I had 2 PATA drives and disconnected my slave and installed a SATA drive. I
mirrored my HD with XXCLONE and checked the option to make the new drive
bootable. My system booted from the PATA drive so I disconnected it and
re-booted, but then got a message "no OS installed".

I have the PATA drive still on the primary IDE controller and do not know if
I need to change the jumper to "slave". My Windows directory IS on the
SATA drive.

Please help if you can.

Thanks!!

Eddie G

"Eddie G" <mickeddie@(removeme)comcast.net> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I had 2 PATA drives and disconnected my slave and installed a SATA
>drive. I mirrored my HD with XXCLONE and checked the option to make
>the new drive bootable. My system booted from the PATA drive so I
>disconnected it and re-booted, but then got a message "no OS
>installed".
>
> I have the PATA drive still on the primary IDE controller and do not
> know if I need to change the jumper to "slave". My Windows directory
> IS on the SATA drive.


Go into your BIOS and change the boot drive order to include the SATA
controller.

When cross-posting the same message to multiple groups, those groups are
supposed to be RELATED to each other so the post is on-topic to each.
So just what the hell does the alt.fan.cecil-adams group that you
cross-posted to have to do with your post? I removed it from the
Newsgroups header in my reply since it is not a related group and your
post would probably not be on-topic over there (the
comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware group was also deleted since I am using
Microsoft's NNTP server which only carries microsoft.public.* groups).

Vanguard wrote:
> "Eddie G" <mickeddie@(removeme)comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> >I had 2 PATA drives and disconnected my slave and installed a SATA
> >drive. I mirrored my HD with XXCLONE and checked the option to make
> >the new drive bootable. My system booted from the PATA drive so I
> >disconnected it and re-booted, but then got a message "no OS
> >installed".
> >
> > I have the PATA drive still on the primary IDE controller and do not
> > know if I need to change the jumper to "slave". My Windows directory
> > IS on the SATA drive.
>
>
> Go into your BIOS and change the boot drive order to include the SATA
> controller.

I did not see a SATA controller in the BIOS
>
> When cross-posting the same message to multiple groups, those groups are
> supposed to be RELATED to each other so the post is on-topic to each.
> So just what the hell does the alt.fan.cecil-adams group that you
> cross-posted to have to do with your post?

AFCA is a compendium of human knowledge and there is no off-topic
subject there. They help people with computer issues as well as
anything else you can imagine.

"Eddie G" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Vanguard wrote:
>> "Eddie G" <mickeddie@(removeme)comcast.net> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> >I had 2 PATA drives and disconnected my slave and installed a SATA
>> >drive. I mirrored my HD with XXCLONE and checked the option to make
>> >the new drive bootable. My system booted from the PATA drive so I
>> >disconnected it and re-booted, but then got a message "no OS
>> >installed".
>> >
>> > I have the PATA drive still on the primary IDE controller and do
>> > not
>> > know if I need to change the jumper to "slave". My Windows
>> > directory
>> > IS on the SATA drive.
>>
>>
>> Go into your BIOS and change the boot drive order to include the SATA
>> controller.
>
> I did not see a SATA controller in the BIOS

If the boot drive sequence option in BIOS doesn't list a SATA controlled
device then you cannot boot from it. The best you can do at this point
is to get a SATA-to-IDE adapter (it slides onto the back of the SATA
drive or is an interface card that hangs with the cables) to connect the
SATA drive to an IDE port.

After the BIOS completes the POST, it searches for the first physically
detectable hard drive and reads the first sector off of it (the MBR, or
master boot record). The first 446 bytes of that sector is the
bootstrap program which reads the partition table from that same sector
to determine which is the "active" marked primary partition. That
bootstrap program in the MBR then loads the first sector of the
active-marked partition and passes control to it. That is the
partition's boot sector and used to start the loading of the OS
contained within that partition (or the loader for that OS). The BIOS
bootstrap program loads the MBR bootstrap program that loads the
partition's boot sector. That is for the standard bootstrap program in
the MBR (but alternates can be installed there, like for multi-boot
managers, disk overlays to handle large drives when the BIOS can't
handle them, security products that encrypt the entire hard drive,
etc.).

