SATA HD & IDE HD - Can't seem to boot the IDE HD.. 4

[basepointdesignz]

Hi,

I Have 250GB SATA Harddrive and a 120GB IDE Harddrive and from the BIOS it shows as:

IDE Channel 0 Master: The 120GB IDE HD..
IDE Channel 0 Slave: Nothing..
IDE Cahnnel 1 Master: DVD Writer..
IDE Channel 1 Slave: CD-Drive..
IDE Channel 2 Master: 250GB SATA HD..
IDE Channel 2 Slave: Nothing..

Both HD's set to CableSelect..

....so the BIOS detects the 2 drives but in the boot order settings the only options are things like Hard Disk, CD-ROM, LS120 and other generic hardware, nothing specific, so how do i boot the IDE harddrive? and what the hell is a LS120? lol

Would it be as simple as disconnecting the SATA drive for a while and seeing what that does, whether it boots the other one (IDE) as default?

And also, if i manage to boot the IDE drive, i want to set up a boot loader - i know how to edit the boot.ini file for multiple drives, but i've only ever done it where the harddrives are on the same IDE channel, never done it for SATA, so could someone please explain the process please..

Cheers,

Paul @ basepointdesignzltd..

 

[cjcoyle]

ummm, yeah ..... what he said .....

 

[basepointdesignz]

Right well, managed to get my IDE drive to work now, so many thanks to everyone, especially cjcoyle, linney and firewolfrl (thanks for the time to reply guys) and excuse my ignorance, i should have tried that from the start but for some reason i presumed the upgrade cd wouldn't work, because its an upgrade cd not the full version *boy feels real dumb now*

Anyway, i have a new mission now. I want to edit the boot.ini file so i have the option of which drive to boot, i've done it before but can't remember how exactly it works especially now i have a SATA drive. I don't mind using a boot loader, say the one that firewolfrl suggested but i'd rather do it raw and simply edit the boot.ini file than have an extra program on my machine to deal with..

Could someone please help......again, lol..

Cheers,

Paul @ basepointdesignzltd..

 

[firewolfrl]

I recommend a boot manager that you can hide partitions with instead of Microsoft's Boot.ini
you get all sorts of issues when you use it.
Example the IDE is drive C:\ and the SATA is drive E:\

you have loaded windows in drive C:\ SATA then removed all the harddrives except IDE and loaded windows again in drive C:\ IDE
reinstalled SATA drive and made IDE primary BOOT with the BOOT.INI

then you boot to SATA drive E:\ (it is now drive E:\ with the IDE installed)

now here is the issue. in the registry it refers to C:\ as the system boot
so when windows boots up its going to refer to the system files on the IDE drive C:\ and the profiles made on drive C:\ IDE and not the SATA E:\

there are work around such as installing windows on a different drive letter such as leaving the IDE in and installing windows on drive E:\ SATA this can cause an issue if per say you install in the system another DVD drive and it changes the drive order in the BIOS that changes the drive letter assignment

a second work around is to remote registry the SATA E:\ and change the Mount drive to E:\ and change the reference to E:\


that is why I recommend a third party boot manager
they can hide the other drive
XOSL and some other boot managers have the capability to swap and make the secondary drives think they are primary C:\

and you avoid this particular issue you go to boot and the wrong drive letter reference is seen and you wait and wait because windows is trying to load a drive c:\ reference and the drive is assigned drive e:\ so windows never boots beyond "waiting to load profile" screen


wish you luck

 

[jlockley]

Wow. Thanks. Boggles the mind. I was thinking of using the 2 extra 80 gb drives for backup, but this is an interesting alternative.

I haven't got time to try this for a couple of weeks, so I will bookmark it, but have you thought of putting this information together in a fac?

 

[basepointdesignz]

Hi everyone,

Is there a good boot manager that i can install without having to format a drive or partition one. I just want to be able to have an option at boot up for the SATA drive or the IDE one....that XOSL boot manager firewolfrl suggested looks like it would be too complicated for me..

I just want:
Crive (SATA) (Company Files) - I want this to be the default boot (if a timeout is on)
Drive (IDE) (Studio Files)

Anyone know the EASIST way to do this, lol?

Cheers,

Paul @ basepointdesignzltd..

 

[linney]

See what else is on offer here, whether you find any of them easy is subject to interpretation.

http://www.google.com/search?q=free+boot+managers+windows&rls=com.microsoft

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=free boot managers+windows&rls=com.microsoft

Have a look at Smart Boot Manager among those links, I have used it in the past but the documentation is a bit lacking, however it is a very small program that can be installed on the hard drive or run from floppy.

How to Use System Files to Create a Boot Disk to Guard Against Being Unable to Start Windows XP (Q314079)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q314/0/79.asp

Q305595 - HOW TO: Create a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q305/5/95.asp