How to Disable SATA Drives in BIOS???
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From: sohosources on 17 Oct 2007 18:17 Hi, Gang: My main PC has a pair of SATA II hard drives that I use for XP -- a 250-GB boot drive and a 500-GB Data drive with multiple partitions. I also have a PATA IDE drive tray system that lets me swap multiple drives in and out for testing other OSs, etc. On one removable PATA drive I have a duplicate XP install that I use only for games (so the game junk doesn't crud-up my registry, etc). I had a bunch of multiboot problems until I physically disconnected my usual SATA drives and reformatted and reinstalled XP on the IDE drive. Then, each drive had working boot files and the two boot menus didn't interact, etc. I simply let the BIOS default to the 250 SATA drive and use the F9 boot drive selector at startup when I want to boot to the IDE drive. Problem: I don't want to physically disconnect my SATA drives every time I install a new version of Linux onto a removable IDE drive. The damn connectors are hard to get out, and I don't want to stress my MB or the connector blocks on my drives...but I do want to have the drives effectively "out of the system" so I can't accidentally reformat them, wipe out a partition, etc, when I'm installing something on the PATA/IDE bus I tried disabling the drives in the bios, but low-level programs such as Acronis True image and Partition Magic still "see" the drives even though they're "disabled," and I don't want to accidentally nuke them. 1. Can I simply disconnect the SATA power cables from the drives, leaving the hard-to-remove SATA signal cables still attached? Could that damage the drives in any way? Would that effectively disconnect the drives from low-level routines (I assume it would since there's no power)? 2. Is there an effective way to "soft disconnect" the drives in the BIOS, etc? Your help is greatly appreciated! --KK in MN
From: Eric Gisin on 17 Oct 2007 23:56 Usually the Integrated Periphs setup lets you disable each IDE channel. <sohosources(a)gmail.com> wrote in message news:1192659437.768230.59660(a)v29g2000prd.googlegroups.com... > > I tried disabling the drives in the bios, but low-level programs such > as Acronis True image and Partition Magic still "see" the drives even > though they're "disabled," and I don't want to accidentally nuke them. > > 1. Can I simply disconnect the SATA power cables from the drives, > leaving the hard-to-remove SATA signal cables still attached? Could > that damage the drives in any way? Would that effectively disconnect > the drives from low-level routines (I assume it would since there's no > power)? > > 2. Is there an effective way to "soft disconnect" the drives in the > BIOS, etc? >
From: Arno Wagner on 18 Oct 2007 01:11 Previously sohosources(a)gmail.com <sohosources(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Hi, Gang: > My main PC has a pair of SATA II hard drives that I use for XP -- a > 250-GB boot drive and a 500-GB Data drive with multiple partitions. I > also have a PATA IDE drive tray system that lets me swap multiple > drives in and out for testing other OSs, etc. > On one removable PATA drive I have a duplicate XP install that I use > only for games (so the game junk doesn't crud-up my registry, etc). I > had a bunch of multiboot problems until I physically disconnected my > usual SATA drives and reformatted and reinstalled XP on the IDE drive. > Then, each drive had working boot files and the two boot menus didn't > interact, etc. I simply let the BIOS default to the 250 SATA drive and > use the F9 boot drive selector at startup when I want to boot to the > IDE drive. > Problem: I don't want to physically disconnect my SATA drives every > time I install a new version of Linux onto a removable IDE drive. The > damn connectors are hard to get out, and I don't want to stress my MB > or the connector blocks on my drives...but I do want to have the > drives effectively "out of the system" so I can't accidentally > reformat them, wipe out a partition, etc, when I'm installing > something on the PATA/IDE bus > I tried disabling the drives in the bios, but low-level programs such > as Acronis True image and Partition Magic still "see" the drives even > though they're "disabled," and I don't want to accidentally nuke them. > 1. Can I simply disconnect the SATA power cables from the drives, > leaving the hard-to-remove SATA signal cables still attached? Could > that damage the drives in any way? Would that effectively disconnect > the drives from low-level routines (I assume it would since there's no > power)? Yes, that works. The data cable are insuklated anyways, via small coupling capacirotrs. The drive will not get damaged. And without power it will stay totally unresponsive. > 2. Is there an effective way to "soft disconnect" the drives in the > BIOS, etc? I don't think so. > Your help is greatly appreciated! One additional thing you can do is put a switch in, that disconnects pwer. The clean thing is tio use a three contact one. Disconnecting 3.3V entirely and switching only 12V and 5V should typically work as well. Arno
From: Andy on 18 Oct 2007 02:02
On Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:17:17 -0700, "sohosources(a)gmail.com" <sohosources(a)gmail.com> wrote: >Hi, Gang: > >My main PC has a pair of SATA II hard drives that I use for XP -- a >250-GB boot drive and a 500-GB Data drive with multiple partitions. I >also have a PATA IDE drive tray system that lets me swap multiple >drives in and out for testing other OSs, etc. > >On one removable PATA drive I have a duplicate XP install that I use >only for games (so the game junk doesn't crud-up my registry, etc). I >had a bunch of multiboot problems until I physically disconnected my >usual SATA drives and reformatted and reinstalled XP on the IDE drive. >Then, each drive had working boot files and the two boot menus didn't >interact, etc. I simply let the BIOS default to the 250 SATA drive and >use the F9 boot drive selector at startup when I want to boot to the >IDE drive. > >Problem: I don't want to physically disconnect my SATA drives every >time I install a new version of Linux onto a removable IDE drive. The >damn connectors are hard to get out, and I don't want to stress my MB >or the connector blocks on my drives...but I do want to have the >drives effectively "out of the system" so I can't accidentally >reformat them, wipe out a partition, etc, when I'm installing >something on the PATA/IDE bus > >I tried disabling the drives in the bios, but low-level programs such >as Acronis True image and Partition Magic still "see" the drives even >though they're "disabled," and I don't want to accidentally nuke them. > >1. Can I simply disconnect the SATA power cables from the drives, >leaving the hard-to-remove SATA signal cables still attached? Could >that damage the drives in any way? Would that effectively disconnect >the drives from low-level routines (I assume it would since there's no >power)? > >2. Is there an effective way to "soft disconnect" the drives in the >BIOS, etc? What motherboard are you using? Some motherboards allow this; others don't. > > >Your help is greatly appreciated! > >--KK in MN |