[compu_dude]

Also, would I be better off loading XP on the new SATA drive, now that the 2nd drive is at least accessible? Or do you think I should repair the old drive first?

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OK, I have a theory . . .

I unplugged my (now working) HD and plugged it into IDE 3 (the original slot). It does not show up in BIOS there and Repair shows there is no disk present (my original problem). I moved it back to IDE 3, ran repair again, but it is still called F:.

Looking in the manual for my mobo (Soyo Dragon 2 V 1.0), I have four IDE channels (supports 8 drives) and support for 4 SATA drives (12 devices total).

IDE 1, 2 are controlled by the ICH5R chip (southbridge), as are SATA 1, 2.

IDE 3,4 are controlled by the ALi M5281 Serial/Parallel ATA RAID chip, as are SATA 3,4.

My original setup was two DVD drives in IDE 2 and my HD in IDE 3. The SATA HD I was trying to add, I plugged into SATA 3 (same controller chip as my now damaged HD). When I quit the SATA HD setup, I am wondering if I damaged the ALi M5281 chip. Could it be the mobo?

Edited by compu_dude, 07 February 2008 - 07:12 PM.

[compu_dude]

OK, I have a theory . . .

I unplugged my (now working) HD and plugged it into IDE 3 (the original slot). It does not show up in BIOS there and Repair shows there is no disk present (my original problem). I moved it back to IDE 3, ran repair again, but it is still called F:.

Looking in the manual for my mobo (Soyo Dragon 2 V 1.0), I have four IDE channels (supports 8 drives) and support for 4 SATA drives (12 devices total).

IDE 1, 2 are controlled by the ICH5R chip (southbridge), as are SATA 1, 2.

IDE 3,4 are controlled by the ALi M5281 Serial/Parallel ATA RAID chip, as are SATA 3,4.

My original setup was two DVD drives in IDE 2 and my HD in IDE 3. The SATA HD I was trying to add, I plugged into SATA 3 (same controller chip as my now damaged HD). When I quit the SATA HD setup, I am wondering if I damaged the ALi M5281 chip. Could it be the mobo?

Edited by compu_dude, 07 February 2008 - 07:12 PM.

[Ztruker]

Removed my post as our posts crossed in the ether.

I need to think on this a bit.

Edited by Ztruker, 07 February 2008 - 08:21 PM.

[compu_dude]

Anyone able to help?

Should I post this in a different forum now that I think it is a hardware issue?

[wannabe1]

If you connect your drives in the original configuration, will the machine boot? Is there a C: listed in My Computer or in Disk Management?

Right click on My Computer and choose "Properties". Click the "Advanced"...in the "Startup and Recovery" section, click on the "Settings" tab. In the window that opens, click on the "Edit" tab. A notepad window will open (boot.ini)...copy the contents of that window and paste it here for me.

There is a way to rename the drives on a machine, but it's a bit complicated and may "break" the system. It may be helpful to have a screenshot of the Disk Management window so we can have a look at what the machine is "seeing".

[compu_dude]

It took me about 8 hours today, but I finally tried the right thing. My answer was in my original post!

When I tried to install the second disk, I chose to "make it my new boot disk." However, I ran the WD utility from Windows, which is NOT what you are supposed to do, so the software was trying to copy my old drive to the new drive while it was running! No wonder it "took forever." Somewhere in there, it changed the new drive to C: and named my old one F:.

I tried to plug in the SATA drive by iteself, but no luck. The mobo was not seeing it. After ripping my hair out for a couple hours trying different things, I found an obscure setting in the BIOS I had to enable (change IDE 1 from "IDE" to "IDE + SATA" WHY WOULD THEY NEED THAT?!?!?). Now the SATA showed up, so I did a diagnostic with the WD DOS utility, all was well, so I did a clean XP install. Loaded, no problem. SP1, so I had a million updates--ugh!

I saved my data from the old drive. If I want to add it as a second drive, how do I do that? Do I need to reformat it?

Also, I screwed up setting up the WD drive, so I was limited to 137 GB, but I added a second partition later, so I have my 250 GB split about in half with two partitions.

They say "that which does not kill you makes you stronger." I got a lot stronger this week, I guess. What I learned:

1. If you are adding a second HD that will REPLACE your boot drive, you must download the HD installation software to a floppy or CD, do not try it from Windows!
2. Sounds stupid, but read the instructions before you start. DO NOT stop in the middle!
3. Back up your data and files REGULARLY--you never know when you could lose access to your system (as the people in the malware section can tell you!).
4. Keep the manuals and disks for EVERYTHING--again, you never know when you will need them.
5. When in doubt, ask Geeks to Go. You guys rock!

[Ztruker]

The 5 points you made could be a Mantra for computer users

[Alaster]

have you tried chkdsk?