[Not Booting Dashboard W/New Hdd + Slower Speed]

Good suggestions, I will try.

In case anyone else is reading this in the future, I'm using the StarTech 18" 80 wire IDE cable and have a Hitachi - LG DVD drive. I do already have the adapter set to Master, and Cable Select has the same issue fwiw.

[Not Booting Dashboard W/New Hdd + Slower Speed]

Everything you suggested might be true. Nonetheless it still seems odd that the StarTech SATA adapter boots to a black screen, but opening the DVD drive afterwords causes it to boot normally.

[Not Booting Dashboard W/New Hdd + Slower Speed]

I didn't really expect it to make a difference, but I tried a second StarTech adapter (to rule out a defect in my original one) and I see the same issue. I'm also going to try a variety of other cheaper adapters. Tried one so far and it's just about as slow as the Kingwin adapter.

Would I maybe have better luck with an IDE hard drive? Do they even make them anymore?

[Not Booting Dashboard W/New Hdd + Slower Speed]

I'm using a new 120GB SSD, this StarTech IDE2SATA2 adapter, this Kingwin knockoff adapter and this 80-pin cable. The stock 40-pin cable gives me error 13 with both adapters (which is expected).

[Not Booting Dashboard W/New Hdd + Slower Speed]

Thanks for the reply.

I clocked both adapters, here are my results:

Kingwin
23 seconds from the end of the flubber animation to when the Microsoft logo appears (with or without a disk in the drive)
8 seconds from the microsoft logo to fully booted into UnleashX

StarTech
1 second from the end of the flubber animation to when the Microsoft logo appears (with or without a disk. also, it doesn't hang if there's a disk)
12 seconds from pressing Eject twice to fully booted into UnleashX

This is with nothing additional except the softmod installed on the drive, by the way.

 

I chose a SSD because it's quieter and has a longer life ahead of it than an IDE HDD, and many people seem to swear by the StarTech adapters. I wonder if there's something wrong with my setup, my config, or if there's a bug in the software somewhere.

[Not Booting Dashboard W/New Hdd + Slower Speed]

Sorry to dredge up an old thread, but I'm having a similar issue to OP with similar hardware.

I have the StarTech adapter, as well as a Kingwin I found on Amazon. StarTech only works after an eject cycle, but the Kingwin works normally. It's exceptionally slow to boot though, so I'd rather find a way to get the StarTech working if I can!

I have a Hitachi/LG DVD drive, not Samsung.