Optiplex GX-740s and some of the GX-745s have legacy IDE connectors ship with IDE optical drives. If you select  the SATA optical drive option –for speed - the BIOS has no “Drives” option. Under “On Board devices”, “SATA Operation” the only options  are ATA or AHCI.

Under ATA, Acronis would boot, but not finish loading. Under AHCI, Acronis boots but sees no hard drives.

This is a good example of bleeding when one is on the cutting edge.

Thanks.

Don

From: MSU Network Administrators Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Jerry
Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2007 3:50 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] Imaging tools for fully SATA workstations and laptops?

Our latest systems are the Optiplex 740 with XP with SATA drives and I haven't had any problems.  I use sysprep and Ghost 11, command line version, not Ghost32.  I created my own boot files for the CD images.

John J. Jerry, Jr., CNA
Technology Specialist II
208 Law College Bldg
Michigan State University College of Law
East Lansing, MI. 48824-1300
[log in to unmask]
(517) 432-6941
FAX (517) 432-6801

>>> "Skutt, Tim" <[log in to unmask]> 9/6/2007 12:38:16 PM >>>

I have been using Barts PE discs.  I had to install the serial ATA drivers onto the CD, but once that was done I can see the drive, and then we just ghost them.  Using ghost32.

Sometimes you can get lucky and set the BIOS mode for a serial ATA drive to compatible and then that will work as well.

Don it seems that the main library and us buy similar machines, I'd be glad to give you the ISO I have for BartsPE if you would like to mess around with it.

---

From: MSU Network Administrators Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bosman, Don
Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2007 12:17 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MSUNAG] Imaging tools for fully SATA workstations and laptops?

The newest systems from Dell (GX 745 & XPS1330) are using only SATA drives. Backup and restore solutions such as Acronis and Windows Backup can’t restore as they don’t find a hard drive. Even older Windows XP install discs won’t load as they can’t see the hard drive. Before I start searching for a new solutions or version - has anyone else run into this, and what are you using now?

Sysprep & Ripprep are fine for fresh loads, but I like to make an image backup of laptops before doing much of anything to them when they need work.

Thanks

Don Bosman

Information Technologist

Libraries, Michigan State University

  100 Library

  East Lansing, MI 48824-1048

[log in to unmask]

  (517) 432-6123 ext 233

  Fax (517) 432-8374