Pegasus (MVP) said the following on 5/17/2008 11:12 AM:
> "Ken" <noreply@charter.net> wrote in message
> news:w0FXj.13$aq.12@newsfe05.lga...
>> I purchased a mobile rack and three interchangeable trays for storing data
>> I don't need very often. I installed it first in my Windows 2000 system
>> and it functions just fine--the disks are recognized when inserted and the
>> powered up, and I can interchange them at will without problems.
>>
>> I recently built a new system based on Windows XP SP3. I purchased a
>> second mobile rack for that unit with the expectation that I could use the
>> mobile hdd's in either workstation.
>>
>> On the XPstation I have a C: drive active partition, a D: DVD writer, an
>> E: partition (on the same drive as the C: drive) and an F: drive on its
>> own partition (separate drive). I have 6 SATA connectors on my Intel
>> DP35DP mb with the DVD writer on the first, disk 0 on the second, disk 1
>> on the third, and the mobile rack on the fourth (as they appear in the
>> BIOS)
>>
>> When I insert the tray/drive into the internal mobile rack into the XP
>> unit, one of two things happens:
>> 1. the drive is not recognized
>> 2. the drive is recognized but my drive letter for my DVD writer is
>> reassigned from D: to G: drive.
>> 3. the mobile rack is not recognized in the BIOS as existingMobile
>>
>> I thought it was the cables, but that is not an issue. I thought it was
>> the connectors, but those are not the issue. It is not the units, as both
>> mobile racks work in the Win2K station without problem. Thinking it might
>> be data written to the hdd by Win2K that was causing the problem, I
>> reformatted the disks, but that did not help.
>>
>> Does anyone have any suggestions? Is there something that needs to be
>> changed in the BIOS of the new Intel motherboard? Is this a problem with
>> the mobile rack that is installed in my XP machine? (the unit in the
>> Win2K machine is IDE and in the XP machine it is a SATA connection)
>>
>> Thanks
>
> I have had some mobile racks that were marginal. Sometimes the
> disks inside were recognised, sometimes they weren't. These days
> I use external USB cases. They always work and I can connect/
> disconnect them while Windows is up and running.
>
> If you intend to stick to mobile racks then you should examine the
> boot messages generated by your BIOS. Does it recognise the
> disks?
>
> You can resolve the drive letter issue by running diskmgmt.msc
> from the Start/Run box and assigning a letter of your choice to
> the mobile rack disks.
>
Were you using external USB racks or separate powered cases for each
hdd? I was hoping to just have one device for each computer so that I
could exchange info. How does the exchange rate of info compare
between a USB connection and USB 2.0? It would mainly be for exchanging
large (4.5GB) files between computers for burning DVDs or playing videos
over my LAN with VidLAN.

Thanks
Ken K