HoppaLong Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 I'm a partner in a small business. We have a dozen desktopsall running XP Pro_SP3. This morning I tested my new eSATAdrives on three of the desktops in our offices. Both drivesworked perfectly.The problem I'm having is running these drives on a desktopat home. If I try to copy a file that's more than a couple ofmegabytes the drives literally vanish completely from Windows.I've got XP Pro_SP3 at home too.Here's the error message that appears in the system tray ornotification area:Windows - Delayed Write FailureWindows was unable to save all the data for the file . . . . . .The data has been lost. This error may be caused by afailure of your computer hardware or network connection.Please try to save this file elsewhere.My home desktop has a dual port eSATA controller card.Naturally, I wanted to blame the card or its drivers. I removedthe card from Device Manager and pulled it from the moboexpansion slot. I substituted a dual port pass-thru adapterbracket. It plugs directly into two of the SATAII connectorson the mobo.I checked the BIOS setup. It looked good. During bootupI was waiting to see each drive listed as JBOD or "just a bunchof drives." They were.As soon as XP finished loading, I tried copying a 100 MB fileto each of the drives. Nothing had changed. I was hoping the solution would be to junk the controller card and buya replacement. No such luck.It's obviously not a hardware problem, which leaves the systemitself. Are there any XP configuration changes or registy hacksthat might fix this problem? This desktop is less than a yearold. I'm ready to wack the darn thing with a sledge! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cluberti Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 A quick test might be to take it to a machine that you've verified it works in, and try both the pass-thru card and the add-in card to see if you get the same behavior. Assuming you've got basically the same installation of XP at work and at home, it's possible it could be a configuration issue but it's less likely. At least we know the HDDs themselves are fine, but I'd make sure both the cards you're using work in "known good" hardware first before saying they're not the problem. Unfortunately, you are still left with the possibility that the motherboard or chipset is at fault, but again without further digging it's hard to say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoppaLong Posted July 8, 2009 Author Share Posted July 8, 2009 Thank you cluberti.There are two internal drives in a RAID 0 configuration.They're plugged into SATAII connectors 0 and 1. WhenI installed the pass-thru bracket I plugged their cablesinto 2 and 3. If the chipset or mobo is bad, why do thetwo internal drives function normally? Is each SATAIIconnector completely isolated from others? If so, I supposeit's possible to have a localized failure in one part ofthe mobo, while the rest of the board functions normally.To me, this looks like a classic system freezeup. Rememberthe endless crashes and system lockups with 95 and 98?Before the error message appears, the animated iconsshowing your files being copied from one folder to anotherfreezes solid. Doesn't this seem like a typical Windows behavior when there is a system conflict?In the Device Manager I tried disabling write caching foreach drive. You select the policies tab and remove thetick on the property sheet. Didn't work, of course.I was thinking, is there any software that can manage thesebasic functions like copying, moving, etc., better than Windows?If so, point my browser to their website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiff Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 HoppaLong it sounds to me like you have eSATA drives that may be under powered or are not fully compatible with SATAII.If they are under powered that would explain why when you goto copy a large file to the drive it dissapears.Also that error message you are getting is because the drives are disconnecting during a write operation, you would get the same error if you un-plugged the drives while copying files to them.Do you know if the desktops at your business have SATAII ports?Also are the eSATA drives preassembled or did you buy an enclosure then add a hard drive?Did you try using a different set of cables? If your cables can't handle SATAII and they were connected to SATAI ports at your business, that would explain why they work there and not on your home desktop.Finally if you did buy and enclosure and added a drive to it, then check the "limit to 1.5gb" jumper and try enabling or disabling this feature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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