OK, I know there are several threads on this, but I need to get it straight in my head.  Dimension 8300 came with a 120 GB SATA drive.  I attempted to add a WD 120 GB IDE drive.  The BIOS will never recognize it.  Pressing ALT - EFB causes the IDE drives to be detected, and they work, but everytime you reboot you lose that.

After pressing ALT-EFB the drive appears fine, I can copy files to it and work with it OK, but I lose it when I reboot.

I've tried all the usual troubleshooting; the drive works fine in another PC.  It is set to master, and the only drive on the primary IDE channel (CD and DVD are on secondary IDE channel).  Even went out and bought a new ATA-133 IDE cable.  But the BIOS won't detect the drive on its own.

Does one have to do the ALT-EFB in BIOS setup everytime you reboot?

I'd hate to have to spend the additional money for another Serial ATA drive, with a perfectly good IDE 120 GB drive right here!

Thanks for the assist; great forum!