Tech Support Forum - View Single Post - Hard drive works as back up but not as master

Requimatic · 08-19-2008, 01:35 AM

I'm pretty much repeating everything Tumbleweed has said thus far.

As he said, your C: drive usually has the OS on it, so whichever drive has your OS on it (or the OS you want to boot to), make sure it's on the end of the IDE cable, and the other drive on the "middle" connector. Set the jumpers on both drives to cable select.

Before booting your machine, make sure all connections (IDE [both to the drive and your motherboard], power) are secure.

Now, boot your machine and go into the BIOS. Look for the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" (or similar) setting, which should list all installed hard drives there. Make sure the drive you want to boot to is on the top of that list. If it isn't, follow the instructions and place it at the top of the list, then save and exit BIOS, and let the system reboot.

I don't know that this will work for you, but if you haven't tried this already, do so. If it gives you a blue screen with a STOP error, write down the code and look it up on Microsoft's website.

Worst case scenario is that the drive your trying to boot from has had its boot sector damaged, and without specific software, will no longer be able to boot an OS, but should still work for secondary storage.

08-19-2008, 01:35 AM	#8 (permalink)
Requimatic Registered User Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 97 OS: 98 SE/2000/XP SP3 My System	Re: Hard drive works as back up but not as master I'm pretty much repeating everything Tumbleweed has said thus far. As he said, your C: drive usually has the OS on it, so whichever drive has your OS on it (or the OS you want to boot to), make sure it's on the end of the IDE cable, and the other drive on the "middle" connector. Set the jumpers on both drives to cable select. Before booting your machine, make sure all connections (IDE [both to the drive and your motherboard], power) are secure. Now, boot your machine and go into the BIOS. Look for the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" (or similar) setting, which should list all installed hard drives there. Make sure the drive you want to boot to is on the top of that list. If it isn't, follow the instructions and place it at the top of the list, then save and exit BIOS, and let the system reboot. I don't know that this will work for you, but if you haven't tried this already, do so. If it gives you a blue screen with a STOP error, write down the code and look it up on Microsoft's website. Worst case scenario is that the drive your trying to boot from has had its boot sector damaged, and without specific software, will no longer be able to boot an OS, but should still work for secondary storage.