SC101 green light flashing

[Sp00ny]

Having bought a reconditioned SC101 from ebay with no driver disc I'm having problems. I have managed to install SCM, which was difficult enough, but my hard drive is not being recognised in the SC101. After about a minute from turning on, the green light is flashing constantly, no pattern just flashing.

Its a Maxtor 200gb DiamondMax 10 6L200PO, is this compatible? Its formatted as FAT32 with data on it, do I need to wipe it first? It works fine in a normal USB external caddy.

Thanks

[raging_blitzer]

you might want to check the jumper settings of the hard drive. it must be set to cable select. next possible problem is that your SC101 could have a faulty power supply so try using your computers molex connector to power up the hard drive. see if this works for you. good luck!

[Sp00ny]

Thanks for the reply, I have already got the jumper in the CS position. To rule it out though, I had already tried it in all the other positions, this resulted in the same flashing green light, but accompanied by a flashing red light which is not even listed in the support manual!

Regarding the power supply, I only have laptops but I will improvise and use the power from my usb caddy to see if it helps.

Thanks again, I'll report back later.

[Jack™]

Originally Posted by Sp00ny

..... and use the power from my usb caddy to see if it helps.

It needs to be a 12V 5A PSU!
Try other HDs to see if it is only a HD incompatibility issue or if you got a lemon on eBay.

[Sp00ny]

Jack - don't worry, I meant i would plug the power plug of the USB caddy straight into the HDD itself, not the SC101.

I have done this, and by golly it works now! I still had to connect the original power supply to the SC101 to make it boot up, but the green light stayed on solid and I go the SCM utility to recognise the unit, and I began to do the setup wizard to confirm all ok.

So basically I assume there is an internal wiring problem, because when the SC101 power plug is connected to the HDD it does not work, I tried this again afterwards and again got the flashing green light.

But, can I assume the power cord (from wall socket to SC101) is ok, or could it actually be this?

raging_blitzer, you are a genius, thank you.

[katrinabernardino]

@Sp00ny

- your HD which is formatted with FAT32 will not work... because SC101 is using a different file system (SFS)
- HD that should be inserted to SC101 should be set to factory default (without any file system at all like FAT, NTFS,EXT)
- you need to wipe the contents of the drive but of course you need to back it up
-you can wipe the data and the file system by connecting the disk to the pc
-go to disk management : right click my computer and click manage
-look for the drive letter assigned on HD
-right click it: select "delete volume/file system"

note: make sure to delete the right HD! be careful

SC101 looks ok to me, its just the disk..

[Sp00ny]

Thanks for your input, seems very logical to me however I won't be able to do this until tomorrow, and i'm awaiting delivery of a second disc so I can mirror. But I will wipe and format the disc tomorrow and give it a whirl.

However, can you explain why it behaves so differently when i used the alternative power supply directly to the disc? I'm not disagreeing with your diagnosis, just curious?

Thanks again

[katrinabernardino]

Our questions will be answered right after you received the 2nd disk and plug it into the SC101 using its own power source.

[Sp00ny]

Still awaiting the second disc, but i have wiped all contents from my 200gb Maxtor and formatted to NTFS. It still causes the flashing green light in the SC101. When the new disc arrives I'll know for sure what the problem is because I suppose my old disc could be faulty, but it works perfectly in my USB caddy, and also in the SC101 using the alternative power supply

I don't really understand the partitioning bit of the installation. I will be using 160gb + 200gb drives and I will be mirroring them. I currently have around 85gb of music, photos and videos to go on there. Is there any need or benefit to have separate partitions for the different media types, or all in one partition? Should I allocate 140gb during setup?

[Sp00ny]

Ok i have now re-read and understood your post, and have removed the file system completely. My mistake.

However, still got the green flashing light. I'll post again when the new disc arrives.