XP unable to boot without ‘slave’ drive

[slaging]

I just can’t figure this one out.

History: Starting January, my ‘slave’ drive (WD 40GB) has begun to die. I’ve decided not to have a second HDD, and switch work to a external drive.

Problem: Without ‘slave drive’ installed, BIOS is unable to boot Windows XP. (OS is on master disc, and slave disc is empty and formatted.)

Have tried: (1) Uninstalling disc in Windows before removal. (2) Updating BIOS. (3) Installing deferent disc as slave. (4) Setting BIOS’ “Primary/slave’ from auto to none.

I think the main board fell in love with a half-crippled hard disc, and doesn’t want to see the old pup go.

Has any seen something like this before?

 

[micker377]

Check the jumpers on the "master" hard drive. You may find settings for "master - single drive" and "master - with slave". If you want to remove the slave (or run external drive), you may need "master - single drive".

 

[wolluf]

What actually happens when you try to boot without slave? (ie, what messages are displayed).
And slave is definitely completely empty?

If you look in disk management (run diskmgmt.msc) - what does XP say about status of slave drive?

 

[slaging]

Thanks micker377, I forgot all about jumbers.

wolluf: After BIOS went through all three boot prioritize, a message asked for boot disk.
I did run disk management and formatted.

Thanks wolluf, and Thank you micher377.