adding HD from old system causes system to not boot

polio · TweakNOOB Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 35

i sold an old system i had, so to keep my files i moved them to one of the drives on the system and removed it, then sold the system.

now i am trying to add this drive (80GB PATA) to my system (specs below), but when i connect it and turn the system on, it reached the screen where you can press delete to enter the bios but it will not get past that. even if i try to enter the bios its frozen

anyone got any tricks up their sleeve
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[TN] Nathan · ALMIGHTY PWNER! Joined: 14 Feb 2002 Posts: 7406

Make sure you have the drive jumpers set as slave.
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fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

Slave, you mean......

You may not be able to save your files, Windows is finicky about having two OS's installed, which is what it sounds like you're inadverntantly doing. Seeing as you've sold the old system, it might be tough to get everything working properly. I would normally tell you to format the drive, check your jumpers as Nate suggested, then install in the new system.

Try the jumpers first, and if that doesn't work, pull your main drive, install your old one as master, and fdisk to reformat. Then try to install it as a slave drive.
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[TN] Nathan · ALMIGHTY PWNER! Joined: 14 Feb 2002 Posts: 7406

Even with the OS installed, if it is set to a slave drive the computer shouldn't try to boot from it.

Best thing is to have the second drive on the secondary channel and not in the same ribbon cable or channel as the primary drive.
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fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

I've seen it go both ways, if boot.ini isn't configured for dual booting. Touch and go, really.
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polio · TweakNOOB Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 35

hey thanks for the input!

the drive from the old system was a secondary drive there (did not have windows on it, just some files). the jumper is set to slave, and its sitting in the middle of the ide cable (the dvd drive is at the end). there should not be any way that the system should be able to boot from it.

also both the old and new system are on XP.

the drives in my new system are SATA, and the old one is a PATA.

it seems that you think the system freezes cuz its trying to boot from the PATA drive. why would plugging in a PATA over the usual booting from the SATA's, even in slave mode? can i go into the bios and disable the system trying to boot from a PATA drive. the only choice in the bios is "hard drive"
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fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

That explains it a little better. Depending on how old your mobo is, it may try to boot from the PATA drive first. Some older boards didn't support booting from SATA, although it seems you've been able to prior to installing the drive. Best thing to do is to go to your mobo manufacturer's site, and look through the manual to see if there is a way to disable booting from the PATA channel.
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Xal · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 2:11 am Post subject:

If your DVD drive and hard disk are both set to slave then the system will freeze. Set one of them to master. Then if you can't boot into your OS once you get past post then head into your bios and make sure its set to boot off you SATA drive first. That will sort you out.
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fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

He already checked his BIOS, it only gives him options for HDD, not PATA or SATA.......hence why I think it's an older board that may have issues booting from SATA when there's a PATA HDD installed.
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