m4400 and eSata set up Q

My machine will recognize my external as eSata if I plug it in while its already booted up. However, it won't boot up properly if plugged in via esata port and wants to me to do a Control I to configure...does this HAVE to set up as RAID? How have some of youins guys configured your esata? I just want another drive. esata IS turned on in the BIOS.

PS...while we're at it...do I really need that recovery partition if I have the disks? I use linux (or will on this one) and would like to reduce a primary partition because of the way I partition linux. thanks

thanks

 

I don't have a Precision M4400, but it's the mobile version of the chipset I have in my desktop, and I have eSata on my desktop...
Anyway, if you just wait a few seconds, it should pass by the CTRL+I screen and continue booting normally. Is this incorrect?

 

The BIOS probably has 3 options for the HDD interface : IRRT (Intel Rapid Restore Technology); AHCI and ATA. My E6400 came set to IRRT and this meant that when I plugged a HDD into the ESATA the IRRT tried to jump into life (as you are finding). I changed the setting in the BIOS to AHCI to avoid this.

I would note, however, that people who have tried to change this setting on a self-installed OS have encountered BSODs. I didn't have this problem with the factory installed OS (I presume they included all the different drivers).

The recovery partition should contain a pre-installed image of the OS, so there's less work to do in driver installation compared with reinstallation from an optical disc.

John

 

Thanks amigos....mine IS set to IRRT and my OS is factory installed.

@Hep! it just seemed to hang...I'll try it again when I get a chance.