Re: Can't boot off of new SATA drive


Vanguard wrote:
<mickeddie@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1151713587.591174.200960@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

So you think it would help if I told you which mobo I have? It is a
Dell in the Poweredge 400SC. When I asked Dell who makes the mobo
they
said they make their own.

Very often that information does help. After getting it, I was able to
find:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/pe400sc/en/ug/j0323c30.htm#1039152

It mentions the "Boot Sequence" option in the [BIOS] setup screens.
However, true to Dell's inability to explain their hardware (because
they don't know what components they will be slapping into the box that
week that simply meets the specs for the box and why many customers
won't bother with Dell if they want a fixed and known set of hardware in
all their hosts), all it says is:

Unfortunately Dell doesn't bother to actually list what selections are
available, so I can't tell if "hard drives" includes a SATA device. The
show the screen for the option and that you hit the Enter key for the
sub-screen but they don't bother showing that sub-screen. Generally I
have found Dell's documentation to be verbose but vacuous.

Yea, I know. I would never buy a Dell...this was given to me. I'm
going to build a Conroe system next month. From that link the "Boot
Sequence" does NOT list the SATA controller...just IDE and USB. This
is what I need to call back Dell tech support.

Since you had them on the phone, what did they say on how to boot from a
SATA drive?

They said "I don't know why there is no SATA listed in the BIOS. I'll
see if I can find anything and email you if I do.

The SATA ports are right on the mobo...I will poke around the bios
some
more.

Then use whatever keys your BIOS accepts to cycle through each of the
preset settings for the boot drive ordering. One of them should include
the SATA device. If the system BIOS does not include a SATA device in
the boot drive order, maybe after the system BIOS has completed its POST
you will then see a one-line blurb saying that the SATA BIOS is loading
and it is at that time that you have to hit a key to enter that BIOS
(that's how SCSI cards often work) where you can specify to boot from a
SATA drive. However, since the SATA BIOS is ran after the system BIOS,
the system BIOS would've already found the IDE hard drive to boot from
(whether there is an OS there or not). That means you would have to
disconnect all the IDE drives from the IDE ports so the system BIOS
won't find them. Disabling the IDE ports would also prevent booting
from them but then you can't use the IDE drives. Maybe the system BIOS
has a boot drive order that doesn't include the IDE drives so you don't
have to go with an IDE daughtercard to keep using the IDE drives.

In my OP I said I disconnected the IDE drive. I did NOT unplug the
cable from the mobo...just from the drive unit. And like I said when I
mirrored the SATA drive I selected the option to make it bootable, but
when the system booted up with the IDE drive NOT connected I got a
message "no OS installed" or "no OS found". I guess I could disconnect
the IDE drive and boot off of the Windows CD and see what happens. But
then when I reconnect the IDE drive to use as a backup I'm right back
where I am now.

<sigh>

.

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