Magic Bridge II + SATA HDD

Random

Right. Here's what I have.

Advent 4211C.
Windows XP.

MagicBridge II connected via USB and also to the mains power.

Samsung 200GB, 7200RPM, 8MB SATAII HDD.

I'm trying to conect the hard drive to the laptop so I can read files off it.

I plug in all the cables. I turn on the MagicBridge. It sounds like the HDD is spinning but it's not showing in My Computer. I turn off the MagicBridge while watching My Computer I see "Local Disk " show up briefly and disappear.

I've tried looking in disk management and there's nothing showing there either.

I had the same issue yesterday when I bought another USB/SATA type device.

Other USB devices work fine (DVDRW for example).

Any thoughts on what might be wrong?

Random

After I leave it about 30 mins I try to type into the address bar. I get this



Any ideas on this? There's a status light on the MagicBridge and this appears to be flashing green for a while but then just stays static red.

Random

Any thoughts from anyone?

This one failed to work ...
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?moduleno=222999

... so I changed it for this ...
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?moduleno=220115

I don't have another PC to test with at the moment but I'm gonna assume it's the laptop at fault and not the 2 different devices.

Thoughts?

Thanks

... which also fails to work.

Capt'n Midnight

try on a different PC

is the drive making unusual noises / was it dopped ?

did you unplug the drive without running the safe to remove wizard or shutting down windows ?

use hdtune to see can the drive be recognised

Random

Drive was not dropped.
Drive not making any funny noises.

Drive was in a desktop PC that was suddenly failing to boot to I want to access the drive to get data off it. Drive was unplugged when PC powered off.

I've not heard of hdtune, I'll give it a Google and see if that makes a difference.

Random

(Still haven't access to another PC to test it).

I've noticed that the HDD shows in the Safely add / remove hardware window.

Why is it showing in the safely add / remove and not in my computer or disk management?

gamer

BuY a sata caddy peats 15euro ,or else install it in a pc with mobo onbord sata,.Read the manaul carefully and connect the drive caddy then turn on the pc, it may be not getting enough power from pc from the usb connector.IF uSING a pc mobo sata 2, connect when pc power off ,esb power plug disconnnected from pc.I HAD SAME PROBlEM, it shows up as a usb device, though not in MY computer,hd is 300gig sata.

Random

Why would it need much power from my notebook USB though? The MagicBridgeII is mains powered.

Another update on this is that I plugged it into another PC I got access to running XP Home. Seems to be the same issues as I'm getting with my Notebook.

The hard drives I'm trying are both Samsungs (SP20004C).

I don't want a Caddy.

gamer

Could you install it in a pc from the onboard sata, or try www.ntfs.com download Activebootdisc demo burn the image make a boot cd it boots a minios version of vista.SEE if it detects the sata hd.How old IS the pc ,maybe the partition is too big.
Maybe its an os issue.THERES only 3 ways to acess a sata hd ,install it in a pc or laptop,or caddy or a use a magicgate device .IS it ntfs format hd.
MY pal has a p4 notebook winxp sp2 it cannot see any usb hd caddy device.IDE or sata.OR try a linux livecd that reads ntfs if hd is ntfs.

Random

I'm using an Advent 4211c notebook with Windows XP as I mentioned earlier. My main concern is getting it working with this.

As I say, it didn't work with the PC I tried either.

Looking around the web it's being suggested that this device only works IDE to USB and SATA to ESATA but that appears contrary to the Maplin website.

Any thoughts?

gamer

PEATS have a sharkoon device usb 2 ide or sata with powersupply, 2 usb in .YOu HAVE TO DOWNlOAD the manual from the net .Google it , itdoes 3.5 or 2.5inch ide/sata drive.price 40euro, on ebay its 27euro.Can you plug the magicgate hd into A pals pc or even a netcafe pc.

Random

The HDD I'm trying to use works, no questions there.
The MG does't work in another PC I got access to though.

I'd rather not go out and keep buying devices, as I said above I've tried 2 already now. I fear I'm missing something as the chance of both being faulty is unlikely.

Capt'n Midnight

the HDD definetly works in another machine !

To rule out hardware boot up from a live linux disk like Knoppix or Ubuntu , you should see the drive on the desktop or in 'places'. If the drive then disappears again then it isn't windows. If you can browse the drive happily for a while then it's windows, in which case take a system restore snapshot, remove all the USB controllers in device manager and let windows redetect them again. Extremely unlikely but possible that an anti-malware product might be protecting the registry and stopping drive that way.

ressem

A possible reason...
If the drive was not booting prior to being removed from the original PC, then there's a chance that NTFS corruption (can happen during a sudden poweroff and the like) could have occurred, which would explain why the partitions are not appearing in Disk Manager.

In which case, the easiest way to fix is to connect it side by side with a working booting XP system. At startup XP will automatically carry out a NTFS repair using chkdsk.


Using a linux boot disk, or some XP repair options may not recognise/mount the partitions when this is the case.

Depending on the value of the files on the hard disk you might want to use a linux cloning tool like dd to copy the sectors on the disk before trusting chkdsk.

Random

the HDD definetly works in another machine !

The HDD works.
The HDD + adapter did not work on another Windows XP Machine (a desktop).

To rule out hardware boot up from a live linux disk like Knoppix or Ubuntu , you should see the drive on the desktop or in 'places'.

The HDDworks and I have tested it. I've not thought of Unbuntu on the notebook though. Will try.

remove all the USB controllers in device manager and let windows redetect them again

Sounds messy. Don't fancy trying this on my laptop at the moment as it's my only working computer, and I need USB for DVD drives, mouse, keyboard, etc. Will bear in mind though.

Extremely unlikely but possible that an anti-malware product might be protecting the registry and stopping drive that way.

NOD32 is all I have. Will try disable.

If the drive was not booting prior to being removed from the original PC, then there's a chance that NTFS corruption (can happen during a sudden poweroff and the like) could have occurred, which would explain why the partitions are not appearing in Disk Manager.

The HDD shows up fine in another PC when connected by SATA so this rules this out I believe.

Random

Right this is just winding me up.

• I've tried disabling Nod32 - no effect.
• I've still not tried device managers - because it doesn't work in another PC either.
• I've not tried the linux thing yet - downloading an ISO tonight. Not had a chance.
• I've bought a new SATA enclosure (Sharkoon Rapid-Case 3.5" SATA) - this doesn't work either. Again it shows in add / remove devices but no where else.

I've also tried both Samsung and Hitachi HDDs.

I'm lost here. Completely lost. I'm gonna fill in the blanks above ASAP but surely there's something I'm overlooking along the way here?

Should there be a difference between SATA and SATAII ?

BoB_BoT

out of interest, is the drive (when visible in safely add/remove hardware) also visible in the device manager, does it have any warning symbols beside it?

Sounds odd that this is happening with different computers and different devices. Do flash drives work ok with the laptop?

Random

Flash drives work fine. As for the other queries. .. maybe I'm on to something here! Maybe it's something stupid I've missed all along. Can anyone help?

BoB_BoT

that's odd, usually you use dynamic for raid and such. what happens when you convert it to a basic disk?

also just did a bit of reading up on dynamic disks, apparently xp home doesn't work with them. so that would explain the other computer you've been testing on and possibly your notebook. At the same time, you said it picks it up fine on that pc when plugged in internally, which contradicts that.

Random

The 2 PCs I plugged it into (via USB) were both XP Home. I was using it fine internally in a XP machine. The XP Pro machine USB doesn't work.

Interesting re home / dynamic! I'll have to look more into it.

I don't want to convert the disk type as it suggests I'll lose the data.