[jh3463]

I have an MSI K8N-Neo V2.0 Motherboard (S/N 601-7030-070K0511002770)and I want to add a Hard Disk Enclosure bay to the tower. MY computer has one primary HD with no slave. one DVD burner with no slave. The HD is connected to the IDE1 connector on the MB. The DVD Burner is connected to the IDE2 connector. The last MB I owned I added an IDE port card (Ultra ATA 100 PCI) and had too choose theSCSI option as the first boot in the BIOS boot order, but this MB does not that option. The boot order options I have with this MSI MB are: Floppy, LS120, Hard Disk, CD Rom, Zip100, USB-FDD, USB-ZIP, USB-CD-ROM, Legacy LAN, and Disabled. I also have an option to choose the "boot priority," which currently looks like this: 1) Ch0 M. :WDC WD800BB-00CAA0 2) Bootable Add-in Cards from the "Boot Sequence." I've tried to choose #2, but the computer only boots to the original HD. Since it was so easy to add a hard disk enclosure on my last MB, I assume it is a matter of choosing the correct boot sequence for this MB. Anyone have any Ideas on the boot sequence to choose. I have a new Ultra ATA/133 PCI card ready to install so the enclosure can connect to it.

I tried to give as through a post as possible. I want to add a Hard Drive enclosure bay that will stay in the computer. The reason is, I want the computer to automatically boot to the removable hard drive when it is in the enclosure bay and to the internal HD when the removable is not in it's bay. My last MB had an option to select the SCSI as the 1st boot option in the BIOS but I don't have a SCSI option for this MB. I'm not sure how to make this happen and MSI, after 3 E-mails and 4 weeks, hasn't answered this question. Any Ideas?

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....so does the MB have a SCSI port on it or not?...you weren't very clear on that....i'm assuming the new drive bay is a SCSI not IDE drive bay right?

[dsenette]

....so does the MB have a SCSI port on it or not?...you weren't very clear on that....i'm assuming the new drive bay is a SCSI not IDE drive bay right?

[jh3463]

....so does the MB have a SCSI port on it or not?...you weren't very clear on that....i'm assuming the new drive bay is a SCSI not IDE drive bay right?

Sorry, I have a 2 port IDE PCI Ultra ATA/133 card that I used with the origional MB. At that time the MB manufacturer stated that I needed to choose SCSI in the BIOS as the first boot, then the Hard Drive and then the CDROM drive. This MB doen't have that option. The only options I have in the BIOS are stated in the previous post. Please help me.

[dsenette]

....if the drive is an IDE drive bay...that's connecting to an IDE drive enclosure...then you won't see SCSI as a boot option...

in bios do you see the second hard drive as being detected?

[jh3463]

TYhanks for your reply.

....if the drive is an IDE drive bay...that's connecting to an IDE drive enclosure...then you won't see SCSI as a boot option...

in bios do you see the second hard drive as being detected?

No, the enclosure will not be in the drive bay all the time. I plan on removing it when not in use. I need the computer to automatically seek the enclosure apon reboot and if it is there, to boot to it. If it is not in the bay, then the computer needs to boot to the internal HD.

[dsenette]

i know exactly what you're WANTING to do....but what we need to find out is:
A: how does the bay (forget the drive) connect to the motherboard?
B: when the drive IS IN THE BAY...is the drive detected at all...regardless of whether the other drive is there...and regardless of what drive is booting....

[jh3463]

i know exactly what you're WANTING to do....but what we need to find out is:
A: how does the bay (forget the drive) connect to the motherboard?
B: when the drive IS IN THE BAY...is the drive detected at all...regardless of whether the other drive is there...and regardless of what drive is booting....

Ok, I don't know that answer. I need to install the enclosure bay again and look at that. I went out and purchased a new enclosure bay because the one I was using before was a few years old but I've been waiting to install it until I new if I can get the MB to boot to it. I'll let you know. Thanks for your replies, I'll probably still need some advice.

[jh3463]

A: how does the bay (forget the drive) connect to the motherboard?
B: when the drive IS IN THE BAY...is the drive detected at all...regardless of whether the other drive is there...and regardless of what drive is booting....

Alright here goes, Qu. A= the enclosure bay is connected to the MB via an Ultra 133 PCI Card with 2 IDE slots. The installation went well, no problems. All drivers for the bay are installed and shown in the Device manager without problems. Qu. B= the enclosure drive shows up as Local Disk E in [My Computer]

I have the BIOS set so the BOOT PRIORITY is 1) Boot from Bootable add-in card 2) Ch0 M. :WDC WD800BB-00CAA0

Both the Internal HD and the enclosure HD are WD HD's with the jumpers set across 2-4 (which is a nuetral setting). But the enclosure is acting just like a slave drive

What do you think

It still seems I need to figure the correct BIOS setup for it to do what I want.

[dsenette]

in bios does the second drive (the one in the bay) show up as a drive or do you just see the pci card? you should have 2 seperate hard drives listed in bios (if they're both connected)

[jh3463]

in bios does the second drive (the one in the bay) show up as a drive or do you just see the pci card? you should have 2 seperate hard drives listed in bios (if they're both connected)

The BIOS doesn't read that there is another HD when in enclosure is in the bay and I don't even see the PCI card.
My Standard CMOS Features:

IDE primary Master [WDC WD8000BB 00CAA0]
IDE primary slave [NONE]
IDE secondary Master [Lite-On DVDRW]
IDE Secondary slave [NONE]
IDE Channel 2 Master [NONE]
IDE Channel 3Master [NONE]

Bios features

Quick Booting [Enabled]
Boot o OS/2 [NO]
IOAPC Function [Enabled]
MPS Table Version [1.4]
Boot Sequence
1st Boot Device [Floppy]
2nd Boot Device [CDROM]
3rd Boot Device [Hard Disk]
Boot to Other Device [Enabled]
Hard Disk Boot Priority
1) Bootable Add-in Card
2) CLO M. : WDC ED800BB 00CAA0

[dsenette]

question...

the enclosure bay is connected to the MB via an Ultra 133 PCI Card with 2 IDE slots

does this mean that you've put a pci card in the board that has two ide ports...and from that card you have an ide cable running to the back of the enclosure bay?

[jh3463]

question...

the enclosure bay is connected to the MB via an Ultra 133 PCI Card with 2 IDE slots

does this mean that you've put a pci card in the board that has two ide ports...and from that card you have an ide cable running to the back of the enclosure bay?

Yes!

[dsenette]

ah...ok...let's see if we can do this differently...the IDE cable that goes from your motherboard to your primary hard drive....does it have two ide connectors on it? one on the end and one in the middle (well...3 counting the one to the motherboard)? if so...can you have it hooked up so that the primary drive is on the end connector...and the new drive bay is on the center

[jh3463]

ah...ok...let's see if we can do this differently...the IDE cable that goes from your motherboard to your primary hard drive....does it have two ide connectors on it? one on the end and one in the middle (well...3 counting the one to the motherboard)? if so...can you have it hooked up so that the primary drive is on the end connector...and the new drive bay is on the center

Yes, I have the normal IDE cable for my primary HD. It will be difficult because my primary (internal) HD is in the case lower than the drive bay but I think I can that done. Is there anything else before I try to do that?

[dsenette]

no...pretty much just that...