Solved Problem with SSD and HD together, DELL T3400

[VistaKing]

I'm not locating any issues with A14 version of the bios but its your choice not to upgrade .

 

[vangogh]

Advice: "Take a look at the link below

Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk"
Then in that link re option 1 & 2 is the warning that data can be lost. As I mentioned, I have 1 GB of data there. I think I will keep the disk as is, on the XP comp, and get a new one for the T3400.

Thanks everyone for your time and kind help.
Van_go

 

[whs]

1GB of data should be easy to back up - just in case. But normally the data should not be altered - at least I cannot recall reports about that from previous users of pw422.

 

[essenbe]

With your drive connected to the XP machine, copy the data to an external hard drive. Then use the suggestions by WHS and connvert the disk to a simple/basic partition with PW422, reconnect it to the Windows 7 machine and copy the data back.

 

[whs]

Steve I think he made up his mind. He is not going to bother. I am still puzzled how that one partition could have ended up as dynamic.

 

[vangogh]

I certainly am considering just getting a new HD for this. But also turning over in my mind the backup and conversion to simple/basic.

Still: Vista King: "You could do is Mark the SSD drive as active and remove the active from the XP drive inside XPs device manager"

I'm sorry, I can't figure that one out - how is it possible to mark the disk not active? Don't see a way.

 

[vangogh]

One example of comment on newer BIOS: Precision T3400 BIOS A11 problem - Desktop General Hardware Forum - Desktop - Dell Community

Can anyone comment on this?: DELL Precision WorkStation T3400 Bios Driver Utility For Windows 7

Thanks all...

 

[essenbe]

The SSD is already marked active.

WHS, probably because it is a Dell. They, in many cases, have 3 partitions on them some of them are hidden. So, adding a couple of more will cause disk management to ask to make it dynamic. If you don't know the difference, you'd probably do it and not even think about it, if you didn't know what a dynamic drive is.

 

[essenbe]

I certainly am considering just getting a new HD for this. But also turning over in my mind the backup and conversion to simple/basic.

Still: Vista King: "You could do is Mark the SSD drive as active and remove the active from the XP drive inside XPs device manager"

I'm sorry, I can't figure that one out - how is it possible to mark the disk not active? Don't see a way.

Yes, you can do that easily with Partition wizzard or diskpart. But, I think your problem is the dynamic drive and not which is active. I have 2 active drives in my rig now, and it causes me no problems.

 

[essenbe]

Steve I think he made up his mind. He is not going to bother. I am still puzzled how that one partition could have ended up as dynamic.

I'm puzzled on why a dynamic partition on another drive would keep your SSD from booting.

 

[VistaKing]

To remove the Active Mark on a hard drive

Open an Elevated Command Prompt . Click on rb: type CMD right click on CMD under Programs (1) and choose Run as administrator .

Type in DISKPART and Press [ENTER]

Type in LIST DISK and press [ENTER]

Type in select disk 1

   Note

If the Disk 1 is XP

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

Type in select partition 1

Partition 1 is now the selected partition.

Type inactive

 

[whs]

Steve, this whole thing is a puzzle. His screenshot shows only one lone partition on that disk. But maybe it was a spanned partition with another participating disk at an earlier time.

And why can the Windows 7 SSD not boot - that is a good question to which I have only some speculations but no answer.

And yes, multiple active partitions on different disks are no problem.

 

[vangogh]

Hey look at this...

A quote I picked up from someone who sounds like he knows...

The answer was in the BIOS settings. Under Hard Drives it does not list the hard drives but instead lists the SATA risers. It does not show if any of the 6 risers have a drive connected to it. Apparently this is a Dell feature ) When you highlight one of the risers and hit ENTER you are shown if that riser is ON or OFF. The thing is that both words are there except that one is highlighted in grey while the other is in blue. It took a while to figure out which is on or which is off. Eventually I looked at SATA0 and SATA1, since the boot disk and the DVD are connected to these risers, to see which color indicates the switch that is active. It turns out that the grey background indicates the active switch. You then have to figure out the number of the riser to which you connected the new drive and activate only that riser otherwise you get messages at boot that tells you that you do not have a drive on some activated riser. Independent motherboard makers have a much simpler system, all SETA risers are active. If you connect a hard drive to any one it is automatically recognized. Under Hard Drives they list the actual hard drives in the computer. This, to me is a much more rational system.

Actually mine has "ON" or "OFF" - a bit more direct... I may pursue this but I doubt it will help.

I've been in graphics since 1950, on computers since 1988. I'm getting a little too tired for this but I will try.

 

[vangogh]

Making disk inactive: I presume if I use the one in management I will have the right one? (I have three, the other two are partitioned with their own letter).

 

[vangogh]

Another dynamic and ACTIVE drive (with boot ready) would do it, I'm sure.
The 2TB drive shows just one partition 1863G.
My big question is, do the dynamic to simple first, or the active to not, first?
I would like to solve this for the experience...

 

[vangogh]

Confirmation that a seond disk (partition) is active pervents a boot:

backup - How can I un-mark a partition as active? - Server Fault

You can see I haven't quit yet.

 

[essenbe]

In the link you gave, he was talking about his server not doing the backups. You can have only 1 active partition on a drive, but you can have active partitions on seperate drives. The important thing is in bios to tell bios which drive to boot from, in boot options. If you make your SSD inactive, it will not boot.

 

[vangogh]

Setting the boot order would be nice if I could work with the HD in Bios - but it is not possible - the BIOS does not see it. So how can I set the boot order? How can I do anything with it in the T3400? Considering that the 2TB internal is serving its purpose well enough in the XP machine, I think the simplest thing is to put in a new HD in the T3400.

Thank you everyone for the attention and time. Really. And I have found this a real learning experience. At 78, I'm glad I can absorb at least this much. Sometimes I think it's the only thing that keeps my mind alive

Thanks again, all.

 

[essenbe]

vangogh, I'm only a little behind you, so I know what you mean. But, if you would copy your data off to another drive while connected to the XP machine which can read it, you could then change the drive to a basic partition and use it fine in the Windows 7 machine. Once you get the data off, the rest is easy. We will be here to help in any way we can.