Booting from IDE HD

[Thezz]

Just bought an Abit IP35 E Mobo, based mainly on the discussions I have read here. I got the the things a few days ago and have just now tried to in install the thing. 1st Surprise -- only 1 IDE channel. (Yes i know it's in the specs --- but I over looked that tid bit). I currently have 3 HDs, one of which is an SATA. My boot drive is one of the IDE drives. I also have a great DVD Burner and a great CD burner, both of which are IDE devices. So, I have a few questions. Why can't I get the board to boot from my IDE drive. Must the boot drive be SATA? Also, has anyone had any luck with the SATA to IDE adapters that you can buy. Do they really work and what are their limitations (other than speed).

Thanks,

 

[Tarrant64]

Couple of options here.

I think if you have the IDE drive hooked up with your DVD drive in the same channel it won't work. You may need to make sure the jumpers are set correctly so that the HD is the master, not the slave. You may need to change a setting on both. BIOS settings may need to be adjusted for cable select or not as well.

You can purchase a PCI adapater to host your IDE drives as well, or use it to host your CD drives.

I don't think SATA to IDE would be the direction you want to go.

 

[Heidfirst]

You say that your boot drive is IDE - is this an OS install that you are carrying over from a previous build? If so is it attempting to boot & blue screening or what?
You really need a new OS install or at minimum a repair install.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

DO NOT CONNECT ANY OTHER DEVICES TO MB EXCEPT THOSE LISTED BELOW...

1. Zero fill the boot HDD.
2. Connect the boot HDD as Master on IDE cable.
3. Connect optical drive as Slave on IDE cable.
4. Set optical drive in BIOS as 1st boot device and HDD in BIOS as 2nd boot device.
5. Set USB mouse and keyboard support from OS to BIOS mode (very important).
6. Save BIOS and reboot PC with installation CD/DVD in optical drive.

You can use an IDE to SATA adapter to connect the optical drive to the SATA port. There's no limitation on speed since optical drives are good up to about 24MB/s (DMA mode 2).

 

[Thezz]

I worked with the machine some more last night and this is what I now see.
I've configured the Boot Drive as the master on the IDE and my CD as the slave (which I had tried before). When I turn on the machine it does it's double start thing (like I've read about here on the forum) but then, about half the time I get the ABIT logo screen and the machine just freezes. This is especially true if I have made any changes in the BIOS and the machine is rebooting. The times when it doesn't freeze I see the following during the POST screen. The memory appears to test OK.. It says C1E BIOS supported (which I think is normal). It then says EM64T CPU. and then ------- CPU IS UNWORABLE OR HAS BEEN CHANGED .. PLEASE RECHECK - CPU SOFTMENU.

It says this even though the Softmenu appears to be correct. I've got a Intel 2.2 GHz Dual Core processor (Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 Allendale 2.2GHz LGA 775 Processor). Even with the above error I've tried to have it boot from both the HD and the CD (using the XP install disk). In both cases, it begins to load a few files and then just restarts or hangs up.

Based on the error described above I now think I either have a bad processor or a bad Mobo (any guesses?). I've tried reseating the processor on the socket and it made no difference.

HELP -- any suggestions. I bought all of this from Newegg.

Thanks,

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Strip the board and put it on the Abit card board box. Reseat RAM, CPU, and CMOS. Model and capacity of RAM? If you can access the BIOS, then the problem is probably related to RAM.

YOU MUST zero wipe all data in the old HDD!!!