A8N-E SATA drive won't boot on cold start

[m***@hotmail.com]

My new rig consists of these parts:

Asus A8N-E mobo


2GB OCZ DDR 450 RAM


Athlon 64 3000+ (Venice Core)


Nvidia 6800GT


Seagate SATA II 300GB 7200.9


IBM 60GB IDE Deskstar


LG 8160B CD/RW



I've updated my BIOS to version 1011.004 (latest version) and set the
boot sequence to: floppy, hard drive, optical drive. (I can't find an
option to specify which hard drive to boot from--does this option
exist?).

All my drives are set to AUTO and are all recoginzed by the BIOS. My
SATA drive is plugged into port 1, and the IDE drive is set to Slave on
the Primary IDE channel. The CD writer is on the Secondary channel and
set to Master.

I should note, that Windows Disk Manger, the IDE drive as Disk 0, and
the SATA drive as Disk 1. Windows


My Problems:

When I cold boot the computer, the system initially tries to boot
from the IDE drive. I then get a no NTLDR error because the IDE drive
has no OS on it (just files). Rebooting yields the same results.
However, if I set the IDE drive from AUTO to NONE in the BIOS, the
computer boots from the SATA drive, and Windows XP recognizes both the
SATA partitions and IDE partitions.



Also, the IDE drive is deemed 'bad' by Partition Magic 8.01. PM
gives me a disk geometry error, and despite deleting my partitions and
re-formatting the drive, it still gives this geometry error. Windows
Disk Managment sees the drive as OK, and I can still access the files
on the drive.




My Questions:

Why do I have to hide the IDE drive to get the SATA drive to
boot? This seems wrong.


How do I solve the disk geometry problem?




Thanks in advance for the advice.

[john]

Boot to a DOS disk floppy or cd and run "fdisk" and make sure the partition
on the ide is not set to "active" if it is disable it. If there is only one
ide drive on the primary controller it should be set to master or cable
select not slave, setting it to slave serves no purpose. I had the same
problem and I corrected it by disconnecting the ide drive, booting to the OS
then shutdown, reconnecting the ide drive then rebooting.

good luck,
john

Post by m***@hotmail.com
Asus A8N-E mobo
2GB OCZ DDR 450 RAM
Athlon 64 3000+ (Venice Core)
Nvidia 6800GT
Seagate SATA II 300GB 7200.9
IBM 60GB IDE Deskstar
LG 8160B CD/RW
I've updated my BIOS to version 1011.004 (latest version) and set the
boot sequence to: floppy, hard drive, optical drive. (I can't find an
option to specify which hard drive to boot from--does this option
exist?).
All my drives are set to AUTO and are all recoginzed by the BIOS. My
SATA drive is plugged into port 1, and the IDE drive is set to Slave on
the Primary IDE channel. The CD writer is on the Secondary channel and
set to Master.
I should note, that Windows Disk Manger, the IDE drive as Disk 0, and
the SATA drive as Disk 1. Windows
When I cold boot the computer, the system initially tries to boot
from the IDE drive. I then get a no NTLDR error because the IDE drive
has no OS on it (just files). Rebooting yields the same results.
However, if I set the IDE drive from AUTO to NONE in the BIOS, the
computer boots from the SATA drive, and Windows XP recognizes both the
SATA partitions and IDE partitions.
Also, the IDE drive is deemed 'bad' by Partition Magic 8.01. PM
gives me a disk geometry error, and despite deleting my partitions and
re-formatting the drive, it still gives this geometry error. Windows
Disk Managment sees the drive as OK, and I can still access the files
on the drive.
Why do I have to hide the IDE drive to get the SATA drive to
boot? This seems wrong.
How do I solve the disk geometry problem?
Thanks in advance for the advice.

[Chris Chen]

Hi John,

According to Windows Disk Management, only the C:\ partition on my SATA
drive is designated as Active. So that's as it should be. I will try
switching my IDE drive to master on the primary channel.

thanks!

[Natéag]

I must say I have had that board and I was able to choose the bootdrive
in the BIOS - although I do not recall where that is set.
I could easily choose my IDE drive or the SATA ones.
I will see if I still have the manual.
I have since moved to the A8N-Sli Premium board.

Post by m***@hotmail.com
Asus A8N-E mobo
2GB OCZ DDR 450 RAM
Athlon 64 3000+ (Venice Core)
Nvidia 6800GT
Seagate SATA II 300GB 7200.9
IBM 60GB IDE Deskstar
LG 8160B CD/RW
I've updated my BIOS to version 1011.004 (latest version) and set the
boot sequence to: floppy, hard drive, optical drive. (I can't find an
option to specify which hard drive to boot from--does this option
exist?).
All my drives are set to AUTO and are all recoginzed by the BIOS. My
SATA drive is plugged into port 1, and the IDE drive is set to Slave on
the Primary IDE channel. The CD writer is on the Secondary channel and
set to Master.
I should note, that Windows Disk Manger, the IDE drive as Disk 0, and
the SATA drive as Disk 1. Windows
When I cold boot the computer, the system initially tries to boot
from the IDE drive. I then get a no NTLDR error because the IDE drive
has no OS on it (just files). Rebooting yields the same results.
However, if I set the IDE drive from AUTO to NONE in the BIOS, the
computer boots from the SATA drive, and Windows XP recognizes both the
SATA partitions and IDE partitions.
Also, the IDE drive is deemed 'bad' by Partition Magic 8.01. PM
gives me a disk geometry error, and despite deleting my partitions and
re-formatting the drive, it still gives this geometry error. Windows
Disk Managment sees the drive as OK, and I can still access the files
on the drive.
Why do I have to hide the IDE drive to get the SATA drive to
boot? This seems wrong.
How do I solve the disk geometry problem?
Thanks in advance for the advice.

[Natéag]

Go to page 2.6 of your manual.

You will find settings for

BOOT Priority : select HD as first boot device

At 2.63 you are offered the choice of
bootable drive. It can be IDE or SATA.

Beware if you have not chosen your system hard drive,
the computer will try to boot from the first IDE drive.

Same if you have a bootable CD in the CD drive and
you do not press a key to boot from it. It will
default to your first HD.

And finally if you want to install Windows to a drive
other than the first IDE drive, The first IDE drive will
be the bootable drive - but you will still have the
choice of installing on any other drive. But it won't
boot from that other drive, whether if is selected as
the bootable drive (see above) or not.. "NTLDR NOT FOUND "
Loading the install CD will make the computer default
to the first HD.

Post by m***@hotmail.com
I've updated my BIOS to version 1011.004 (latest version) and set the
boot sequence to: floppy, hard drive, optical drive. (I can't find an
option to specify which hard drive to boot from--does this option
exist?).