In the BIOS should be a setting for the order of boot devices. Normally
it would be floppy drive (A, CD-ROM drive, and then hard drive (IDE).
If there is no bootable diskette in the floppy drive and no bootable
disc in the CD/DVD drive then the first hard drive found attached to an
IDE port gets used (in the order of master and then slave starting from
IDE0 and then to IDE1). If the BIOS has support for the SATA ports then
it should also list the SATA controller in the boot drive order. You
will need to hit PageUp or PageDown (or whatever your BIOS uses) to
switch between the different preset configurations of boot drive
ordering until you see the SATA item included.

If your BIOS doesn't support booting from the SATA drive, just how are
you going to connect your SATA drive to the motherboard? If there are
SATA controllers on the motherboard then the BIOS needs to support them
(it may actually be a separate BIOS but should be accessible by the
system BIOS). You never mentioned WHICH motherboard that you have. I
suppose it could treat the SATA drive as a SCSI-like device and present
the SATA BIOS at a later time which would mean the POST completes, you
see the ESCD screen listing the hardware setup (by the BIOS), and then
would see a message showing the SATA BIOS got loaded and you can hit a
key within a few seconds to open the screens to that BIOS. Hard to know
when no details were provided as to which motherboard you are using.

If your motherboard doesn't support SATA devices (and why SATA is
missing from the boot drive ordering option) then maybe you are using a
SATA controller PCI daughercard. Since its BIOS runs *after* the system
BIOS, you must ensure that the system BIOS can't find a hard drive from
which it will try to boot. The SATA card may provide the ability to
boot from a SATA drive but not if the system BIOS has already started
the boot sequence from a hard drive on an IDE port. That means you need
to disconnect all hard drives from the IDE port so the system BIOS
doesn't find a hard drive to boot from. Then later the SATA BIOS, when
it loads, can boot from a SATA drive. If you still need to use the IDE
drives, you could get an IDE controller PCI daughtercard to use for the
old IDE drives. The system BIOS will see no hard drives connected to
the IDE ports so it can't boot from a hard drive, the IDE card would
need to be configured to NOT boot from any of its drives, so the SATA
card is the only one left whose BIOS can boot from drives attached to
it.

As yet, no one knows WHICH brand and model of motherboard that you have
to provide specific solutions.

>> When cross-posting the same message to multiple groups, those groups
>> are
>> supposed to be RELATED to each other so the post is on-topic to each.
>> So just what the hell does the alt.fan.cecil-adams group that you
>> cross-posted to have to do with your post?
>
> AFCA is a compendium of human knowledge and there is no off-topic
> subject there. They help people with computer issues as well as
> anything else you can imagine.

Yes, it is a sampling of human knowledge ... and which is under the
alt.FAN.* hierarchy. Regardless that some of its visitors discuss
computers, it is NOT a *related* group to the others. There are also
gaming groups where the users discuss problems with getting their games
working on their hardware, but that doesn't make them a related
newsgroup. AFCA is a *fan* group, not a computer or hardware group.
Only *some* of the posts there would be on-topic here but a vast
majority of the posts over there are OFF-topic to the other groups.
When cross-posting, the *groups* are supposed to be related. Cecil
Adams is not just about computer hardware. "Fighting ignorance" (which
was not defined) covers far more topics than just computer hardware.
See http://www.faqs.org/faqs/misc-facts/cecil-adams/. Learn to focus
rather than shotgun all over the place. Generally there is little need
to post to more than one group unless they are duplicates of each other
(e.g., microsoft.public.outlook and microsoft.public.outlook.general).

Why and How to Cross-post:
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/usenet/xpost.html

When you post to many groups (which is often measured as more than 2 or
3 groups) or included unrelated groups, you REDUCE the chance that your
post will get read. Instead you increase the chance that it will be
ignored. You are the one asking for help. Focus on groups specific to
your question.

