[redwharf]

I have a normal hard drive and it is set to master and all works. Two SATA drives are attached also and they are detected as i can see them on 'My Computer' and can access there programs etc when just working the computer normally. Problem: when i remove the normal drive (meaning the one with the ribbon cable) on bootup the computer does not find either of the two SATA drives that remain. I assumed one would just become the master (as it were). When i go into bootup in BIOS the two SATA drives are nowhere to be found. only the floppy and two DVDs are options on the BIOS bootup priority order list. Even when the normal drive is in place the two SATAS are not options on BIOS to putthem in the bootup priority list.

Why does the computer not find the SATAs to try booting from them?

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At a guess, most likely the motherboard is older and while sata support was added, it was not added as a possible boot device. You could see if there is a BIOS firmware update available which solves the problem, but i wold not count on that.

[Kemasa]

At a guess, most likely the motherboard is older and while sata support was added, it was not added as a possible boot device. You could see if there is a BIOS firmware update available which solves the problem, but i wold not count on that.

[Alzeimer]

What is the model or Brand of your PC (HP??, DELL??, ACER??, ect) or what is the model number of your Motherboard (Asus ??, Gigabyte ?? ect)


Sometimes it is just a setting in your BIOS that will resolve this issue, by telling us the specs of your PC we might help you find the solution.

[redwharf]

The motherboard says ASRock K7S41

Hope this helps

[Macboatmaster]

I will stand corrected, but if that motherboard has SATA ports I cannot see them.

[Alzeimer]

I must agree with you, I do not see any Sata Ports on that motherboard (ASRock K7S41).

Is this your motherboard?

[attachment=60202:asrock.JPG]

[Kemasa]

Is there a controller board installed for the SATA instead of being on the motherboard?

[Macboatmaster]

Well there must be, or two SATA/IDE adaptors me thinks

[redwharf]

I guess it is a controller board. It is connected to the motherboard but sticks out from it and has two SATA connectors on it. Sorry this is taking a while but i am not really a hardware person. thanks for the help so far.

[Macboatmaster]

No problem.

If it is a SATA controller board as you suggest and the driver is installed on the IDE drive that is the answer to your first problem.
As to booting from the SATA with these controllers there are two ways to set them up one is for a non booting SATA drive and the other for a booting drive.

Obviously it cannot be a boot drive if there is not a bootable O/S on it

I have no idea of course which card you have but this will help you
http://sgcdn.startec.../PEXSATA22I.pdf

understand what I mean.

If you know the card, make find the driver from the card manufacturer and explore that

It maybe that it will tell you in device manager

I guess you are running XP

start
right click My Computer
click properties
click hardware
click device manager


If Vista or 7
click start windows button
right click Computer
click properties
and on left pane click device manager