X31 w/ X3 Media Slice - External DVD/RW's

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#1 Post by **Harryc** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 10:52 pm

I am running (2) hard drives, one in the X31 and another in the X3 using a 2nd HDD UB2000 adapter. I want to be able to burn and read CD's and DVD's while keeping the hard drives installed. I have a couple of regular internal desktop 5.25" DVD/RW's available here. I believe my choices are -

1.) External USB/Firewire enclosure for 5.25" drives
2.) External DVD/RW drive
3.) Portable UB2000 adapter

Of the three choices, which is the best and why? Specific recommendations for devices/models would be helpful. My thoughts on the Portable UB2000 adapter is that it's an IBM product so that's cool, but it is very outdated and hasn't had a driver update in 6 years. One of my main requirements is to have the ability to boot from whatever DVD/RW solution I use. I install many OS's and frequently, so this is key.

tarvoke · #2 Post by **tarvoke** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 2:51 am

1. as you say, the ultrabay is a bit out of it. not to mention it will be much much cheaper to get the latest greatest dvdrw in 5.25" size vs. buying a slim drive for the ub2000 caddy.

2. can thinkpads boot from firewire? I know most macs can, but I've no idea about pc; I don't think I've ever needed to use firewire on a pc at all let alone to boot from. and for the purpose of optical media, I believe neither will be any faster than the other.

3. as for retail external optical drives, again you'll find full size to be cheaper and better features (whether you built it yourself or not) whereas an external slim usb drive often won't require a separate power supply and will be much more portable. on some toshiba laptops I've seen them be picky and only want to boot from the correct toshiba-branded slim dvd usb drive; but so far I've not seen this behavior with thinkpads. but still, usb booting can be tricky and annoying even when it seems it shouldn't be.

4. can't recommend any particular external enclosure. but for a less expensive (and maybe somewhat more temporary and less robust) solution, spend $10-25 on a usb/ide cable, e.g. I have this one:
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=USB2IDE-25-35
you can even get ones that support sata:
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=2020

generally they come with the proper power supply and work with 2.5" and 3.5" hd as well as optical drives. I've used this type of cable to re-image desktops, install windows, install linux, install bsd, etc. even if/when you do get a real enclosure, the cable is still a terribly useful thing to carry around with you.

just booted parted magic 1.8 livecd off a similar cable and full size cdrw, with my x31. works just fine...

since you have some spare drives, go for the cable to start with I'd say.

#3 Post by **Harryc** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 5:24 am

Nice idea about using the cable. Thanks

#4 Post by **Harryc** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 5:16 pm

To finish out this thread, I bought a Vantec CB-ISATAU2 SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter. It's relatively inexpensive, has a name brand that I have used and have liked their products in the past, and has gotten good reviews at Newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6812232002

#5 Post by **Harryc** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 7:40 pm

Has anyone used a product similar to the Vantec CB-ISATAU2 linked above to boot a DVD in an external 5.25" DVDRW or CDRW drive on an X series? The reason I ask is because this did not work on my X31. The X31 booted straight to hard drive. Tarvoke, what BIOS do you run in your X31?

Quattro · #6 Post by **Quattro** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 10:52 am

Has anyone used a product similar to the Vantec CB-ISATAU2 linked above to boot a DVD in an external 5.25" DVDRW or CDRW drive on an X series? The reason I ask is because this did not work on my X31. The X31 booted straight to hard drive. Tarvoke, what BIOS do you run in your X31?

Yes, I have done exactly that.

First, make sure you have the latest BIOS. There was an update somewhere along the way allowing more boot devices.

Second, this trick worked for me. To boot from external CD, I had to first boot up into the BIOS, then exit w/out saving, which would restart the computer. When you see the IBM screen, press F12 and the external drive should show up as a temp boot device. If I did not boot into the BIOS first, the drive would not appear for some reason.

Good luck.

#7 Post by **Harryc** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 12:37 pm

Thanks for the information.

X31 w/ X3 Media Slice - External DVD/RW's

X31 w/ X3 Media Slice - External DVD/RW's

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