[DONE] Finally shelled out for an SSD.

[dwhite]

Thought I'd waited long enough so the bugs that all new bits of equipment would have would be worked out, but now the computers bios won't see the SSD. Guess I'll have to look for an update if there is one to flash.

[dski]

I also recently bought an SSD, Mageia2 can see it, but the install routine for Mageia3 cannot see the existing partitions on it. So am stuck unless I cloan Mageia2 to the SSD, which I don't want to do.

As a side note, when my computer boots, the SSD does not show up with the hard drives, it seems to be treated different because it's on a SATA600 channel. Have you checked the BIOS setup screens to see if the SSD is there?

[dwhite]

Mageia 2 seems to see it, even call it by name, but as I said the motherboard bios won't see it, I even looked but couldn't find any SATA Chanals. I take that If the Bios doeesn't see it it won't boot even if it's OK

[wintpe]

not saying your wrong, but i find it hard to believe the bios cant see it

ssd's are treated no different to a standard sata hard disk

would be realy helpfull if you can list your ssd make/model and your motherboard.

its too general a question without it.

someone out there may have the same hardware working, and that will then

put a completly different spin on your thinking, about where the problem lies.

regards peter

[wilcal]

My Intel i7 M2 video editing machine uses a OCZ Vertex 4 SSD for it's boot
and system files and a Seagate 1TB SATA 6.0Gb/s drive for files and editing.
I need not expand here on how fast this thing is, but, it renders videos
faster then they can be viewed.

[dwhite]

That kind of config was in my mind when I bought the SSD's that I've got. They're both 64GB OCZ petrol SSD's I was going to use one to replace the HDD on my netbook, then use the other as the / partition on my desktop, but failing to boot put a stop to that scenario. One SSD I attached in the desktop with a SATA red Cable and power.

[wintpe]

if thats your KV8 motherboard you are talking about then, its probably that early sata controller VT8237R and bios combination thats the problem.

you might be able to fix this by buying a pci sata controller such as

http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/28077249 ... sbar&cbt=y

its only five pounds

and adding this to your system, the bios on board this controller will then be responcible.

i have one similar to this (not the same) and mageia spports it completly and its bios boot mageia .

regards peter

[dwhite]

As I bought a ASRock K8A780LM a while ago to fit that CPU and a Gigabyte 84000GS Graphics Accelerator that was on offer, I'll try assembling them together without blowing the CPU, that way I'll get use of the SATA2 controller on that board, though swapping chips between boards is asking for trouble. If things go a-rye I can buy new Athlon CPU's for £12.40 from Hong Kong.

[wintpe]

thats a good option, justbe crefull of the pins on the cpu when you are handling it, and re-apply thermal paste to the top of the cpu

to ensure it has good thermal contact with the heatsink, as the silicon in the thermal paste can dry out over time.

it is a pitty that you did buy this board aand i understand your personal reasons, however i would like to say that the general idea of trying to use modern day linux's on old or slow hardware as a showcase to the windows people of how fast it can go is not doing it justice.
sure i have an atom based samsung NC10 that wont realy run windows 7, realisticly in any usefull way, but it runs mageia perfectly fine.

but when it comes to desktops, believe me, backing it up with 6 3.3 gig cores and 16 gig of ram, realy shows those windows fans up,

regards peter

[dwhite]

It crossed my mind that the only way that a Windows installation would be anything other than snail-like would be if it was on a SSD. I have a Atom based Netbook myself It must be seven years old and to use it as a desktop relacement is untenable, although it has all the ram the board will support, it's an old ACER Aspire one and came pre-installed with a form of light Linux, but I installed Mandriva 05 or 06
within hours. At that time no Win edition would fit on the small size SSD's that were available then, It the time I was hoping to get round to putting the / on the SSD and the /home on a SD.

[dwhite]

Looks like I've blown up or otherwise damaged that ASRock board while it's been kicking about, the old CPU will have blown when I powered up that Rock board or when I was swapping it about, the RAM is probally duff too. All because my new SSD's were not being seen, good thing I know about that PCi SATA controller now!

[dwhite]

Now I'm waiting for nylon motherboard stand-offs. Each time I've built a new box, since 2000 anyway, not fitting the Red Fibre washers the box stayed dark. Anyway I was thinking if the little brass stand-offs where plastic or something non-conductive. I finally found a firm supplying nylon octagonal spacers just like those little things, it's in China and I've had to buy 50, but now box building will be nearly fun. Surely Gigabyte or Asus could put them in with a new board, brass is mainly copper and copper is expensive.

[wintpe]

thers nothing wrong with the brass ones, providing you only put them where the holes are, ive seen many people
put them in the wrong place and end up shorting the board.

however you are right some boards have pads to near the holes or the screws supplied are too big and end up crossing tracks that run to close to the holes, the red fibre washers are usefull there.

it is usefull however to have at least one of the grounded holes on the MB connected to the chassis.

all of mone are like this and they have never given me a problem.

however im sure your nylon standoffs will be worth the investment.

regards peter

[dwhite]

Finally my 64-bit desktop is back up and running, the Foxcom board even saw the SSD, but stopped. So I ordered one of those PCi SATA cards, Fitted it and again the machine worked for long enough to install the OS but when it asks you to reboot. On M2 five icons are brought into focus after two an endless pause!!! It was power new power leads and problems all went away. But now all the drives are on the card even a new CD/DVD burner so I'll keep it .
Finally solved with help and suggestions.

[dwhite]

Well I was wrong, the teething problems that the SSD's were having hadn't worked out. The two 64 MB SSD's have gone back with just the problems I'd read they would have. I'll try to get an ordinary HD in exchange, one the bios wouldn't see and the other the partition table data got lost, and it wouldn't boot.
I read that a SSD is best used as a boot disk were it doesn't do much read/writing.and never as a SWAP disk. Quick formatting is not something it likes in fact deep with it is the only way

[doktor5000]

So this thread can be closed, no?

[dwhite]

Yes, it can be now.