As usual, nothing goes as smooth as you'd like. This project has been no exception. But I'm happy to report that everything is working and my server has 2 shiny new 160GB external drives, just waiting for data. It was a little crazy to get there. I had to install my new USB 2.0 card into the machine. No problem, Windows just spotted the card and installed everything hunky dory. Then I read the directions to the card and they recommend loading their drivers. No problemo. When Windows was finished, it recommended a reboot, but when the card drivers were done, they didn't. So I took the time to reboot the machine...so far so good. I plug in the first drive after Windows comes back to life. Grind, grind, grind.
BAM!!!!!!!
Straight into the blue screen of death. Bummer. Now this is a Windows 2000 Server, with all the latest patches and service packs. The error message was "Violation of License Agreement" or something like that. Hmmm... So I let it do it's thing, reboot and I wisely powered down the drive and it comes back to life. I turn back on the drive and SHAZAM, the drive is installed ready and waiting. Cool. I then fire up drive number two, SHAZAM, it works too. Life is good. So I had to run to the movie so I powered everything off, disconnected the montitor and keyboard stuff, parked it onto the shelf, rehooked up everything, turned it on and ran out the door. When we got back, I VNC'd to the machine...
And nothing.
I rush down to the basement, throw on the monitor (didn't turn the computer off, naughty, naughty) and it was sitting in some crazy, half baked, I just crashed mode. Bummer. I shut it all down and tried one last thing. Everything worked fine. I now have a happy server, with tons of drive space. Here's what I learned about USB drives:
BAM!!!!!!!
Straight into the blue screen of death. Bummer. Now this is a Windows 2000 Server, with all the latest patches and service packs. The error message was "Violation of License Agreement" or something like that. Hmmm... So I let it do it's thing, reboot and I wisely powered down the drive and it comes back to life. I turn back on the drive and SHAZAM, the drive is installed ready and waiting. Cool. I then fire up drive number two, SHAZAM, it works too. Life is good. So I had to run to the movie so I powered everything off, disconnected the montitor and keyboard stuff, parked it onto the shelf, rehooked up everything, turned it on and ran out the door. When we got back, I VNC'd to the machine...
And nothing.
I rush down to the basement, throw on the monitor (didn't turn the computer off, naughty, naughty) and it was sitting in some crazy, half baked, I just crashed mode. Bummer. I shut it all down and tried one last thing. Everything worked fine. I now have a happy server, with tons of drive space. Here's what I learned about USB drives:
- Don't try to plug the drive in before you log in. Don't know if it's because it's not a service or what, but until I was logged in, things went poorly.
- Don't turn two drives on at once. I think I freaked the machine out blasting away at the OS with two new drive binding requests. To get a drive to be dynamically mounted into the OS is quite a trick (we did it at Exabyte before the PNP OS extensions and I still know it's tough) so go easy on it...