk1 is dynamic. Only you would know how it got that way.

 

[vangogh]

BTW, Properties says "1 MB unallocated"

 

[vangogh]

I have no way of knowing how it got that way - I'm a graphic artist, not THAT literate, I'm afraid...

 

[whs]

BTW, Properties says "1 MB unallocated"

That does no mean anything. No need to worry about that. Try my earlier suggestion with pw422.

In pw422, highlight that partition, click on the partition tab above and go to Modify. There the reconversion should be possible.

 

[VistaKing]

When you plug in the SSD is it shown in the bios ? What is the bios version

Open up command prompt by clicking on rb: type CMD inside Search programs and files . Press [ENTER]

In command prompt enter the following

systeminfo | find "BIOS Version:"

   Note

The | pipe symbol can be found using SHIFT + \ (just above the [ENTER] key)

Current Bios Version : A14


Download

 

[vangogh]

As mentioned in the original post, the BIOS version is A08 (8/14/2008) And versions 11 to 14 are condemned by many as being garbage.
WHS: When I do as suggested, HOW do I convert the partition? You didn't say

And could someone also tell how to initialize a new drive if I get one for the purpose?
Thanks so much.

 

[VistaKing]

Take a look at the link below

:ar: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/26829-convert-dynamic-disk-basic-disk.html

 

[whs]

WHS: When I do as suggested, HOW do I convert the partition? You didn't say

I did say in post #16 or look at Option 1 in the tutorial that Vista King posted.