OT: Problem booting server with internal USB2 HDs

["Adam " <adam@xxxxxxx>]

Sorry for the off-topic-ish post, but you are a clever bunch and I'm
hoping someone here will be able to shed light on this problem:

My main "HA server" is a P4 2.6 (HT) running Server 2003 on a
Gigabye GA-8IK1100 mobo.  Recently I've added a couple of Icy Dock
MB122UKGF internal USB2 drive caddies (each with a 120Gb WD drive).
The idea of these drives is partly because I've run out of SATA/IDE
channels (these are effectively USB2 internal, removable drives),
and partly to use as backup media.  I was hoping to be able to back
my system onto one of the 120Gb drives, remove the caddy, and take
it off-site.

However, the server doesn't boot *unless* the drives are plugged
into the system.  If I remove either one of the caddies, the PC
doesn't even get as far as the BIOS (so it's defiantly not an O/S
problem).

Once the machine is booted (with the drives plugged in), I can then
hot-swap to my hearts content.  But of course I don't want to take
the drives off-site, as if I do, and I need to reboot the server, I
won't be able to!

The drives themselves are plugged directly into the mobo's USB2
connector.

Has anyone experienced a similar problem with USB drives?  If the
worst comes to the worse, I could just get another caddy and make
sure that I've always got drives plugged in when I boot, but I was
hoping there would be another solution.

TIA,
A.




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