Cannot find boot disk

[Pembar]

I have a system with 4 harddisks (all SATA) in them. When I plug in a 5th harddisk and boot the system up. It returns the error asking me to insert a bootable disk. The 5th harddisk has no executables and only data. It was reformatted too, so no .sys either.

But when I take out the 5th harddisk, it boots up XP as per normal.

I thought BIOS was supposed to detect automagically where the OS was on which HD and just boot it up from there. Why should adding another harddisk have this effect?

System Specs:
Asus p5k WIFI
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
2x2gb RAM
ATI Saphhire HD4850
OS: Windows XP

 

[Ausm]

Need more info on what model harddisks you are using to see if there is a possible confliction also can you see all the drives in the BIOS?

 

[Old Hippie]

I thought BIOS was supposed to detect automagically where the OS was on which HD and just boot it up from there.

Looks like the majik has worn out on yours and it's getting a little confused.

Go into the BIOS and tell it what drive you want to boot first.

 

[Pembar]

Yes, I can see all the drives in the BIOS.

They're all the same model, and they all appear under the same model type in the BIOS, which is one reason why I'm having a hardtime differentiating which is which. They're all 1TB Samsung harddrives.

 

[Pembar]

The part I don't get is, there is only one harddisk which has an operating system on it. Thus, there shouldn't be a "tell which drive you want to boot first", since there's only one.

The only other setting that might be relevant is the boot order between HD, CD-ROM and floppy. But with nothing in the CD-ROM and a non-existant floppy drive, I don't think it matters here.

 

[Old Hippie]

They're all the same model, and they all appear under the same model type in the BIOS, which is one reason why I'm having a hardtime differentiating which is which.

Unplug all but the boot drive. You're going to have to do a little detective work.

Maybe someone with a more intricate knowledge of a BIOS could answer your "Why" questions but I'm just relating what has worked for me.

 

[Pembar]

Unplugging all but the boot drive works, I can boot. Plugging in the other 3 and it boots up fine too.

Plugging in that 5th additional and it can't find the boot disk.

I've had the same system with 5 disks before too, but I've only encountered this problem recently.

In case anyone's wondering. If I plug in just the boot drive and just the faulty harddisk, it'll fail to boot.

Would a fualty harddisk produce this kind of a problem?

 

[Old Hippie]

If I plug in just the boot drive and just the faulty harddisk, it'll fail to boot.

Now we're getting to the nitty gritty.

Yes, I have seen faulty HDs do all kinda things including fail to boot.

If I were you, I'd make note of the boot drive, tell the BIOS to boot from that drive, and then see where that takes ya.

The BIOS is seeing the drive and maybe all that's needed is to format and partition the new drive.

 

[Pembar]

The problem is that when I go to the BIOS, I can't tell which drive is which because they're all labeled the same, (Since it's the same model harddisk).

And yes, I have repartitioned and reformmated the "faulty" drive already, still doesn't solve the problem.

 

[Old Hippie]

I can't tell which drive is which because they're all labeled the same, (Since it's the same model harddisk).

Since I don't have any of the exact same drives in my system I've never run across this problem. I thought the machine would differentiate the same models by serial numbers and choose the boot drive accordingly.

Shows ya how much I know! :laugh:

If it were me, I'd be sending that drive back.