Help with boot up from IDE

Question

I have a Dimension 8300 ...... Originally it had a 160 GIG SATA HD. I purchased a 250gig IDE HD and cloned the partition from the SATA HD to it. I then wiped the SATA to use for a spare (D: drive). When I start the PC I get dreaded NTLDR is missing. If I shut off SATA in the BIOS it runs fine, but I can't see the SATA drive under Windows because it's off in the BIOS. Once I turn SATA back on again in the BIOS the PC won't start. I'm assuming the problem is the Mobo is looking at the SATA as being Hard Drive C: . How can I change it to recognize the IDE HD as C: with the SATA still connected? The 'Boot Sequence' listing in the BIOS only shows - Floppy Device (not installed), IDE CD-ROM Device and Hard Disk Drive C: ...... Nothing about SATA. Under 'Drive Configuration'  -  SATA Primary Drive - Hard Drive, SATA Secondary Drive - OFF, Primary Master Device - Hard Drive, Primary Slave Device - OFF, Secondary Master Device - CD-ROM and Device and Secondary Slave Device - CD-ROM ..... I have tried both jumper settings on the IDE HD, Cable Select and Master .... Didn't make a bit of difference ......  Help!

ejn63 · Answer

If you install both SATA and PATA (EIDE) in this system, the SATA drive MUST be the boot drive.

fmthefixer · Answer

Wow! ..... Thanks for the quick response ....... So that's it then  :o(   ...... No jumpers on the Mobo in this Dimension to change?  ..... Stuck with SATA first and that's that ...... That really bites .......

mombodog · Answer

The following method has been known to work for the 4600-4700 series PC's. Might work for the 8300, not sure.

1) Sata drive connected to "Sata 0" on the motherboard
2) disconnect existing ata drive, ide cable and power
3) restart computer enter BIOS - for my machine it's the F2 key
4) turn on all three lights on the keyboard for "numlock, capslock, scrollk"
5) hit alt + E then alt + F
6) go to system event in BIOS, hit enter and hit clear events
7) hit esc then esc again and choose save and exit
8) when it restarts shut it down and reconnect the existing ide and power cable
9) restart and enter BIOS
10) repeat steps #4 and #5
11) hit esc and choose save and exit
12) you should see a Auto IDE config message... ...dont worry just wait a few minites.
13) enter BIOS again and go to drive configuration and you should now see your drive
14) I'm back to normal with the ATA Drive as the boot drive and the new 250gb sata is now formatting for extra storage.

Storage, Drives & Media

Help with boot up from IDE

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