Vanguard wrote:
> "Eddie G" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Vanguard wrote:
> >> "Eddie G" <mickeddie@(removeme)comcast.net> wrote in message
> >> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> >> >I had 2 PATA drives and disconnected my slave and installed a SATA
> >> >drive. I mirrored my HD with XXCLONE and checked the option to make
> >> >the new drive bootable. My system booted from the PATA drive so I
> >> >disconnected it and re-booted, but then got a message "no OS
> >> >installed".
> >> >
> >> > I have the PATA drive still on the primary IDE controller and do
> >> > not
> >> > know if I need to change the jumper to "slave". My Windows
> >> > directory
> >> > IS on the SATA drive.
> >>
> >>
> >> Go into your BIOS and change the boot drive order to include the SATA
> >> controller.
> >
> > I did not see a SATA controller in the BIOS
>
> If the boot drive sequence option in BIOS doesn't list a SATA controlled
> device then you cannot boot from it. The best you can do at this point
> is to get a SATA-to-IDE adapter (it slides onto the back of the SATA
> drive or is an interface card that hangs with the cables) to connect the
> SATA drive to an IDE port.
>
> After the BIOS completes the POST, it searches for the first physically
> detectable hard drive and reads the first sector off of it (the MBR, or
> master boot record). The first 446 bytes of that sector is the
> bootstrap program which reads the partition table from that same sector
> to determine which is the "active" marked primary partition. That
> bootstrap program in the MBR then loads the first sector of the
> active-marked partition and passes control to it. That is the
> partition's boot sector and used to start the loading of the OS
> contained within that partition (or the loader for that OS). The BIOS
> bootstrap program loads the MBR bootstrap program that loads the
> partition's boot sector. That is for the standard bootstrap program in
> the MBR (but alternates can be installed there, like for multi-boot
> managers, disk overlays to handle large drives when the BIOS can't
> handle them, security products that encrypt the entire hard drive,
> etc.).
>
> In the BIOS should be a setting for the order of boot devices. Normally
> it would be floppy drive (A, CD-ROM drive, and then hard drive (IDE).
> If there is no bootable diskette in the floppy drive and no bootable
> disc in the CD/DVD drive then the first hard drive found attached to an
> IDE port gets used (in the order of master and then slave starting from
> IDE0 and then to IDE1). If the BIOS has support for the SATA ports then
> it should also list the SATA controller in the boot drive order. You
> will need to hit PageUp or PageDown (or whatever your BIOS uses) to
> switch between the different preset configurations of boot drive
> ordering until you see the SATA item included.
>
> If your BIOS doesn't support booting from the SATA drive, just how are
> you going to connect your SATA drive to the motherboard? If there are
> SATA controllers on the motherboard then the BIOS needs to support them
> (it may actually be a separate BIOS but should be accessible by the
> system BIOS). You never mentioned WHICH motherboard that you have. I
> suppose it could treat the SATA drive as a SCSI-like device and present
> the SATA BIOS at a later time which would mean the POST completes, you
> see the ESCD screen listing the hardware setup (by the BIOS), and then
> would see a message showing the SATA BIOS got loaded and you can hit a
> key within a few seconds to open the screens to that BIOS. Hard to know
> when no details were provided as to which motherboard you are using.
>
> If your motherboard doesn't support SATA devices (and why SATA is
> missing from the boot drive ordering option) then maybe you are using a
> SATA controller PCI daughercard. Since its BIOS runs *after* the system
> BIOS, you must ensure that the system BIOS can't find a hard drive from
> which it will try to boot. The SATA card may provide the ability to
> boot from a SATA drive but not if the system BIOS has already started
> the boot sequence from a hard drive on an IDE port. That means you need
> to disconnect all hard drives from the IDE port so the system BIOS
> doesn't find a hard drive to boot from. Then later the SATA BIOS, when
> it loads, can boot from a SATA drive. If you still need to use the IDE
> drives, you could get an IDE controller PCI daughtercard to use for the
> old IDE drives. The system BIOS will see no hard drives connected to
> the IDE ports so it can't boot from a hard drive, the IDE card would
> need to be configured to NOT boot from any of its drives, so the SATA
> card is the only one left whose BIOS can boot from drives attached to
> it.
>
> As yet, no one knows WHICH brand and model of motherboard that you have
> to provide specific solutions.

