Problem with 2nd HDD (CD to HDD caddy) in the Dell Inspiron 15R 5537

[TheLatvian]

Hi, tom's community.

I'm using the Dell Inspiron 15R 5537, i7 4500U, Radeon R9 M265X (2GB GDDR5), 8GB DDR3, Full HD, Windows 7 64x laptop and am really enjoining it.

Intro - initially I was using a 1TB HDD, that came with the laptop, but I wanted to upgrade to an SSD and still keep the 1TB HDD as a second drive. So I did some research online about CD caddy tray that you can put a SATA HDD inside, and replace the CD drive with another HDD. This is exactly what I did, because I don't use the CD ROM at all - Now having a 240GB SSD as the main System disc, for insane boot speeds and the 1TB HDD for music, pictures, downloads etc.

Here's the problem - when booting up, the 2nd 1TB (CD caddy tray HDD) doesn't appear, only after 2-3 reboots it appears and works properly. No problems, the system recognizes it and works as it should. BIOS (A08 - the latest) recognizes the Caddy drive as well. Windows device manager sees it as well. So, no problems, right? No. The rebooting and the 1TB Caddy HDD drive not showing up persists constantly and it is really annoying. Sometimes the 1TB drive disappears mid usage, whiles't Windows is set to balanced power usage, so it must be something software/BIOS related with power management to reduce battery consumption. But I'm using it WITH THE AC ADAPTER.

What I did so far - Clean Install of Windows 7 64x, Set power manager to Max performance, in advanced power settings set everything to max performance, so no hdd turning off, no power efficiency - max performance. Updated all drivers, starting from Intel chipset drivers, ending with everything that was in windows device manager, component by component.

In conclusion - The 2nd HDD Caddy works, It works now, as I am writing this, so this is not a question of IF IT IS MEANT TO WORK AT ALL, because it does, but - what can I do to deal with the problem, that the 2nd HDD is NOT booting up constantly with the system.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281900002037

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE SOMEONE REPLY AND GIVE ME A SOLUTION.

I'M BEGGING YOU.

 

[ArtPog]

I thought I understood the nature of your problem until I came to the final portion of your post - "what can I do to deal with the problem, that the 2nd HDD is booting up constantly with the system.". What the heck does that mean?

Just to be clear, your system is booting just fine to your SSD, right? There's absolutely no problem there, right?

Are you now indicating after detailing the problem you were having with the installed caddy in the optical drive compartment that the caddy containing the 1 TB now works but there's a problem with that SECONDARY HDD "booting up constantly with the system"?

Or is the problem that your 1 TB HDD that's serving as a SECONDARY drive performs erratically, in that sometimes it will not be detected in the system upon bootup; other times it will but then it unexpectedly disappears from the system for no apparent reason. Is this the basic problem you're encountering?

Naturally if that is the problem we're assuming that you've determined that the 1 TB HDD is non-defective, non-corrupt to rule out any possibility the disk itself may be the problem.

Perhaps it would be best if you would clarify precisely what the problem is that you're experiencing.

 

[TheLatvian]

I thought I understood the nature of your problem until I came to the final portion of your post - "what can I do to deal with the problem, that the 2nd HDD is booting up constantly with the system.". What the heck does that mean?

Just to be clear, your system is booting just fine to your SSD, right? There's absolutely no problem there, right?

Are you now indicating after detailing the problem you were having with the installed caddy in the optical drive compartment that the caddy containing the 1 TB now works but there's a problem with that SECONDARY HDD "booting up constantly with the system"?

Or is the problem that your 1 TB HDD that's serving as a SECONDARY drive performs erratically, in that sometimes it will not be detected in the system upon bootup; other times it will but then it unexpectedly disappears from the system for no apparent reason. Is this the basic problem you're encountering?

Naturally if that is the problem we're assuming that you've determined that the 1 TB HDD is non-defective, non-corrupt to rule out any possibility the disk itself may be the problem.

Perhaps it would be best if you would clarify precisely what the problem is that you're experiencing.

I'm so sorry... I fixed the confusing text - NOT BOOTING UP... so sorry.

 

[ArtPog]

So is the problem that the SSD boot drive boots the system without any problem as long as it's the ONLY drive installed in the PC? But if the 1 TB HDD serving as a secondary drive installed in the caddy is ALSO connected, then the system does NOT boot? Is that the basic problem?

If it is, what exactly happens? A black screen? Some sort of error message? What?

 

[TheLatvian]

So is the problem that the SSD boot drive boots the system without any problem as long as it's the ONLY drive installed in the PC? But if the 1 TB HDD serving as a secondary drive installed in the caddy is ALSO connected, then the system does NOT boot? Is that the basic problem?

If it is, what exactly happens? A black screen? Some sort of error message? What?

