PC won't boot from IDE HDD when SATA data drive connected

Question

I have an old Pentium 4 system (Abit IS7 series motherboard) running XP. The machine is set up as an HTPC. It was set up and running well for years with 1 SATA drive as a boot drive, another SATA drive to store TV recordings, and an IDE drive to store more recordings.

Last week the original boot drive (a Seagate SATA drive) failed after 8 years of almost continuous uptime. The BIOS would no longer recognize it, and I did not have an OS installed on either of the other two drives, so the machine could not boot. I had a disused Western Digital 80Gb IDE drive hanging around, so I used my Windows install CD to reformat it and install XP on it.

My two IDE hard drives (the "new" Western Digital 80Gb with XP on it and a Western Digital 250Gb with no OS) are now on one channel. I set the jumpers according to the diagrams on the drives, so that the boot drive is master and the data drive is slave.

I have two SATA connectors on the motherboard, so the remaining healthy SATA data drive (a Samsung 500Gb) is plugged into SATA1. (In the BIOS settings it shows up as IDE Channel 3 master.) I have set the boot order in the BIOS so that the IDE drive with XP on it has top priority.

All three drives are recognized by the BIOS, however the system will only boot if I disconnect the healthy Samsung SATA data drive. I am sure the Samsung 500Gb SATA drive is functional, because if I hot plug the drive AFTER the system is booted, I can go into the control panels and mount the drive, and see all the files and folders on it in Windows Explorer.

Any suggestions on what is going on and how to fix it? Many thanks.

Solution

If you can set it in you BIOS and it boots without the SATA drives, probably for IDE / PATA hard drive has No Jumper present (which means it's on Slave Mode) or it's set to a Jumper which is on Master without Slave present / Master with non ATA compatible Slave.

Change the IDE drive jumper to Single or Master. Attaching a screenshot below:

---

Update:

Some links I promised with people having similar problems, but most say they can't boot through the SATA when IDE is connected. Your problem is exactly the opposite.

• Techspot : Can't Boot from SATA Drive when IDE is Connected
• Adding extra IDE storage drive problem
• Trouble with 1 SATA and 2 IDE drives

I simply think the BIOS has some issues, and sadly Abit has stopped making motherboards and has also stopped giving updates. You might need to find a decent workaround!

Comments

[Mixxiphoid]

Are you sure your original boot drive is broken? Maybe it is just the bios which can't handle sata on start up (anymore). Did you try to hot plug the former boot drive to see what it does?

[Kevin]

Yeah, I wondered whether for some reason the on-board SATA capabilities on the motherboard got disabled. However when I started working the problem originally, I left both of my SATA drives plugged in and ONE of them (the data drive) WAS recognized by the BIOS.

[Synetech]

Does the board have an option to let you select the boot device manually? For example, during the POST, can you press something like F8 to access a boot-device list to choose what to boot from? If so, then try manually booting from the IDE drive while the SATA is plugged in. If it works, then it is likely to be an issue with the BIOS boot/drive settings. If it does not, then it may be the IDE drive’s boot configuration data (try using the XP disc to re-install the boot-record while the SATA drive is plugged ing).

[Synetech]

Also try changing the SATA mode (OnChip Serial ATA setting) from Auto⇨Enhanced⇨Combined (page 3-13 in the manual).

[Kevin]

Yes, I tried every mode -- and it did make a difference in which devices were recognized. "Enhanced" mode would recognize all the drives, but still not allow the system to boot from the IDE drive when the SATA drive was connected.

[syntaxerror]

IDE Channel 3 master?? I wouldn't even be sure, as my SATA drives would always show up as SCSI in the BIOS, let alone in boot sequence. And, oh, important as well: with several "SCSI" devices, the mobo will indeed obey a strict top-down order in PCI ports. So yes, if you want to boot off a DVD-ROM sometimes, make sure you have it connected to in a PCI slot above the expansion card. Because then, with no DVD inserted, it will boot into SATA HDD, as desired.

[ganesh]

Just a brief note: These jumper settings can differ per manufacturer.

[Kevin]

Thanks for this. I was under the impression that with SATA you did not have to set jumpers? Maybe some additional detail on my setup would be useful. My two (working) IDE hard drives are both one on channel. When I added the new boot drive to that channel, I did set the jumpers according to the diagrams on the drives, so that the boot drive is master and the other slave. My second IDE channel has only the DVD drive on it. I have two SATA connectors on the motherboard, so the SATA drive is plugged directly into that.

[ganesh]

With SATA you do not have to set additional drivers. (1 device per channel solves that). With P-ATA/IDE you do have to set single/master/slave. If these are set incorrect then weird things happen. Especially when windows 'helpfully corrects' the issue and the BIOS does not, or vice versa. --- @aliasgar: I thought it best to state that explicitly.

[aliasgar]

@Kevin : I can give you more details if you tell me the make of your motherboard and hard drives. And you can plug them in 1 by 1 so you can test if are achieving the boot sequence you want!

[Kevin]

@aliasgar: The motherboard is an ABIT IS7 series. The drives are as follows: IDE boot drive is a Western Digital 80Gb. The IDE data drive is a Western Digital 250Gb. The SATA data drive is a Samsung 500Gb.

[aliasgar]

To boot from the 80GB WDC : Set your Western Digital 80GB to Master, Western Digital 250GB to Slave , and plug in your Samsung 500GB to you SATA port, set your boot priority in the BIOS, and it should work! Plug them one at a time, and boot the PC, and check the boot sequence. So you will know where or what is changing the Boot Priority, and would know what exactly the problem is and what needs to be fixed!

[Kevin]

@aliasgar: I've confirmed that the 80Gb drive is master and the 250Gb drive is slave. I've also checked the boot sequence in the BIOS. Everything works great until I plug in the SATA drive, then the machine refuses to boot. It does not generate any error messages.

[aliasgar]

@Kevin most people who are using an Abit IS7 are complaining about boot issues. So it seems, your motherboard does not like 3 IDE devices. Is your CD-ROM / DVD-ROM on IDE? If so, disconnect your ROM, connect your SATA and check if it boots and let me know!

[Kevin]

@aliasgar: Thanks for the suggestion! Unplugging the DVD-ROM from IDE channel 2 allowed the system to boot with the SATA drive plugged in. However the system is no longer recognizing the SATA drive, not even in the BIOS -- and regardless of which SATA channel I plug it into. I wonder if I really messed something up when I hot-plugged it during diagnosis?

[aliasgar]

@Kevin hot plugging can damage stuff, at least it is believed that it does. Most of ur Abit boards have a IDE or SATA drive recognition and boot order problem, I will update my post with the links of people who have had the same problem!

[aliasgar]

@Kevin : Added the update with the links. See if it helps! And i hope my answer helped!

[Kevin]

@aliasgar (and all): I determined that my BIOS version was nearly the last one released. According to the release notes, an update could not be expected to fix my problem. On a lark (and out of frustration) I decided to connect FOUR drives to the system (two IDE and two SATA), with XP installed only on one of the IDE drives. For reasons I don't understand, the system booted fine, and all drives are now accessible. I'd love to know why, but am relieved that my system now works.

[ThiagoAlves]

But in any case, all hard disks come with a sticker with information on the jumper details for master, slave and cable select.