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Cannot use primary IDE controller

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7 replies

by rsimanski 1 view

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I have a Giga-byte K8 Triton motherboard with an AMD 64 3200+ processor and an Nvidia NForce3 chipset. The mobo has two on-chip SATA controllers as well as the usual IDE controllers. The only hard drive is attached to the first SATA controller. I am running Windows XP Pro SP 2. If I attach anything at all to the primary IDE controller, even a CD-ROM drive, the BIOS recognizes it but Windows does not load. I can only use the secondary IDE controller. As far as I can tell, everything is set correctly in the BIOS. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

7 replies

by semmelbroesel

It sounds to me as if somehow the IDE has priority over SATA in booting, even if there is nothing bootable on it. Can you post a few more details, especially what shows on the screen when Windows does not load. Does it complain about not finding any boot disk?

by g...

Probably right. In the BIOS, do you configure to start booting from C:? I would try to change the boot chain.

by blackcurrant

Hi

Try the suggestion above to alter the boot sequence in the BIOS. Also, when you attach a separate IDE drive, is it configured as a slave?

This is strange as I recently had exactly the opposite problem - the computer was trying to boot from a newly attached non-bootable SATA drive instead of the default IDE drive. I resolved the issue by removing the partition on the SATA drive, rebooting, so it booted from the IDE, then reformatting the SATA drive - everything was fine after that. Maybe a similar procedure could help you?

Please post the solution if you find it.

by featherman

I'm not sure about the GigaByte boards, but many onboard SATA controllers appear as SCSI controllers to the system BIOS. If there is an option to boot from SCSI, enable it and see what happens.

Also, try disabling "quickboot" and system BIOS caching and see if that helps. I know it sounds wierd, but I have seen this reslove similar issues with major brand SATA controllers before. What is the actual model of the motherboard ("K8 Triton" is not listed on the GigaByte website) - I'd like to see who's silicon is being used for the SATA controller...

by dmiles

Check the BIOS ssetup is not configured for Raid

Make the SATA drive the second boot device after the cd rom,then setup your primary controller

by willcomp

You almost surely have a boot device/sequence problem. There should be no problem connecting an optical drive to the chipset primary IDE channel.

Check Hard Disk Boot Priority settings under Advanced BIOS Features in BIOS.

Also verify boot sequence.

Do you have a K8NS or K8NS Pro mobo?

The K8NS Pro (I have one) has a multitude of configuration options. For those not familiar, has nVidia SATA RAID, Silicon Image SATA RAID, chipset dual channel IDE, and Gigabit dual channel IDE RAID controllers. Lots of drive connection options and lots of BIOS configuration options that are not exactly well explained in manual.

Dalton

by willcomp

It would help if you post back with you BIOS settings for those items I mentioned above.

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