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SATA boot issues....again

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dmwc

n00b
Joined
Feb 6, 2007
Messages
18
Hola all,

I posted on here a couple months ago regarding a problem getting Windows XP to install to a SATA hard drive. Well, I fixed that problem by disconnecting ALL IDE devices from the motherboard, leaving only the SATA drive connected. Seems that XP tried to install itself first to my secondary IDE hard drive, then to my Zip drive (!) if they were left connected, regardless of what drive I told it to install to.

Anyway, it has been working fine now since March and today it started acting up again. The computer would not boot from the SATA drive when I turned it on today. I disconnected my other IDE devices (one hard drive, two DVD drives, and one Zip drive) and it booted just fine. But re-connecting any of the other IDE drives returns it to an unbootable state. I can't do without the other drives, so what's the deal here? Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? The SATA drive is set as the first boot device in the BIOS and always has been, so that's not the problem. I tried using fixboot and fixmbr in the recovery console too. No go there. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Doug
 
hmm, just a thought but have you tried connecting your IDE harddrives to the secondary IDE channel instead of the primary channel ?

I doubt this will do anything, but hey it cant hurt can it ?

also what mobo do you have ?
 
I had a similar problem a few months ago myself, but my solution was identical to yours... Unplug the other drives, and then it would install fine.

At this point you already tried my only suggestion.

This is a shot in the dark, but have you tried resetting the CMOS? Try that, and then set the boot drive in the BIOS again and see if that works.
 
Just found out also that Windows will boot with JUST the DVD drives connected. Apparently, if the other hard drive and zip drive are connected the system tries to boot from them instead of the SATA drive for some weird reason. It's very odd since it was doing just fine yesterday....

I will try connecting the other hard drive to the secondary IDE instead and see if that works. If not, I'll try resetting the CMOS. Thanks for the suggestions. I'll let you know if they work.

EDIT: And unfortunately, they didn't. This is the strangest, stupidest thing. Yesterday it would boot into Windows with no problem off the SATA drive. Today, all of a sudden, it decides it wants to ignore the SATA drive and boot from the IDE drive instead. I did another little test as well and tried going into the recovery console with only the SATA drive and the DVD drives connected. Oddly enough, it seems that when I tried fixboot and fixmbr earlier, it was actually working with the IDE hard drive that was connected at the time. Even though that drive was formatted and should have nothing on it, the recovery console supposedly found a Windows directory there. I just do not get it....

Any other ideas?

And my motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-M55SLI-S4 (rev 2.0).
 
Well, your issue may be caused by the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" setting shown in your MB's manual. Your "First Boot Device" is probably [Hard Disk], but what is the first entry in the "Hard Disk Boot Priority"? I would also be curious to see, before you change anything, if you put a bootable CD/DVD in the CD/DVD drive, then ignore the prompt that tells you to press a button to boot from CD, if it then boots from your SATA drive after the CD boot does not happen.

I had a similar situation when I installed Vista. It was a combination of the behavior of my BIOS and the fact that Windows didn't install where I thought it installed. I eventually found that, in the "Computer Management" section "Disk Management", my C: drive (SATA) was the Vista "Boot" drive, but my D: drive (EIDE) was the Vista "System" drive. The BIOS "Bootable" drive is the same as the Vista "System" drive.

My issue was essentially the reverse of your issue. My SATA was not bootable, my EIDE was, my SATA drive was my top entry in the HDD Boot Priority, but it was not actually bootable. The EIDE drive was bootable, but was the second entry under the "HDD Boot Priority" setting. I am hoping that your EIDE drive(s) are not bootable, your SATA is, but an EIDE drive is ahead of the SATA on the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" list in your BIOS.

So, in short, your symptoms make sense to me if:

  • Putting in a bootable CD/DVD and not electing to boot from it lets your OS load from your SATA HDD
  • An EIDE device has gone to the top of your "Hard Disk Boot Priority", so your SATA is only first when the EIDE drives are not installed
  • Your BIOS has the same bug or "feature" that mine does, which only allows booting off the first item in the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" setting unless a bootable CD/DVD is present and ignored

I sure do hope this is along the lines of what you are experiencing, since otherwise it is just crazy in my experience. I hope you can get it working right again.
 
