Boot problems (topic closed)

Well….. I got two hdd one is a sata 300gb one year old and its the system disk and another nine years old ata 80gb that i use for downloading and extraction and every now and then the ata disk stops working having this problem over 5 years (intending to use it to the end).
My problem: My system wont boot somethimes when the ata disk gets its (im old i wana die “moment”) and im geting the message invalid boot partision??? And after a few resets it works again.
Its not quite logical to me because my boot disk is the primary sata? Shouldnt i be able to boot whitout the secondary ata disk? This hapens every month or so. i tried disconecting the ata disk and the system wont boot same error message.
I set the boot option that it only boots from the sata disk.
my mobo is a msi p43 something with latest bios 2.6 i think. Using win7 64bit
im having this problem over three years now.
Any help would be aprisiated.
Sorry for my bad English.
Answer #1
Make sure that in bios that the boot priority is set to the drive you want to boot.
Answer #2
Already done it doesent help. Thanks anyway.
Answer #3
Probably not much help but sometimes I find if I have problematic HDDs or Optical Drives attached, the computer will try to detect these devices resulting a longer than usual boot up time. But I’ve never experienced an error message like you have.
Answer #4
is the drive you are booting from master and the other one slave?
Answer #5
here we go:
IDE Primary Master-HL-DT-STDVD-RO
IDE -II- Slave maxtor (ata disk)
SATA1-HL-DT-ST DVDRA
SATA 2-WDC WD3200
I see what you are thinking..
Im not sure how to change this. In bios i cant change them
Is this done by changing the position of those little pin covers on the back of the devices?
And if so how should i arange them the get my primary sata disk to be the master???
i hope i am making some sence
Answer #6
I think you have answered your own question in the first post.
Get rid of the old hdd out of your system FFS.
If you still want to use it until it “dies”, then connect it via USB.
Answer #7
It is normal practice with IDE (pata) to have the hard drive as master and the optical drive as slave..
So best to swap that around by changing the jumper links at the back of the drives.
There should be a label on the drives to show where to put them.(for master and slave).
With the SATA drives, I would swap the two plugs on the motherboard to make the hard drive SATA 1 and the optical SATA 2.
Then check your sata hdd is still first in bios..
If any problems, unplug the old IDE cable and check it all boots OK then.
Answer #8
Never done this but i will try it. Thank you Nel
Answer #9
@Nel i set it like this now
IDE – Master maxtor (ata disk)
IDE -II- Slave HL-DT-STDVD-RO
SATA 1 WDC WD3200 (system disc)
SATA 2 HL-DT-ST DVDRA
Enabled to only boot from the Sata 1 system disc and
Same problem the system wont boot.
I think the pproblem is that Win 7 is using something inprotant even from the secondary disc (some data on it for the boot up).
Il google a bit and se what i find on this matter.
If i dont find anythig i will leave it like this and eventualy when the ata disc dies i will be forced to reinstall the system.
Answer #10
don’t wait til it dies,
make an image of your partition.
then you can either wait til it dies, or get a new one sooner
that way it’s not as much of kick in the ass, when the unfortunate time comes
Answer #11
I have burned everything i find important on several dvd-s. So no problem there. When the time comes i will only be giving up on a few gb of movies etc. Cause the disk in question is only used for downloading and extraction. The only problem i have is that every month or so i cant boot the system. But i will live whit that until the disc in queston goes in to “Disc heaven”
Thx for the advices everyone ……………