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.

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

Thanks!!

Eddie

Eddie G wrote:
>
> I had 2 PATA drives and disconnected my slave and installed a SATA drive. I
> mirrored my HD with XXCLONE and checked the option to make the new drive
> bootable. My system booted from the PATA drive so I disconnected it and
> re-booted, but then got a message "no OS installed".
>
> I have the PATA drive still on the primary IDE controller and do not know if
> I need to change the jumper to "slave". My Windows directory IS on the
> SATA drive.
>
> Please help if you can.
>
> Thanks!!
>
> Eddie G

There's sometimes an obscure setting in the bios to make the
m.b. recognize the SATA drive as bootable. It also usually
doesn't work.

TDH, I know.

Bill

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> 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/edoc...30.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:

"Determines the order in which the system searches for boot devices
during system startup. Available options can include the diskette drive,
CD drive, hard drives, and network."

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.

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

> 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.

Vanguard wrote:
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> >
> > 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/edoc...30.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>

If you used an add-in SATA card because the old Dell did not
have SATA built into the mobo, why would Dell or any other
company have a BIOS for hardware that did not exist when it
was made. Until the system boots, the add-in card doesn't
work.

Nothing wrong with Dell, they offer a good value. Dell does
make their own mobo [or has them made to their spec]. When
you bought then SATA controller and hard drive, did you
check to see what options were offered?

In the Dell BIOS, look for booting from something other than
a floppy, optical or ATA drive. If the SATA card has a BIOS
built-in, it might boot of all other options in the Dell
BIOS are setback.



<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
|
| Vanguard wrote:
| > <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
| >
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
| > >
| > > 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/edoc...30.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>
|

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> Vanguard wrote:
>> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> >
>> > 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/edoc...30.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".


Ah, missed that (or focused on the other stuff). That is because the
boot.ini file used by the Windows loader still lists the IDE drive as
the boot device. The boot.ini file uses physical parameters to describe
the boot drive (of where to find the rest of the OS that the loader
needs to find). A SATA drive would have completely different physical
parameters to describe in boot.ini how the loader (the boot sector in
the OS' partition) would find that drive. You probably something like
the following in boot.ini (which now a copy resides on the SATA drive,
too):

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional"

Disks are numbered starting from zero but partitions are numbered
starting from one. You changed the physical location of the OS by going
to the SATA drive but the boot.ini still has the physical descriptors
that point to an IDE drive. I don't remember the syntax for the
physical descriptors for a SATA drive (but could probably find them with
a Google search). However, it may be easier to boot using the Windows
install CD, use it to go into Recovery Console mode, and run "bootcfg"
in the command shell that it gives you. Otherwise, you are stuck trying
to use a utility that can read from your SATA drive to get a copy of the
boot.ini file so you can edit it and put it back. You could use a
DOS-bootable floppy that had NTFSini from Powerquest on it which will
read NTFS-formatted partitions so you can get a copy of the boot.ini
file onto the floppy, edit it there, and then use NTFSini to put it
back. It used to be called NTFSini but, I think, it got renamed to
BTini (get it from
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis.../pq/utilities/).

I'm not sure, but I believe other users of SATA drives (from which they
want to boot Windows) need the rdisk parameter changed from:

rdisk(0)
to
rdisk(1)

I found some reference to the ARC paths listed in the boot.ini file at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...XPEmbedded.asp
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/155222/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/102873/en-us

If you can get into Recovery Console mode, you could use the diskpart
command as follows:

diskpart
? (optional; list all commands)
list disk (how many disks are listed?)
select disk X (where X is the SATA drive)
detail disk (details of the selected disk)
list partition (partitions on the selected disk)
exit

That way you could find which disk number was for the SATA drive and
which partition number had Windows in it.