Just searching, so bear with me and don't be offended with the simple questions.
What is the boot order in your bios setup menu?
What is your boot priority in there also?
Let's talk about the
boot drive:
>It is an IDE drive (or at least I thought that was what you said)
>Where is it on the ribbon cable? (middle or end connector)
>What else is on that ribbon cable? (what kind of drive if any)(If none, I need to know that)
>How are the jumpers set on the other drive on there?
>What jumpers do you have on that drive or how is it set?
>Have you tried Data Lifeguard on this drive to make sure it is a viable known good drive?