What does this hard disk error really mean?

[Vidiot]

If this isn't the correct newsgroup to answer please point me in the correct
direction.

About one in every five times that I turn my PC one it stops during the boot
up procedure & displays the following message. 'Secondary Slave Hard Drive
Disc Error Press {F4} to resume.' I press [F4] & I have no more problems
until the next time.

Dispute the suggestion that I have a hard drive failure I don't think this
is the case because I keep getting this message even when I swap drives. I
actually have several drives because I also do video editing. Any ideas?

Thanks in Advance

 

[Ted Turner]

Does the bios detect the drives correctly. Actually is this a second hard
drive or a standalone drive for the pc. If its the only one, make sure the
jumper is set to master, if it is indeed a second drive ensure it is set to
slave. You have probably already done all this but just making sure.

 

[Videot]

BIOS shows that I have 2 drives installed which is correct. They also
always come up correctly in 'My Computer'. Each drive also has partitions
as well. I will double check the jumpers.

Does the bios detect the drives correctly. Actually is this a second hard
drive or a standalone drive for the pc. If its the only one, make sure the
jumper is set to master, if it is indeed a second drive ensure it is set to
slave. You have probably already done all this but just making sure.

If this isn't the correct newsgroup to answer please point me in the correct
direction.

About one in every five times that I turn my PC one it stops during the boot
up procedure & displays the following message. 'Secondary Slave Hard Drive
Disc Error Press {F4} to resume.' I press [F4] & I have no more problems
until the next time.

Dispute the suggestion that I have a hard drive failure I don't think this
is the case because I keep getting this message even when I swap drives. I
actually have several drives because I also do video editing. Any ideas?

Thanks in Advance

 

[frodo]

Some bios' support setting a start-up delay; it's intended to allow time
for the HD's to spin up and their firmware to complete POST. If yours
supports this, I'd try adding a few seconds of delay and see if the error
goes away.