Problem with 2 SATA drives...

1933 Views 8 Replies 2 Participants Last post by jim_malone_1234, Jan 31, 2007

jim_malone_1234

Discussion Starter · Jan 30, 2007

I have 2 SATA drives. A 500GB (WD on SATA channel 0) and a 100GB (Maxtor on SATA channel 1). The 500GB is my main drive (C

. For some reason, whenever I plug in the 100GB drive and start up my computer it ALWAYS tries to boot from that one (100GB) first and I get a message "The BIOS does not be installed".

My BIOS does not have the option of selecting an SATA drive in the boot order. My boot order is currently 1. SCSI 2. CD-ROM 3. C:. I tried putting C: first in the boot order, but when I did that the computer would give me the same error "The BIOS does not be installed".

I have the Aopen AK86-L motherboard if that helps. What would ya'll recommend?

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robert diggs

· #2 · Jan 30, 2007

Hey,

That sounds impossible... your BIOS should give you the option to boot your SATA drive(s) first. Unless you have it hooked up through a PCI adapter. If that is the case, it should give you an alternate device. i.e. a PCI device. Otherwise, it should give you an option to boot up HDD0 or HDD1. That's how my BIOS reads.

Alternately, check your jumper pins, the actual name of them escapes me at the moment, and see if the 100GB is at master and your 500GB is at slave. If so, reverse them. See what that does for you.

Regards,

Brandon

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jim_malone_1234

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jan 30, 2007

I wish it gave me that option, because that would make things really easy. But it doesn't. And I don't know about most SATA drives, but mine don't have any sort of jumper settings to set them to master/slave.

I just flashed my bios to the lastest version too to see if that would update the boot order and give me the option of adding SATA drives to the boot order. No luck. It still boots from my 500 gb drive first, but I don't know why.

The SATA drives are not attached to any sort of PCI device either. They plug straight into the motherboard.

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robert diggs

· #4 · Jan 30, 2007

See if you can find anything on your SATA drive in your BIOS. See if you can get your BIOS to manually recognize the drives and see where it places them in order. If your 100GB comes first, then flip flop the connections.

Question, did you all of a sudden just get to SATA drives and plug them into your computer? What was your configuration before this?

I doubt this is the problem with your MOBO, but it needs to support SATA speed autonegotiation, this is what is supposed to do all the work for your. If it does not, which I can't find whether it does or not, you will need to set jumpers on your hard drives so your BIOS can determine which one it needs to boot from first. If you dont' know where the jumpers need to go, there should be a guide on the drive itself or you need to refer to your documentation on the drive.

Regards,

Brandon

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jim_malone_1234

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jan 30, 2007

See if you can find anything on your SATA drive in your BIOS.
My Bios does not mention the word "SATA" anywhere that I can see in any of the "settings" pages.

See if you can get your BIOS to manually recognize the drives and see where it places them in order. If your 100GB comes first, then flip flop the connections.
I have tried that. Its weird no matter which channel the 100GB drive is plugged into (Channel 0 or channel 1) it always wants to boot from that drive even though there is no OS on it anywhere.

Question, did you all of a sudden just get to SATA drives and plug them into your computer? What was your configuration before this?
Basically, I had a 100GB SATA drive for years, decided I needed something way bigger, got a 500GB drive which works great, but I want to still use the 100GB as a secondary drive. Right now thought it won't let me connect both drives at the same time because it insists on booting from the 100GB drive and not the 500GB which has the OS.

If you dont' know where the jumpers need to go, there should be a guide on the drive itself or you need to refer to your documentation on the drive.
I have read all the jumper guides for both SATA drives that I own and neither of them has any sort of jumper setting to say which drive will boot first. Basically the only thing I can do with my jumpers is speed my 500GB drive down from SATA 3.0 to SATA 1.5 (which I have done)

Thanks again

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robert diggs

· #6 · Jan 30, 2007

Try clearing your CMOS settings. Unplug your CMOS battery and unplug the PSU. Let it sit for five minutes and put everything back in. See if you can then boot from the 500GB drive.

Regards,

Brandon

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jim_malone_1234

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jan 30, 2007

I didn't want to mention this before for fear of making things...confusing.

I have gotten both drives working at the same time. Twice now. They have been fine for several days as I have reset my computer, turned it on and off, did all my work etc. Then all of a sudden without warning, my computer will lock up. When I reset it it will not boot because it says "The BIOS does not be installed".

So basically what it is doing is trying to switch to the 100GB drive in the middle of the afternoon without any reason.

Go figure. I'll try the CMOS battery idea though. Maybe I need a new battery? I don't know much about what that would do, but I am willing to try anything twice.

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robert diggs

· #8 · Jan 30, 2007 (Edited)

Hey,

I've personally never heard of or seen the error "The BIOS not be installed." However, trying a new CR2032 (CMOS) battery certainly couldn't hurt. *edit* The CMOS battery holds all the settings for CMOS, holds the time on your computer BIOS settings and all of that fun stuff. How long have you had it? They usually last a few years and then crap out.

Regards,

Brandon

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jim_malone_1234

Discussion Starter · #9 · Jan 31, 2007

I've probably had it since 2001 or 2002.

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