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bios start sequence; can?t detect hds

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by bodirt

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I have two ide drives on my computer. on each one i have seperate windows xp systems installed. (the reason for me having two seperate systems is that i have on that?s encrytpted). sometimes this configuration works fine. i am able to choose in the bios which hd i want to boot from and launch windows. but sometimes during the start up sequence, the bios doesn?t detect any of the two disks and is unable to boot at all. if i disconnect one of the hds and start up the computer bios has no problem detecting the single drive and will boot from it. i?m guessing this is some kind of hardware issue and doesn?t have anything to with me having dual systems insatlled... can anybody help me out?

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by thechas

Are both hard drives on the same IDE cable?

If so, are they made by the same manufacture?

I have run into more than 1 instance where 2 different make hard drives will not work well on the same IDE channel.

Next, have you considered using a boot manager rather than entering BIOS setup to change the boot order?

2 other options would be:
Use the Trios hard drive selector.
This device provides a switch that allows you to select from several different drives to boot from.

Or, since you have encrypted data that you wish to protect, consider using a "Hot-Swap" bay for your boot drive.
This way, you only have the drive you wish to boot from installed.
You can store the other hard drive under lock and key if so desired.

Chas

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