Multiple Hard Drive Problem

[virtualwolf]

Hello...
I have 3 Hard Drives installed on a DELL Dimension 8100 running Windows
Server 2003, Enterprise Edition. One IDE cable has 2 Hard Drives (one is
the boot volume) and the other has 1 Hard Drive and the CD-ROM drive. I
added a fourth Hard Drive by removing the IDE cable from the CD-ROM
drive. This Hard Drive was my old Hard Drive for this machine and dual
booted from WinXP and Win2k. When I turned the computer on it started
to boot from my old dual boot Hard Drive, which I didn’t want it to do.
Now I can’t even get the Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition volume
to boot. The drive doesn’t even show up in the BIOS. I even booted to
an installation CD and it said it doesn’t detect any drive to install
on and cannot continue. Why did this happen? Does anyone know how to
fix it so that the Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition volume will
boot again? Thanks to all who reply…..

 

[Rich Barry]

Did you try returning to the old configuration with the cdrom drive
connected?
Have you tried a different Ribbon Cable?

 

[Brian A.]

Hello...
I have 3 Hard Drives installed on a DELL Dimension 8100 running Windows
Server 2003, Enterprise Edition. One IDE cable has 2 Hard Drives (one is
the boot volume) and the other has 1 Hard Drive and the CD-ROM drive. I
added a fourth Hard Drive by removing the IDE cable from the CD-ROM
drive. This Hard Drive was my old Hard Drive for this machine and dual
booted from WinXP and Win2k. When I turned the computer on it started
to boot from my old dual boot Hard Drive, which I didn’t want it to do.
Now I can’t even get the Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition volume
to boot. The drive doesn’t even show up in the BIOS. I even booted to
an installation CD and it said it doesn’t detect any drive to install
on and cannot continue. Why did this happen? Does anyone know how to
fix it so that the Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition volume will
boot again? Thanks to all who reply…..

If you disconnect the old drive does the system boot to WinServer 2K3?
Did you reset the jumper on the old drive from Master to Slave before connecting it?
What happens if you remove the old drive from the boot order in the BIOS?

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

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