Can't get SATA ultrabay adapter to work.

[docfxit]

Hi,

I bought a SATA ultrabay adapter for my A31p. When I put it in while it's shut down it won't boot up. I'm not trying to boot from the SATA adapter. I'm trying to boot from the original hard drive. It doesn't make any difference if I have a hard drive in it or not. If I do have a hard drive in it it doesn't make any difference if it's a 100gb or a 500gb drive it still won't boot up. It doesn't make any difference if I put it into the left side or the right side.

I have a BIOS 1GET41WW
Not that it should make a difference but I'm running XP Pro sp2.
It never gets past the Thinkpad boot screen. So it never gets close to the OS.

Is there some setting in the BIOS that I need to accept this adapter?

Thanks,

Docfxit

[gb_ibmguy]

I assume the Ultrbay power light comes on and that the adapter is tested good? I also assume the boot order is for hard drive first?
I have a PATA Ultrabay that I sometimes use and my system will hang at the BIOS Splash screen for a while, several long agonizing minutes until the system accepts the device and moves along.

Just a couple of thoughts.

[docfxit]

I assume the Ultrbay power light comes on and that the adapter is tested good?

The power light does come on. I have no idea how to test the adapter. Do you? The adapter is new.

I also assume the boot order is for hard drive first?

Yes it is. And I can't get it to boot from the hard drive. It doesn't make any difference if I let it boot on it's own or if I press F12 during boot up and select the hard drive.

I have a PATA Ultrabay that I sometimes use and my system will hang at the BIOS Splash screen for a while, several long agonizing minutes until the system accepts the device and moves along.

I have let it sit for a very long time before giving up.

Just a couple of thoughts.

I wonder if there is a firmware or driver update that this laptop needs.

Thanks,

Docfxit

[RealBlackStuff]

It's probably a cheap Chinese knock-off.
Try it in another laptop.
If it doesn't work there either, you got a dud.

[docfxit]

It is made in China. I don't have an other laptop I could try it in. I wish I did.

Thanks,

Docfxit

[gb_ibmguy]

From your earlier post, your BIOS is up to date. Whats the version of your embedded controller BIOS? (it would appear that this is what you should have 1GHT18WW (1.05))
Just a thought, will it boot if you place a CD/DVD, or other Ultrabay device In the slot? Just to confirm the slot is still functioning. You might also want to try resetting back to factory defaults in the BIOS. Strange, I know, but...

Let us know, we are all here to help.

[docfxit]

From your earlier post, your BIOS is up to date. Whats the version of your embedded controller BIOS? (it would appear that this is what you should have 1GHT18WW (1.05))

Yes. That is correct.

Just a thought, will it boot if you place a CD/DVD, or other Ultrabay device In the slot?

Yes it will boot.

Just to confirm the slot is still functioning. You might also want to try resetting back to factory defaults in the BIOS. Strange, I know, but...

I tried setting the BIOS back to defaults. It didn't make any difference.

Let us know, we are all here to help.

Thank you for the reply...

I have been mostly successful. I have made some progress.

First I disabled a number of items in the BIOS.
1. Under removable drives. The floppy boot option.
2. Under removable drives. The Super Drive boot option
3. Under Startup options. The removable boot drives.
4. Under Network options. The network boot option.

From a turned off state I inserted the SATA ultrabay adapter empty (no hard drive)
The machine booted into the original primary hard drive running XP Pro.
In the past I couldn't get past the boot screen so this was progress.

It still wouldn't boot to the original hard drive with a hard drive inserted into the Ultrabay.

I removed the original primary hard drive and I was able to boot to a Win 7 cd.
It said there were no hard drives attached even though there was a 500gb drive into the Ultrabay. I booted into a CD with BootIt installed so I could take a look at the partitions. It said there was an invalid partition on the Ultrabay hard drive partition. I deleted the partition and recreated a partition. It would only allow me to create a partition of 100gb.

If anyone know of a better partitioning software please let me know. The copy of BootIt is the latest version.

Then I booted the CD with Windows seven on it. It found the 100gb partition. With Win7 I deleted the partition and asked it to recreate the partition to the max 500gb. It said it might leave a small partition for Win7 housekeeping. So now most of the drive is partitioned so I can use it.

