[Pc_Support] Weird Losing connected DVD-burners after 'Dynamic Disk' on XP64bit -- no such thing as a SATA ATAPI device ...

[Bryan J. Smith]

David Simmonds wrote:
> In this 'never-ending saga', I need some additional help.  After changing
> my disks to 'Dynamic', I lost my DVD burner?
> Here's the setup:
> Win XP 64 Bit
> two 300GB SATA drives
> one Plextor 755SA (dvd burner with ide-to-SATA built-in so that it
> connects to a SATA connection)

It might have an ATA-to-SATA converter inside, but that doesn't mean
ATAPI works correctly over it.  In fact, it's virtually a "hack"
because _no_one_ supports ATAPI over SATA yet -- only certain vendors
support _explicit_ chipsets.

In other words, _wait_ until there is _native_ ATAPI support in SATA.  ;->

It wouldn't surprise me if the SATA support in NT just changed because
you changed to Dynamic Discs.  Now it assumes _all_ SATA devices are
Dynamic Discs, largely because it's _grossly_ignorant_ of SATA ATAPI
devices.

> ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe motherboard (with latest updates).

Umm, last time I checked, the Plextor 755SA _only_ supported the SATA
controllers in Intel ICH6/7 peripheral ICs -- they did _not_ support
the SATA controllers in nVidia MCP peripheral ICs.

Again, _avoid_ ATAPI devices that use a converter to SATA _until_
there is _native_ ATAPI support in SATA itself.

> BIOS sees the drive....when I look at Device Manager, it says, "drivers
> are loaded but can't find the device".  When I manually unplug the SATA
> connection, the device (with yellow exclaimation point) removes from
> Device manager...when I connect to different SATA connection point, the
> device reappears with same error.

Did you enable RAID in the BIOS?  You don't do that for OS-based
software RAID (only FRAID) and will _definitely_ screw up your ATAPI
device.

> Plextor Professional says "Can't find device" when starting.
> The drive had been working great, up until converting my SATA drives to
> dynamic for RAID use....any ideas?

Assuming you didn't change the RAID setting in the BIOS (you probably
couldn't boot anymore if you did anyway), I think NT changes the way
the storage controller works when you enable Dynamic Discs.

In any case, _never_ buy an ATAPI device with a converter to SATA
(yes, I know, I've said it 3 times now ;-).  They are _hacks_ and
_wholly_non-standard_!