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| Thread ID: 68092 | 2006-04-17 02:01:00 | SATA drive and IDE drive with XP boot problems | stevesumner (4849) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 446847 | 2006-04-17 02:01:00 | I have recently had to reinstall XP and decided to move it to my old IDE drive as my SATA drive is a bit rackety (Seagate Barracuda 7200 200GB). My Bios gives me no options to select the IDE as first boot disk so always tries to boot the SATA drive first. So now I have to manually go into the bios (F12) and select the IDE drive to boot from. How can I get the IDE drive booting all by itself? I have tried fixmbr and fixboot before but last time I used these the whole installation got screwed up and I had to reinstall again. I have used Acronis OS Selector in the past but worry that this may have been the thing that screwed up the fix using fixmbr, I can't tell now. Also, if using fixmbr is the key, how do I use it with anything other than the recovery console from the cd as this takes at least 5 mins to boot up each time. |
stevesumner (4849) | ||
| 446848 | 2006-04-17 02:08:00 | I just found this in another forum (www.neoseeker.com) "If you are running other ide hard drivers you will want to disable them in the bois first so that windows won't recognise them during set up because by default windwos set up will want to write the mbr to ide 0 masters" (with a few spelling corrections...) Might try turning off the IDE in the bios and then use fixmbr... |
stevesumner (4849) | ||
| 446849 | 2006-04-17 03:32:00 | Nup, that didn't work, any suggestions? | stevesumner (4849) | ||
| 446850 | 2006-04-17 04:16:00 | Are both the SATA and IDE onboard?? The option for you to boot from IDE should definitely be in the BIOS. So at the mo, XP is on the IDE and the SATA?? The only prob is booting from the IDE?? |
Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
| 446851 | 2006-04-17 05:34:00 | At the moment XP is on the IDE and there is only data on the SATA. MY Bios options are to change the drive sequence to floppy, CD, or hard drive. The SATA always comes up as the master. If I turn the SATA drive off in the bios the machine boots fine, but obviously I would like to have access to the SATA drive so I keep it turned on. My machine is a Dell Dimension 4600 Bios revision A12 which is the latest as far as I can find at the Dell website. |
stevesumner (4849) | ||
| 446852 | 2006-04-17 06:04:00 | It sounds like power or the ide cable isn't connected to the IDE hdd? Are you sure the power to the IDE hdd is connected. Is this the manual for your system? (support.dell.com) If it is, did u do this? Changing Boot Sequence for the Current Boot You can use this feature, for example, to restart your computer to a USB device such as a floppy drive, memory key, or CD-RW drive. 1 Turn on (or restart) your computer. 2 When F2 = Setup, F12 = Boot Menu appears in the upper-right corner of the screen, press <F12>. If you wait too long and the operating system logo appears, continue to wait until you see the Microsoft Windows desktop. Then shut down your computer (see page 18)and try again. The Boot Device Menu appears, listing all available boot devices. Each device has a number next to it. 3 At the bottom of the menu, enter the number of the device that is to be used for the current boot only. Changing Boot Sequence for Future Boots 1 Enter system setup (see page 82). 2 Use the arrow keys to highlight the Boot Sequence menu option and press <Enter> to access the pop-up menu. NOTE: Write down your current boot sequence in case you want to restore it. 3 Press the up- and down-arrow keys to move through the list of devices. 4 Press the spacebar to enable or disable a device (enabled devices have a checkmark). 5 Press plus (+) or minus (–) to move a selected device up or down the list. |
Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
| 446853 | 2006-04-17 07:44:00 | Appreciate your help but perhaps you misunderstood me (or I misunderstood you...) At the moment to boot to XP I am doing as you describe, hit F12, choose IDE drive etc, that is what I was trying to say in my first post about manually selecting the drive from the bios. When I enter setup (bios, whatever), I can change the boot sequence and press space to enable/disable drives as you say, but there are only three devices, floppy, cd-rom and hard drive c:. I can't select only the IDE drive to boot I assume the power must be connected to both drives as I can boot the IDE drive and access data on the SATA drive. The only way I can see to fix this is to clone the OS back to the SATA drive. |
stevesumner (4849) | ||
| 446854 | 2006-04-17 13:11:00 | Can the machine boot OK with the Sata drive disconnected? does the BIOS then see only the eide drive? Been a while since I've had to work on a Dell but it seems strange that, as you say, it gives no options in the BIOS to save the boot order as eide drive first | kwaka (10149) | ||
| 446855 | 2006-04-18 00:34:00 | Yes, if I disconnect the SATA drive then windows boots no problems, reconnect and try to boot and I get a little flashing cursor and nothing happens, ctrl + alt + del and then hit F12 and choose IDE drive from list to boot into Windows again. I would rather not have to manually choose the IDE drive each time I boot. Should I take some pics of the bios options and paste them here? |
stevesumner (4849) | ||
| 446856 | 2006-04-18 00:46:00 | Should I take some pics of the bios options and paste them here? Yup, if u can. There's most probably an option in the BIOS (if u have XP), called Enhanced mode (P-ATA & S-ATA). If this option is in the BIOS, select it. And make sure RAID isnt enabled, if there's a RAID option in the BIOS. What's the SATA on in the BIOS? 3rd or 4th Master (If ths option is in the BIOS). |
Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
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