BIOS doesn't recognize the second HDD (hard drive caddy)

[Nick Th]

I recently bought a hard disk caddy (for a second HDD) for my Laptop. The Laptop is ACER aspire 5733 model and the BIOS has been upgraded to the latest version v1.10.

I removed the CD/DVD from its place and I attached the new caddy (with the HDD inside). Also, I bought a new SSD and attached it to the HDD's place.
So the picture now is, two Hard Disks, one SSD on the "primary" sata controller (where HDD was) and the HDD in the place of the CD/DVD (with the help of caddy).

Pressing the F12 key it opens the selection box for boot device, but the HDD is not listed. Only the SSD. This is also true when accessing the BIOS configuration page.

I'm guessing this is a fault of caddy, that is not capable to "help"/inform the BIOS for the bootable device. Am I correct ? (of course the CD/DVD was bootable when it was in its place).

The HDD can be recognized and accessed properly by 4 Linux OSs (I have). No problems there.

EDIT:
With a second view in BIOS configuration page I saw two modes AHCI and IDE. The AHCI is the default and if I turn this to IDE mode it can properly recognize and boot from the HDD (inside the caddy). But as I read (all over the Internet) the AHCI mode is the preferred for SSDs.

This is a very weird problem for me (lack of knowledge I guess)..
Why the AHCI mode is incapable to boot the (inside caddy) HDD , where the IDE success ?
Also, what is the preferred mode to use on SSD ? AHCI or IDE ? is there a big difference between them, that will affect the performance or/and lifetime ?

 

[Hello man]

I recently bought a hard disk caddy (for a second HDD) for my Laptop. The Laptop is ACER aspire 5733 model and the BIOS has been upgraded to the latest version v1.10.

I removed the CD/DVD from its place and I attached the new caddy (with the HDD inside). Also, I bought a new SSD and attached it to the HDD's place.
So the picture now is, two Hard Disks, one SSD on the "primary" sata controller (where HDD was) and the HDD in the place of the CD/DVD (with the help of caddy).

Pressing the F12 key it opens the selection box for boot device, but the HDD is not listed. Only the SSD. This is also true when accessing the BIOS configuration page.

I'm guessing this is a fault of caddy, that is not capable to "help"/inform the BIOS for the bootable device. Am I correct ? (of course the CD/DVD was bootable when it was in its place).

The HDD can be recognized properly from 4 Linux OSs (I have). No problems there.

That or a bad cable. I recently replaced the hard drive in an older macbook pro, it did the same thing, all due to a bad cable.

 

[Nick Th]

That or a bad cable. I recently replaced the hard drive in an older macbook pro, it did the same thing, all due to a bad cable.

Well, I don't think this is a cable problem. The same problem occurs if I connect the SSD there (through caddy) , but the problem "disappears" when I place the CD/DVD in its place. (it recognize the CD/DVD as bootable device). All these with the same cable.

OP edited for additional info.

 

[Hello man]

That or a bad cable. I recently replaced the hard drive in an older macbook pro, it did the same thing, all due to a bad cable.

Well, I don't think this is a cable problem. The same problem occurs if I connect the SSD there (through caddy) , but the problem "disappears" when I place the CD/DVD in its place. (it recognize the CD/DVD as bootable device). All these with the same cable.

OP edited for additional info.

Ok. Thats the caddy then. Return it for a new one.

 

[Nick Th]

Ok. Thats the caddy then. Return it for a new one.

Please read the Original Post (first post). I edited for additional info that I discovered.

 

[geo909]

Hi,

Did you manage to figure something out? I have *exactly* the same problem on my Dell inspiron 1525.

 

[Hello man]

Ok. Thats the caddy then. Return it for a new one.

Please read the Original Post (first post). I edited for additional info that I discovered.

IDE is an old type of hard drive/cd/floppy connector. Look it up, you will see pics. I would say AHCI for SSDs.

 

[Nick Th]

Hi,

Did you manage to figure something out? I have *exactly* the same problem on my Dell inspiron 1525.

No I didn't manage to solve the original problem. As a workaround I using Grub Bootloader, from where I can boot in any operating system, even if it is installed in HDD.

The IDE mode solves the problem, but IDE mode is very old and is not recommended for the SSD.