Vista Issue on My Setup

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smartdude24

n00b
Joined
Jan 17, 2006
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Hi, I have an older machine and am trying to run vista.
XP3200+
1gig pc3200
MSI K7N2Delta2
3 hdds
Ati 9800pro a-i-w
550w Enermax VE

I want to run vista on a separate hdd from my XP SP2 setup but my graphics card requires me to hook it into the hdd running the os. So how would I go about this short of changing over cables from hdd to hdd every time I want to switch os'es? Will this even be an issue? Thanks
 
Ok please let me know what grafix card you are running that requires a connection to the HDD. I have never heard of such thing.

I have heard of needing a connection to the motherboard for older vesa cards. But to the HDD?

I don't get it.

So please a model.. and seriously would love to see a pic of such a creature.

(perhaps you are mistaking a power connection as a data connection.)
 
Ya, on the 9800pro aiw, there is a molex connector on the card. You are supplied with a Y molex connector. One is plugged into card, one is plugged into hdd and one is plugged into the PSU. I don't know why you would have to do this, but on my graphics card manual there is a warning about doing this. So just wondering if it would be an issue or not by having it connected to my XP hdd but not my Vista hdd? Thanks
 
Pics or shens! :D

Seriously though.... all it is doing is getting POWER from your PS molex connector.... it makes no differene WHERE you 'Y' the connector from... it is NOT physically connected to the HDD, just like it wouldn't be physically connected to your CD-ROm, if you would've 'Y'd it there.

P.S. You DO NOT have to 'Y' anything if your PS has enough Molex connectors on it.... I personally do NOT use 'Y's.... only if I am forced to.... I would rather buy a nice ANtec PS with enough Molex's for everything.
 
Ok... ummm...

No you will be fine. As long as you provide power to the video card you will be just fine.

All that the molex connector is for is for a power connection. It does not know and does not care where the power is coming from.

:)

newb!! ;) I mean that in a good way. I can remember the days myself.
 
I know that's exactly what I said when I bought this thing 5 years back... doesn't make any sense because it's simply supplying power, so who cares what it is Y-ed to. So this should be a non-issue? I just don't understand why ATI would go out of their way to warm you to connect it to the hdd in particular... unless they are assuming that everyone has a hdd and not everyone has a cd drive?
 
I doubt ATI is going to tell you to split it with the same cable as the main HDD. If anything, most people would NOT want the two most demanding devices (that use a molex connector) to run off the same line. Furthermore, what does the power connector have to do with which drive is the boot drive? It's just the power plugs...they have nothing to do with what the drive is formatted as, or what it's being used for. Common sense would have told you this was a bunk comment by ATI, assuming they'd even say something so ridiculous.
 
djnes said:
I doubt ATI is going to tell you to split it with the same cable as the main HDD. If anything, most people would NOT want the two most demanding devices (that use a molex connector) to run off the same line. Furthermore, what does the power connector have to do with which drive is the boot drive? It's just the power plugs...they have nothing to do with what the drive is formatted as, or what it's being used for. Common sense would have told you this was a bunk comment by ATI, assuming they'd even say something so ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Says the Purveyor of Logic!! :D
 
I can photocopy the warning on the manual if you don't believe me. What would I have to gain by making this false accusation against ATI? Anyways... yes it is common sense but I just wanted to be 100% positive by asking some of the more advanced people around here. And I completely agree that it is insane to connect the graphics card and hdd off of the same line. Anyways thanks for clearing this up everyone.
 
smartdude24 said:
I can photocopy the warning on the manual if you don't believe me. What would I have to gain by making this false accusation against ATI?
Click to expand...

Don't bother, and don't worry about trying to justify your comments. Anybody reading this with any level of experience would know that the situation results from either:

  • Poorly written manglish instructions which accompanied the card
  • You've misinterpreted what's been written in the instructions

It's quite obvious that the instructions about using the y connector are simply provided as an example of how the task could be carried out. Thjey would never have been intended to suggest that the y connector must be used in all circumstances and must be connected to the hard drive. The publicity from both ATo and Nvidia, right back to the time when power connectors were first used on graphics cards, has acknowledged that the ideal method of connecting the card is to use a power lead which has NO other components connected to it.
 
Yeah, Now that we got the picture here, I had the same thing with my 9800Pro back then.

I threw the adapter back in the box and used a direct PS tap.
 
djnes said:
I doubt ATI is going to tell you to split it with the same cable as the main HDD. Common sense would have told you this was a bunk comment by ATI, assuming they'd even say something so ridiculous.
Click to expand...

I had the 9800pro and the manual did say to split it from the HDD. The OP obviously took it too literally. :)
 
Oh lol ok, now that I've made a complete ass of myself, I have another concern. Intermittently while I'm running vista, even while idling, the computer makes the noise a computer makes after it is shut down. That kind of electronic fading out noise followed by a clicking noise. The computer continues to run and no error occur that I can tell as of yet, but that noise has me freaking out and I don't want damage to occur to my system. This has never happened in XP. Has anyone else experience this, or know what the diagnosis of that noise is and if this is an indication of permanent damage being caused to my machine? Thanks
 
It doesn't sound like a fan, it sounds too electronic. Plus why would a fan make this noise under Vista but not XP? Thanks for throwing out ideas though.
 
It does seem to occur most often when I am playing movies off of my movie hdd and the movie will pause for a split second. What should I set my power settings to? It either sounds like my hdd or my psu. But it sounds like something picking up speed followed by a clicking noise, which to me sounds like a hdd issue.
 
The whir click is usually the hdd spinning down.

By default Vista is set to turn them off after 20 minutes. You can set it to longer or by going down you can set it to never, depends on how much it bugs you. :)
 
Ok, I just set it to never and hopefully that will take care of it. It's not that it bugs me (actually it does lol) but it's more that I was concerned that damage was being done to my files, and I'd rather be safe than sorry. Thanks for input everyone
 
Definitely wouldn't be damaging your files.

Whether it's helping or harming your hard drive though is a whole world of heated argument which is probably best avoided by adopting the sensible practice of acknowledging that drives get bigger and better as a matter of course, and replacing the things every two or three years irrespective of their working status.
 
Couldn't agree more with you there. Setting "turn hdd off" to never seems to have fixed things, so thanks to everyone who helped. I can now enjoy Vista (if at all possible) instead of trying to figure out what that noise was all about.
 
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