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SATA connection question

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  • May 28th, 2010 3:41 am
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Deal Fanatic
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Jul 20, 2006
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SATA connection question

My mobo has 2 sata ports, one is used for hdd and the other to the dvd drive. furthermore, there is a power sata connecting hdd to dvd. I unplugged my sata cables (power and data) from the dvd and plugged them into another hdd. My pc crashes. If i boot it, it asks for boot disk as if my pc's original hdd is not still working as it should.

I can understand that my pc will crash if i unplug the pc's hdd, but i did this to the dvd drive. how can i get my other hdd to work via sata?
13 replies
Deal Guru
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Nov 27, 2005
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Richmond Hill
You have to set the original hard drive as the first boot disk in boot priorities.
Deal Fanatic
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Jul 20, 2006
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can you point out how to make my additional hdd to work via sata

i'm a noob when it comes to this but this is my configuration:

Main
Sata 1: DVD
Sata 2: HDD

Boot
1st: HDD
2nd: Removable Device
3rd: DVD

what order, or which ones do i have to disable so that i can use the SATA for something else without crashing?
Deal Expert
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Jun 27, 2004
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Vancouver.bc.ca
> I can understand that my pc will crash if i unplug the pc's hdd, but i did this to the dvd drive.

You want to hot swap SATA drives?

You need the correct SATA controller drivers installed, namely AHCI ones, as well as change the SATA settings in the BIOS (from IDE compatible -> AHCI).


Best solution: get a PCI/PCIe SATA controller card, so you can add more devices without playing switcheroo (assuming that you have a free slot in your computer, of course). Cost: $10-20 @ http://www.dealextreme.com
Deal Fanatic
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Jul 20, 2006
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i basically want to access the HDD of my xbox360. i don't intend to always be doing this and i see people online do it so easily, just unplug and plug with no problems.

it seems as if i cannot unplug my satas and have my pc operate normally, i am thinking it just needs to be reconfigured in boot but i dunno how.
Deal Fanatic
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Jul 20, 2006
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i don't get why i cannot unplug the sata from the dvd drive, especially when i am not using it. i want to simply use that sata cable so that i can access an xbox 360 hdd for literally 10 mins. that is why i think it's a matter of configuration maybe
Deal Expert
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Jun 27, 2004
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Vancouver.bc.ca
Yeah, it's just one or two BIOS settings, all of which relates to boot order.

It would have saved time if you mentioned what you wanted to do (regarding Xbox) in the original post.
Deal Fanatic
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Jul 20, 2006
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can someone help me further. i have posted up my BIOS and BOOT configuration above
Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2006
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Wait a minute.
Are you hot unplugging your DVD/HDD?
Deal Fanatic
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Jul 20, 2006
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does that mean unplugging while pc is on? i'm not familiar with the term.

what should i be doing?
Deal Fanatic
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Jul 20, 2006
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when turning off pc, changing sata plugs from dvd to the xbox360 hdd, and booting pc.. i get an error. nothing loads, requests for boot drive or boot disc.

i get into bios, and sata ports as mentioned in my other post are not recognizing any devices. do i need to set boot configuration ahead of time? if so, how should i do it?


currently:
Main
Sata 1: DVD
Sata 2: HDD

Boot
1st: HDD
2nd: Removable Device
3rd: DVD
Deal Fanatic
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Jul 20, 2006
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i just purchased a 10$ sata 2.5" hdd enclosure to usb.
Deal Expert
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Jun 27, 2004
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Vancouver.bc.ca
Boot
1st: HDD


Since you (will) have two HDDs installed, you need to go to another part of the settings to select which HDD.

If you don't want to bother with that, just swap HDD connections. By default, it would probably choose the one connected to SATA 0, which used to be your DVD drive.

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