I had a similar problem also, except it was reverse, i was trying to install on IDE and it wouldnt work right with the sata drive connected. I also experience that it would boot fine with a bootable cd in the drive, but not if i took it out. strange indeed.

I just unhooked the sata, and installed on my ide, then plugged the sata back in and its been fine ever since, about 6-8 months, i forget.
 
SultanGris said:
I had a similar problem also, except it was reverse, i was trying to install on IDE and it wouldnt work right with the sata drive connected. I also experience that it would boot fine with a bootable cd in the drive, but not if i took it out. strange indeed.

I just unhooked the sata, and installed on my ide, then plugged the sata back in and its been fine ever since, about 6-8 months, i forget.
Click to expand...

After you installed with both drives connected, did you try booting with the SATA drive removed? I would be curious about what happened if you did.
 
The SATA drive is definitely set as the first drive in the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" menu. The IDE drive is second. And if I ignore the prompt to boot from CD with the Windows XP installation CD in the drive, it just boots from the CD anyway. So I guess this is just random craziness. I'm not even entirely sure how I got it to work right the first time back in March. XP installed to the SATA drive easily enough when everything else was disconnected, but the first two times I tried to run it with the other drives connected, it still wouldn't. The third time it just miraculously worked and has worked ever since until today.

And the XP recovery console is behaving strangely too. If I load it with only the SATA drive connected, it shows a Windows installation on drive C:, which is correct. And it shows that drive C: is configured to boot into XP. If I load the console with both hard drives connected, it shows me that there is a Windows installation on drive D:, the IDE drive, and that drive D: is NOT configured to boot into anything. And there most definitely is NOT a windows installation on drive D:, whether it says there is or not. If I load the console with only the IDE drive connected and the SATA drive disconnected, it shows NO Windows installation present, and that the drive is not configured as bootable. I am so confused...

It's just refusing to boot from the SATA drive as long as any IDE device considered a hard drive by the BIOS is connected. And it considers the Zip drive a hard drive as well as the actual hard drive, because the Zip drive is listed as the third device in the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" menu. It's very odd behavior. I think my BIOS has become a stubborn child who refuses to follow instructions :mad:
 
dmwc said:
It's just refusing to boot from the SATA drive as long as any IDE device considered a hard drive by the BIOS is connected. And it considers the Zip drive a hard drive as well as the actual hard drive, because the Zip drive is listed as the third device in the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" menu. It's very odd behavior. I think my BIOS has become a stubborn child who refuses to follow instructions :mad:
Click to expand...

Hmm...

One last thing I think you might want to try. Try reversing the order of all the HDD entries in the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" menu. If the SATA is on top, make it the bottom one, if on the bottom, make it the top one.

On the OS, I am curious if you have examined the IDE drive that shows as a windows installation with "Hide protected OS files" unchecked. It is possible that drive ended up with the *.sys files like IO, MSDOS, CONFIG and the like put on there, but not anything really usable. Maybe it shows up vs does not show up because different files are used to check for the presence of a Windows installation under different circumstances.

I will say you have a rather esoteric issue going on, that is for sure. If the reversing the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" order does not help, it certainly seems like your BIOS does what it feels like with out regard to what you tell it to do. The disappearing/reappearing "Windows install" on that IDE HDD is odd, too.

Good luck with it. I hope you get it working somehow. :(
 
That did it! Reversing the order in the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" menu did the trick. It's still very odd that it worked fine for 2 months the other way around and all of a sudden stopped, but it's working right now at least.

Big time thanks for that idea. I never would've thought of doing that in a million years.
 
Betrayer00GT said:
After you installed with both drives connected, did you try booting with the SATA drive removed? I would be curious about what happened if you did.
Click to expand...

Yup, i can boot with it, or without it connected, and it has never yet given me a problem. only problem was when trying to install on IDE with sata connected.
 
dmwc said:
That did it! Reversing the order in the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" menu did the trick. It's still very odd that it worked fine for 2 months the other way around and all of a sudden stopped, but it's working right now at least.

Big time thanks for that idea. I never would've thought of doing that in a million years.
Click to expand...

I'm glad you got it working. :D
 
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