You can try updating the BIOS to see if that helps with the problem you are having.  Throughout the history of the BIOS upgrades for your model there have been fixes related to the boot menu although from the files' description the fixes appears to be for "unknown or disabled devices" in the boot menu.  Whether or not it will help with your problem is unknown.  Since the Dell on-line documentation lacks any additional detail on the 8200's Boot Sequence sub-menu, my advice is limited.  I know with the older Dell models you could not only designate the hard drive as the first boot device, but also which hard drive.  Possibly this strategy wasn't carried over to the newer models.  Hopefully another 8200 owner will stop by with their comment on the problem your are experiencing.   You might also try posting in the Dimension - Hard Drive forum to see what other opinions your receive.  The BIOS forum has a rather limited audience as compared to the hard drive forum so by posting there you should get a quicker response.

 

Although switching the boot drives will give you an indication that the drive will boot to an operating system it may not be a good indicator that the drive is an exact clone of the original.  For that you will need a program that can compare the files on two different drive and/or partitions.  If you do a search on the Internet you find programs like that are available for download.  Otherwise Windows 98 had such a program called WinDiff included with the OS, but I don't know if it was offered with the Windows XP installation disk.