No, no... the system boots up every time. SSD is as the main SYSTEM disc and the 1TB caddy as media. The system starts no matter what, but the thing is that I put the TEMP folder in the 1TB caddy, so not to use up the SSD's resources. You know. So when the system starts not recognizing the 1TB caddy HDD, I get an error message, that the TEMP folder is not found.

 

[ArtPog]

We really can't go on like this - or at least I can't - so I'm going to give this one more shot to see if I can understand precisely what your problem is...

Are you now indicating that when you boot the system the 1 TB HDD that's installed in the optical drive's caddy and functioning as a secondary drive in the system is detected by the system but you get an error message that this "TEMP folder is not found"?

And you say this "TEMP folder" in on the 1 TB HDD and it's there "so (as) not to use up the SSD's resources."

I haven't the foggiest notion of what this "TEMP folder" is or how it impacts your system. And frankly I don't want to even think how it may "not use up the SSD's resources".

Anyway - are you indicating that the 1 TB HDD IS detected in the system as a secondary drive but this "TEMP folder" that's presumably installed on that disk is not detected and that's your basic problem? If that IS the problem I really don't have any suggestions that I think may be of some value to you.

 

[TheLatvian]

We really can't go on like this - or at least I can't - so I'm going to give this one more shot to see if I can understand precisely what your problem is...

Are you now indicating that when you boot the system the 1 TB HDD that's installed in the optical drive's caddy and functioning as a secondary drive in the system is detected by the system but you get an error message that this "TEMP folder is not found"?

And you say this "TEMP folder" in on the 1 TB HDD and it's there "so (as) not to use up the SSD's resources."

I haven't the foggiest notion of what this "TEMP folder" is or how it impacts your system. And frankly I don't want to even think how it may "not use up the SSD's resources".

Anyway - are you indicating that the 1 TB HDD IS detected in the system as a secondary drive but this "TEMP folder" that's presumably installed on that disk is not detected and that's your basic problem? If that IS the problem I really don't have any suggestions that I think may be of some value to you.

I proof read my posts and I am a little confused of how you got your conclusions/questions.

Again. The SSD is the SYSTEM disc. The HDD 1TB Caddy as the Media disc. The 1TB Caddy HDD often doesn't appear with the system starting, but no matter if the 1TB Caddy HDD appears or not, the System (Windows 7 64bit) starts.

WHEN the 1TB Caddy is not recognized on system startup, the 1TB drive SIMPLY doesn't show up, in device manager, my computer etc., but the system starts NO MATTER because the system is on the SSD.

And the TEMP folder is the Windows Temporary file folder. ("Windows"->Search "%TEMP%") The TEMP folder aggregates all Temporary files used by Internet browsers, Windows, Zip unpack files, like drivers and such and it (TEMP) needs to be, preferably on a SPINNING HDD, not on the SSD, because the SSD is using up its write resources by writing into it. So I put the Windows TEMP folder NOT on the SSD System disc, but changed its location to the 1TB HDD, that's in the CADDY. That is why, when the system starts up NOT recognizing the 1TB HDD Caddy drive I get and error message, that the TEMP folder is missing. I can not be more specific, I'm sorry. I thought that, what a TEMP folder is, is common knowledge.

THE PROBLEM, MY PROBLEM is not with the TEMP folder. My problem is with the 1TB HDD Caddy drive, occasionally NOT SHOWING UP with a fresh boot. It happens randomly, tho still so annoying. And sometimes, rarely the 1TB HDD even disappears when the system is up and running for a while. SO, it often doesn't appear at all, when booting up the system and rarely it disappears mid usage. The 1TB HDD Caddy is healthy and all tests (i.e. bios, support.dell.co.uk.) passed. The 1TB HDD Caddy drive works, but it doesn't work. See what I'm trying to say?

 

[ArtPog]

OK, so the nub of the problem is that your secondary HDD installed in the optical drive's caddy is not detected by the system upon bootup. But this problem is erratic in that sometimes the system does detect the drive; other times it does not; and still other times after the drive is detected, the system no longer detects the drive after a period of time. So when all is said & done - that's the problem.

This type of erratic problem is extremely difficult to sort out since its cause can be due to a myriad of factors. In my experience involving problems of one sort or another involving drives installed in optical drive caddies the problem frequently is the caddy itself. When we have occasion to install one of these devices we always order an appropriate model from Newmodeus - http://www.newmodeus.com - since we have found their offerings reliable.

Please understand I am not concluding that the problem IS your optical drive caddy. Obviously there's no way I could possibly determine that from this distance. I only wanted to inform you of my experience in situations similar to what you're experiencing.

Another problem we run into is user error in connecting the device in the system. I'm sure you've reviewed the appropriate connections in your laptop to ensure they're proper & secure.

I suppose you could contact Dell tech support to see if they could shed any light on this problem, however, in our experience the OEMs look askance re the installation of caddies in their products so that contact may not be of any practical value in this situation.