I installed Win7 on it. I need to find a few drivers but it is running.

Now that the hard drive is partitioned and running I tried inserting the original primary hard drive leaving the Ultrabay with the 500gb drive in. The machine is giving me an error saying there is no operating system installed. When there really is two. I tried selecting the the original hard drive from the boot selection screen but it gave me the same error.

Does anyone know how to boot to the original hard drive with the Ultrabay loaded with a hard drive?

Thank,

Docfxit

[ajkula66]

doxfixit wrote:

Does anyone know how to boot to the original hard drive with the Ultrabay loaded with a hard drive?

That's a choice you'll make in BIOS under Boot, when you click on the hard drive option, it should list both drives. Move the one that you need to boot from up, then F10 to save and exit.

Yes, it's a pain.

One of the reason why I gave up on UltraBay drives altogether until further notice...

[docfxit]

That's a choice you'll make in BIOS under Boot, when you click on the hard drive option, it should list both drives. Move the one that you need to boot from up, then F10 to save and exit.

It won't boot while the UltraBay drive with a hard drive and the primary hard drive is in.

Thanks,

Docfxit

Yes, it's a pain.

One of the reason why I gave up on UltraBay drives altogether until further notice...

[ajkula66]

docfixit wrote:

It won't boot while the UltraBay drive with a hard drive and the primary hard drive is in.

Well, then there's something wrong with that aftermarket adapter of yours, since I've never had that issue with genuine IBM UltraBay 2000 adapters for PATA drives.

Good luck.

[docfxit]

Well, then there's something wrong with that aftermarket adapter of yours, since I've never had that issue with genuine IBM UltraBay 2000 adapters for PATA drives.

Good luck.

Do you have any idea where I might be able to find one that works?

Thanks,

Docfxit

[ajkula66]

IBM never offered SATA version of UB2000 adapters, that's why I've chosen to stay away from the aftermarket ones...

[Adda]

I too bought one of these UB2000 SATA adapters.
It does work just like any other 2nd HDD adapter except it's limited to 29Mb/s transfer rate.
So if anyone is planning on buying one of these in increase HDD performance by using a nice and fast SATA drive, it won't work.

[NerdPope]

The ThinkPad A31p natively supports IDE/ATA Drives, not SATA. This means that no matter what adapter you use to add on a SATA drive you will still go into a bottleneck on the IDE bus. Coincidentally one of these IDE speeds maxes out at 33MBs.

Now, as far as booting up from the internal drive there is a good possibility the ultrabay IDE channel is actually primary. If your INTERNAL hard drive has jumpers on it, try to set it for MASTER if possible, then try booting with both installed again!

I think it might be a Master/Slave issue.

Oh, If that does not work, try setting the internal one as SLAVE.

[RealBlackStuff]

There are 4 IDE channels in 2 groups, Primary and Secondary IDE.
The main internal Hrd sisk is on Primary IDE 1, and is Master.
On 2 spindle machines, the CD/DVD drive (or floppy) is on Secondary IDE 1, also as Master.
Don't know how this works in a 3-spindle machine such as the A31, but I would assume that the drive on the right hand side (seen from above) is this Secondary IDE 1.

[Adda]

The ThinkPad A31p natively supports IDE/ATA Drives, not SATA. This means that no matter what adapter you use to add on a SATA drive you will still go into a bottleneck on the IDE bus. Coincidentally one of these IDE speeds maxes out at 33MBs.

Since the A30 has ATA100 and the 7K100 60Gb drive has a transfer rate in the 40's, and has the same speed in a IDE UB2000 adapter, the SATA adapter should be at least as fast as the IDE one, but it's not.
The IDE to SATA bridge in the adapter must be a poor one, it should max out at around 100MB/s.

There are 4 IDE channels in 2 groups, Primary and Secondary IDE.
The main internal Hrd sisk is on Primary IDE 1, and is Master.
On 2 spindle machines, the CD/DVD drive (or floppy) is on Secondary IDE 1, also as Master.
Don't know how this works in a 3-spindle machine such as the A31, but I would assume that the drive on the right hand side (seen from above) is this Secondary IDE 1.

In the A30 the internal IDE is Primary Master, the left side UB2000 is Primary Slave and the right side UB+ is Secondary Master.