[PLUG] Second drive visibility - Was Damned Small USB or better

[Keith Lofstrom]

On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 11:54:21AM -0700, Russell Johnson wrote:
> 
> On May 29, 2009, at 10:04 AM, drew wymore wrote:
> 
> >
> >Stupid question but does is it actually already formatted with an  
> >FS? Vista
> >refuses to see a drive when it's not formatted and sometimes it  
> >decides it
> >doesn't need a drive letter, I have to assign one (retarded  
> >software!).
> 
> Why in the world do you need a drive letter?
> 
> XP, Vista and I assume 7 can mount a second, formatted drive on a  
> mount point.

Win7 RC 7100 can't mount an ESATA drive on some (if not all)
motherboards, including the ASUS M3N78-VM I'm using.  After beating
my head against the wall for a while, I googled it, and many others
have the same problem.  The workaround, apparently, is to connect
through an ESATA adapter to the regular SATA connections on the
motherboard.  Just as well.  The best insurance against Win7 
scribbling on the backup drive is for that to be unmountable by
Win7.  Even with the informal Eastern European service pack.

BTW, Win7 also has troubles booting after a LiveUSB Linux was run.
No such problem with a LiveCD Linux.  So, no DSL USB.  Not the end
of the world, DSL is somewhat easier to set up on a LiveCD, anyway.

Sorry to bug the rest of you with Win7 stuff;  what is on topic 
about it is that this proprietary OS release candidate stumbles on
stuff Linux has no problems with.  Ease of use, setup friendliness,
capability, Linux wins on all counts.  I imagine the propellerheads
in Redmond will fix some of the bugs, but if history is any guide,
they will add many replacement bugs in the process.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs