Matej Posted August 19, 2006 Share Posted August 19, 2006 First my specifications: Intel Core 2 Duo 6600 Asus P5W DH Deluxe 2 GB DDR2 6400 800 Mhz WD Sata II 320 GB Disk - 2 partitions (both Mac OSX Extended) I have a natively installed OSX 10.4.6 (I used the Jas DVD). The system is working practically perfect, there is just one annoying thing that bothers me a bit. On every boot I get a Disk Insertion error (The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer. ). - see Screenshot 1 If I click on any of the available options it goes away and doesn't cause any more trouble. So I fired up the Disk Utility and I saw an additional 320 KB Config Disk which is probably is a part of my WD disk or the sata controller of the Asus motherboard. - see Screenshot 2 I guess OSX has trouble with this thing and my google research sort of strengthened my suspicions since I found this: Taken from the driver page of lacie.com (http://www.lacie.com/support/drivers/) LaCie SATA II 3Gb/s PCI-X Card4E Driver (for Biggest S2S and Two Big) Fixes: Support both 10.3.9 (or later of Panther MAC OS X), and 10.4.2 (or later of Tiger MAC OS X) Support both PCI, PCI-X from 33 MHz to 133 MHz Suppressing the warning popup dialog boxes: On previous version, these popup dialog boxes warn about the “Config Disk” devices every time these devices appear on any channel of 3124 controller (s). In MAC OS X (10.3.x): "You have inserted a disk containing no volumes that Mac OS X can read. To continue with the disk inserted, click ignore" In MAC OS X (10.4.x) : "The disk you inserted was not readable by thiscomputer." So does anyone know a way to suppress the warning popup dialog box (or hide that disk from osx or anything else that gets rid of the warning dialog box)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asap18 Posted August 19, 2006 Share Posted August 19, 2006 wouldnt that be cool if that was some type of efi partition Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bofors Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 wouldnt that be cool if that was some type of efi partition Yes, I was kind of thinking something along the same lines. But what the hell is? I think we know that it is not something on the WD disk because other people with that motherboard have reported the same issue here: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...mp;st=200 It appears to some fully accessible RAM chip on the board attached to an SATA channel. Yet, that really does not make a lot of sense, I mean why? Perhaps it is some area to store a backup of the BIOS? So what is the story with this "config" disk? Can you partition it with Disk Utility? Otherwise, I think it could be ignored by editing some file in the OS X boot sequence like /etc/rc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matej Posted August 20, 2006 Author Share Posted August 20, 2006 So what is the story with this "config" disk? Can you partition it with Disk Utility? It seems so, but I don't think it's a good idea to try until we know what's this thing for. I would realy hate to mess up a brand new motherboard. Otherwise, I think it could be ignored by editing some file in the OS X boot sequence like /etc/rc. I already took a look at those. I think I've seen a way to pervent certain partitions from being mounted, but no obvious way to prevent the os in accessing a disk/rom drive. But I'm quite sure there must be a way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bofors Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 If you can uniquely identify it, perhaps you can just unmount it in /etc/rc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matej Posted August 20, 2006 Author Share Posted August 20, 2006 The problem is that nothing gets mounted on this disk. There are no file systems displayed in Disk Utility. I would need a way to disable the drive. I think it would be easier to think of a way to suppress that warning message since this Config Disk doesn't cause any other trouble tan this. Let osx access it and fail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graeme43 Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 Would putting a HD from my P5W in a G5 and seeing if the partition is still there be any help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bofors Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 The problem is that nothing gets mounted on this disk. Yes, "mounting" is the wrong word. What meant was "ignore". It seems like there are two places in the start up script to deal with this. First removing the "disk" from the list of volumes to be mounted and then second ignoring the mount failure. I assume the Finder generates the error message in question, I do have any ideas about how to suppress it at that point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moss Posted August 21, 2006 Share Posted August 21, 2006 ok guuys i had this problem when i changed my dvd burning on sata 3 to sata 4 before that i didn't have this message Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bofors Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 ok guuys i had this problem when i changed my dvd burning on sata 3 to sata 4 before that i didn't have this message So you are using an SATA-DVD burner then? Can you boot OS X of that drive? Exactly which model is it? If you switch back to SATA 3 does the message go away then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matej Posted August 22, 2006 Author Share Posted August 22, 2006 I have this problem on Sata 1 (the bootable hard disk). I also have an IDE disk and DVD burner, but this problem is probably SATA related since the disk is displayed on a sata bus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrrjrr Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 I get the same Disk Insertion error when I boot with a particular ATA based USB exterior drive (formatted NTFS, 40 GB) plugged in. This same drive mounts fine if I plug it in after I'm all booted up. Maybe it is some sort of timing issue, like it is trying to initialize the drive while it is polling the USB port, in my case? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bofors Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 I have this problem on Sata 1 (the bootable hard disk).I also have an IDE disk and DVD burner, but this problem is probably SATA related since the disk is displayed on a sata bus. I am wondering if this error disappears if you disconnect your DVD burner (you might disconnect your IDE hard drive as well to completely isolate the SATA channel). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matej Posted August 23, 2006 Author Share Posted August 23, 2006 It doesn't disappear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RapidEyE Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 HINT: Gigabyte 965 DQ-6 ( i think its that model) have quad-BIOS, part is stored on a hard disk partition, so maybe asus have done the same. It may be worth doing some research into this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matej Posted August 24, 2006 Author Share Posted August 24, 2006 Does the Gigabyte also show an extra drive in os x? Is anyone runnng a P5W DH Deluxe based os x system on a IDE disk and no other SATA devices connected? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matej Posted August 24, 2006 Author Share Posted August 24, 2006 I got rid of it! Simply connect your sata disk to the orange EZ-Backup Serial ATA connectors instead of the red Intel CH7R Serial ATA connector (see your user guide how do do this). Boot into bios and check that your boot disk is the right one (look for something like External Disk 0). I also did a clean install sice I messed up my system before while trying to fix this with a software method but I think you shoud be ok without any further modifications. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hacintosh Posted October 2, 2006 Share Posted October 2, 2006 Sorry to bump this... I have the same exact mobo & processor as Matej! Receive the same error & can't detect my NEC 3550A DVD drive. The only difference is my harddrive is on primary IDE & OSX installed on a partition. The DVD drive however is on the secondary IDE controller. So I'm afraid Matej's solution doesn't work for me. Anyone have a suggestion to remedy this? I don't really care so much about the error, I'd just like to get the DVD drive working! Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matej Posted October 2, 2006 Author Share Posted October 2, 2006 The Jmicron IDE controller (the black one at the bottom) does not work with osx. You have to connect your hard drive and your DVD drive to the primary IDE controller (one as the master and one as the slave) and it should workd fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hacintosh Posted October 2, 2006 Share Posted October 2, 2006 Thanks Matej, that makes alot of sense! To bad that IDE controller is not usable. Now how will this affect performance? I was always under the assumption, you should never put your hardrives on the same cable as your DVD/CD drives. If it doesn't really matter, I'll just tneed to go buy a cable that reaches both devices or replace one of my current devices with Sata. Thanks so much for clearing this up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hacintosh Posted October 3, 2006 Share Posted October 3, 2006 OK , managed to get DVD and HD on same cable. OSX recognizes the DVD now, but bootup is extremly slow & system is basically unusable. Oh well, I'm happy without a DVD drive for now. Perhaps there will be a fix for the Jmicron IDE controller eventually. Looks like I'll be getting a sata or external drive in the near future. How silly of me to think the disk insertion error had to do with my DVD ... btw, for those using the search p5wdh / p5w dh deluxe is listed as everything working perfect on the wiki... I think the secondary IDE controller is a major issue not to be overlooked! Otherwise, yeah everything works great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matej Posted October 3, 2006 Author Share Posted October 3, 2006 It should only affect copy performance from the DVD drive to the HD and the burn speed from the HD to the DVD. I seriously doubdt that this makes your system slow, since I made my first OS X install (a test install) on this setup with the same IDE HD and IDE DVD combination and it was perfectly usable. I recomend that you rather get a SATA II drive that a external burner (if that is an option for you). I noticed quite a speedup with disk performance when I moved from IDE to SATA II drives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hacintosh Posted October 3, 2006 Share Posted October 3, 2006 I really wish it did work that way. I checked my cables several times & the system is very very slow. I use OS Selector to boot & even waiting for that to load takes ages. I don't know what else it could be, as soon as I unplug the DVD drive, the system boots up right away. I'm very anal about system performance as this is for a DAW. I've already started to make the switch to Sata II drives. My second drive is Sata II strictly for audio & recording. I've noticed a huge difference already! I'm just holding out on buying a new primary hard drive as this upgrade was a bit costly.... new mobo, new processor, new everything, hehe. Not to mention the time invested in installations & getting the dual boot running. I'm just a wee bit stubborn, hehe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fabcat Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 This probably won't help much but I thought I would add a bit of info that I found for future reference. The "320.0 KB Config Disk" is there thanks to the Silicon Image Sil4723 (Asus EZ-Backup thing) which the orange sata ports connect to. Some details about the chip here: http://www.siliconimage.com/products/product.aspx?id=64 Looks like Silicon Image has some sort of support for this chip with Macosx and they even have downloadable configuration manager software that work with macosx. I installed the software and it saw the Sil4723 and what was not connected to it (I have no disks on the orange ports). Otherwise the software was not much use to me. When you run the installer, the first page of the installer tells you how to manually uninstall the software in case you want to give it a go. I read a bit of the doco on this Si4723 but all they say about the "320.0 KB Config Disk" that I could find was: "6. Launch the Mac OS X Disk Utility from the Application > Utilities folder to view the hard disk drives. 7. Verify that an unpartitioned SteelVine disk is visible. Another “320.0 KB Config Disk Media” disk represents the SteelVine processor. Do not initialize or partition this SteelVine processor disk. " http://www.siliconimage.com/docs/SV1010_Users_Guide_v1.1.pdf (note that the SV1010 is an external drive case that uses this chip) So not very helpful. I couldn't find any mention from Silicon Image of how to hide this disk though they didn't mention the error message at boot time so that would support the earlier suggestion by Matej to plug our sata drive into the orange port to make the error go away. Maybe something gets written to the "Config disk" once a sata disk is plugged into it and from then on macosx can ignore it? I also found that the Si3124 - PCI/PCI-X to 4 Port SATA300 card can use the same Sil4723 chip so I installed their macosx kext driver (universal) for this card but the driver did not load. I expect this is because the driver expects the card to be connected to a pci bus. A while ago I made a copy of what was on the "Config disk" into a file and it seems to be fairly empty: cat /tmp/p5w-dh-config-disk ??#G? The above was a mostly empty (no data just padding) binary I think. I just tried copying the file again and it seems to be all padding - no data: made the copy using dd: [a:~] fabcat% sudo dd if=/dev/disk1 of=/tmp/p5w-dh-config-disk Password: 640+0 records in 640+0 records out 327680 bytes transferred in 0.563474 secs (581535 bytes/sec) [a:~] fabcat% cat /tmp/p5w-dh-config-disk cat /tmp/p5w-dh-config-disk [a:~] fabcat% ls -l /tmp/p5w-dh-config-disk -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 327680 Nov 3 08:02 /tmp/p5w-dh-config-disk Not sure why it changed. I have not tried to initialize the Config disk and have not yet plugged a drive into an orange port. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fabcat Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 Not sure why it changed. I have not tried to initialize the Config disk and have not yet plugged a drive into an orange port. I did the wrong command. Should have been accessing rdisk1 rather than disk1. [a:~] fabcat% sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk1 of=/tmp/p5w-dh-config-disk Password: 640+0 records in 640+0 records out 327680 bytes transferred in 0.034431 secs (9516944 bytes/sec) [a:~] fabcat% cat /tmp/p5w-dh-config-disk 0 B%????#G???Q[a:~] fabcat% ls -l /tmp/p5w-dh-config-disk -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 327680 Nov 3 08:46 /tmp/p5w-dh-config-disk It is different though. I have booted using the orange sata port and the "Config disk" did vanish as was suggested. I noticed that for my setup, my sata disk no longer had block mode support in bios when using the orange port. Probably doesn't matter though. I did an xbench disk test before and after and there was a slight difference (orange slower in most cases except for 256k uncached write) that might be normal test variation and unrelated to the change. I have gone back to using the normal sata port though as for some reason I trust it more. I don't know why. Test results if you are interested: on orange port: Results 52.88 System Info Xbench Version 1.3 System Version 10.4.6 (8I1119) Physical RAM 2048 MB Model ADP2,1 Drive Type External Disk 0 Disk Test 52.88 Sequential 125.54 Uncached Write 124.31 76.32 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Write 127.72 72.27 MB/sec [256K blocks] Uncached Read 112.86 33.03 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Read 140.28 70.51 MB/sec [256K blocks] Random 33.49 Uncached Write 11.06 1.17 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Write 88.86 28.45 MB/sec [256K blocks] Uncached Read 91.43 0.65 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Read 145.98 27.09 MB/sec [256K blocks] On red port: Results 57.61 System Info Xbench Version 1.3 System Version 10.4.6 (8I1119) Physical RAM 2048 MB Model ADP2,1 Drive Type ST3320620AS Disk Test 57.61 Sequential 142.84 Uncached Write 146.44 89.91 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Write 118.35 66.96 MB/sec [256K blocks] Uncached Read 172.55 50.50 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Read 144.30 72.52 MB/sec [256K blocks] Random 36.08 Uncached Write 12.10 1.28 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Write 94.46 30.24 MB/sec [256K blocks] Uncached Read 91.92 0.65 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Read 148.37 27.53 MB/sec [256K blocks] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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