Problems booting two hard-drives (Windows XP)

[grumm3t]

System specs:

Asus P4B266-c w/ 1.6a @ 2.24Ghz
Western Digital 800JB (80gig)
Maxtor D740x (40gig)
Toshiba DVD
Acer 12x8x40x CD-RW

I currently have the two hard-drives on the primary IDE, and the two CD-roms on the secondary ide.

I setup my jumpers (Master w/ Slave present on WD, Slave on Maxtor) and I can boot the computer just fine with both hard-drives. As I get into Windows XP, I get the message saying it has "detected and installed my new hardware" and then tells me I have to reboot my computer to get the hardware to work (it does work on the first boot, I can see the hard-drive), but once I reboot my computer it will not detect either hard-drive and I get a boot failure.

Any recommendations on what I should do so I can stay booted with the other hard-drive.

Reply if you need more info, thanks,

</grumm3t>

 

[Ness]

Does your BIOS detect the Hard drive?

If your computer boots up as far as Windows, I think it's safe to assume your jumpers are okay... I think.

Does the slave HD have anything previously installed on it?

 

[grumm3t]

and then tells me I have to reboot my computer to get the hardware to work (it does work on the first boot, I can see the hard-drive), but once I reboot my computer it will not detect either hard-drive and I get a boot failure.

One the first boot it is detected in the bios and I boot fine, just when I reboot...

 

[Ness]

but... when you reboot... does the BIOS still show the drive, or does it claim there isn't one???

That's what I'm asking. We're past the fact that it shows the first time. But the problem is, figuring if Windows is the problem or if your BIOS is.

The BIOS is quite simple. It takes all of 10 seconds to rule out the BIOS as a problem. Check the BIOS, make sure it's still showing the drive. If it's not, you know where your problem is. If it is, you know that it's MOST LIKELY a Windows issue. It would be a real annoyance to go through 5-10 different ideas to get windows to recognize the drive, only to find it was a BIOS problem... I'm simply just seeing if the easy solution works before we waste time.