maybe you can find something here: HD SATA & IDE.., could they work?

Thanks for the link Tycus, but not really what I need.

I can just copy the files from the IDE drive and format it, but thats not really what I want to do. Why, because Im an idiot. I wish I had know there was a Windows partition on the drive to start with.

I may well just end up doing this in the end anyhow though. Unfortunately, this is not what my client wants, why? I dunno.

During boot go into the BIOS setup and open the 'Boot' tab. Under 'Boot Device Priority' make sure that the sata drive is still listed as the first boot device. If it isn't, make it so and save the changes to the BIOS and then reboot.

What UBob said.

I am getting to know BIOS much better than I ought to lately. BIOS is your friend.

I know the BIOS very well guys. And as you know, that if you have 2 boot drives, one SATA and one on the IDE channel, the PC is always going to boot from the IDE drive no matter what the First Boot Device is (assuming you choose a HD as the 1st BD).

Anyways, this is the first thing I tried, knowing it would not help my issue.

Remove the MBR from the IDE drive, it should then boot only from the SATA.

Dunno if this'd help you or not....try copying the required contents of the IDE drive to a non-boot partition first, then reformat/wipe the IDE clean. Windows on the Sata drive must then take first boot priority....and you retain the IDE's data. Okay, it might be a bit more long winded than other the other suggestions, but it worked for me when I couldn't get XP Pro on a SATA drive to bootup after adding an IDE with XP Home on it.

Tried changing the jumper on the IDE drive to slave? Then do as Fuzzy says:

Remove the MBR from the IDE drive, it should then boot only from the SATA.

Remove the MBR from the IDE drive, it should then boot only from the SATA.

And that it did...thanks FL

Tried changing the jumper on the IDE drive to slave?

Can't really do this, as it shares the IDE channel with an optical drive. Thanks for the tip though.

I know the BIOS very well guys. And as you know, that if you have 2 boot drives, one SATA and one on the IDE channel, the PC is always going to boot from the IDE drive no matter what the First Boot Device is (assuming you choose a HD as the 1st BD).

Even if you reset the jumpers on the HD?

I'm very interested in the resolution on this one, xythe, as I'm planning on a new build within about 6 months and may need to slave in an old HD. Your work now could save me time and energy later. I'd think resetting the jumpers on the IDE HD might stop the computer from booting to that HD first, but that's just an educated guess. You have to consider the source, though...while I'm ready to take my A+ exam, I haven't passed it yet, and so am very much a noobie on this one.

Can't really do this, as it shares the IDE channel with an optical drive. Thanks for the tip though.

oops, sorry...didn't see that one...only one IDE controller on the motherboard?

I see you found the solution. I may have to mark this thread for reference.

Just out of curiousity, though...the jumpers should work if there's no device conflict like the one you described, right?

know the BIOS very well guys. And as you know, that if you have 2 boot drives, one SATA and one on the IDE channel, the PC is always going to boot from the IDE drive no matter what the First Boot Device is (assuming you choose a HD as the 1st BD). Anyways, this is the first thing I tried, knowing it would not help my issue.

Very strange! On my ASUS boards I can list the drive priority as well as the boot priority. (In other words, I can list all of my HD's in boot order by name, then set the boot device priority to boot from the HD, as opposed to say a cd-rom or floppy.) Then it doesn't matter what is on which drive, I can (and do) have different OS's on each drive. It will always boot from the first drive in the list, whether it's IDE, SATA, IDE RAID, SATA RAID, even USB.

Anyways, glad you found a resolution to your problem.

Even if you reset the jumpers on the HD?

Thats a pretty good question Gid, and one I really could not answer for sure, unless I had given it a shot.

If I had to hazard a guess, I'd have to say no. I know it doesn't seem to make anymore sense than the darn think booting from the IDE channel when the BIOS tells it to start from the SATA. This honestly perplexes me, especially as these days nearly everybody uses SATA hard disks. In fact, when I build now a days, I use SATA optical drives as well.

In any event, I have to look at it like this:

I did not delete the entire MBR, but rather edited the boot.ini. The MBR contains the partition table for the drive as well, and I would not be in to good a shape should the entire MBR disappear. This was my logic in any event.

Here is a pretty nice reference to the MBR done by somebody with far more understanding of it than I

Link

oops, sorry...didn't see that one...only one IDE controller on the motherboard?

No, it has 2 channels. But I was not willing to purchase another IDE cable for the huge sum of $15 or so.

Like I had mentioned earlier, I wish I had known that this drive had a Windows OS on it. It was a PITA just to install install it into one of those darned mid-sized cases already packed with devices.

Just out of curiousity, though...the jumpers should work if there's no device conflict like the one you described, right?

To this I'm going to hazard a "no". If you notice, even should you have 2 CD drives on the same IDE channel, one set to slave and the other master, many a BIOS still offer the option to set the boot order of CD drives on the same channel.

For example, If the 1st boot device is set to CD, and you have 2 CD drives on the same channel, those drives are listed separately and a "second" option exists to choose which of the 2 is to be looked at first.

Very strange! On my ASUS boards I can list the drive priority as well as the boot priority. (In other words, I can list all of my HD's in boot order by name, then set the boot device priority to boot from the HD, as opposed to say a cd-rom or floppy.) Then it doesn't matter what is on which drive, I can (and do) have different OS's on each drive. It will always boot from the first drive in the list, whether it's IDE, SATA, IDE RAID, SATA RAID, even USB.

I hear you uBob, and it works just as it's "supposed" to on newer motherboards as far as I can see. But I have found this often not the case on older technology. It just does not make sense to me.

This particular PC houses Socket A technology, and SATA was in its infancy at that time. Im guessing that modern BIOS's address SATA differently than those older.

In any event, the suggestion to look into the MBR seemed in this particular case, the easiest way to deal with this issue, considering the drive was already inplace. Me being the lazy bastard that I am, always seek the simplest route first

I would definately appreciate knowing why the heck the thing boots from the IDE channel if the 1st boot device is set to SATA.