Hard drive boots in Master/Slave mode, but not by itself

[irrumator11]

I have two hard drives installed in my computer - a 120GB one and a 250GB one.  Both have Windows installed on them.  When I set the 250GB to Master, and the 120GB to Slave, the computer boots normally, and everything works.  Now, I don't really need the 120GB drive, so I want to unplug it and just keep it inside the computer.  I unplug the power plug form it, and the ribbon cable, leaving the jumpers in the same place on both drives.  Then I try booting up the computer, and it says "No operating system found!"  When I go into BIOS setup, with only the 250GB drive plugged in, it doesn't detect any hard drives at all.  What am I doing wrong? Thanks for all your help.

[Dusty]

Welcome to the CH forum.

Is it this a dual boot configuration - was the Windows system on the 120GB drive installed last - does your boot.ini file show the default to be drive (1)?  In other words are you attempting to boot from the Slave?

Or-

Is your 250GB drive jumpered as "Master with Slave Present".

This quote is extracted from here.

Slave Present: Some drives have an additional jumper that is used to tell a drive configured as master that there is also a slave drive on the ATA channel. This is only required for some older drives that don't support standard master/slave IDE channel signaling.

You neglected to say what drives we're trying to visualise (manufacturer and model) so we can't look up the details for ourselves.

[dahlarbear]

Following up on what "Dusty" said, some hard drives may be jumpered as single, master, or slave.  If you're running one drive, perhaps it needs to be jumpered as "single" instead of "master".  Look at installation instructions from manufacturer for the single drive you want to run for proper jumper setup.

[irrumator11]

Is it this a dual boot configuration - was the Windows system on the 120GB drive installed last - does your boot.ini file show the default to be drive (1)?  In other words are you attempting to boot from the Slave?

I think that's where the problem is, although I'm not entirely sure.  The boot.ini file looks like this (when the 250GB is set to master and the 120GB is set to slave):

Code: [Select]

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Furthermore, here's what I see when I look at Disk Management:
When the 120GB is set to master and the 250GB is set to slave:



and the reverse, the 250GB as master, and the 120GB as slave:



Am I missing BOOT? 

[patio]

If you installed Windows on the 250 with the 120 present the 250 will not boot without the 120 in the system. This is by design. Windows no matter how many drives/partitions it's installed to will write the boot files to the C: drive.

One thing you can try if you have an XP CD is to hook up only the 250 and do a Repair Install of XP

Read thru the instructions fully to understand them paying special attention to the warnings and PRINT out a copy for reference...
If done correctly you will now be able to boot with the 250 as a standalone drive and your programs and data will be intact.

NOTE: If done incorrectly you risk losing everything...so backup first.

[irrumator11]

One thing you can try if you have an XP CD is to hook up only the 250 and do a Repair Install of XP

If I try to the Repair Install on the 250 alone, it doesn't let me do it, saying there is no hard drive connected or if there is, it's improperly configured. 

[patio]

This doesn't sound right...is it jumpered as master and connected to the end of the ribbon cable ? ?
Does it show in the BIOS ?
Is this a lecitimate XP CD ?

[irrumator11]

This doesn't sound right...is it jumpered as master and connected to the end of the ribbon cable ? ?
Does it show in the BIOS ?
Is this a lecitimate XP CD ?

I tried it both with it jumpered as master, and as cable select.  Both times, it was connected to the end of the ribbon cable.  When only the 250 drive is connected, is does not show up in the BIOS.  When both drives are connected (250 as master and 120 as slave), both show up in the BIOS.  The XP CD is legit.

[Dusty]

What type of ribbon cable is used - 40-pin 40-wire or 40-pin 80-wire?

Final request for the drive manufacturer(s) and model numbers.

[irrumator11]

The ribbon cable is 40-pin and 40-wire (I think - not really sure how to tell 40-wire apart from 80-wire, but it's an old cable, so I'm assuming 40-wire).  Both drives are Western Digital.  The model number for the 250 drive is WD2500JB-57GVC0, and for the 120 drive is WD1200JB-00FUA0

[patio]

WD's have 2 different master settings...standalone and master w/slave...set it to standalone and try a brand new 80 wire IDE cable.

[irrumator11]

Even when set to standalone, it's still not recognized by the system if the 120 is not connected.
The weird thing is, the 250 used to be my only drive.  Then it crashed, and that's when I put the 120 into the computer, to try and recover some data.  Before the crash, the 250 was working fine with the 40-wire cable.  I don't have an 80-wire acble on hand, but I'll pick one up at the store and give it a try this weekend.  Any other possible solutions in the meantime?

[Dusty]

Even when set to standalone, it's still not recognized by the system if the 120 is not connected.
The weird thing is, the 250 used to be my only drive.  Then it crashed, and that's when I put the 120 into the computer, to try and recover some data.  Before the crash, the 250 was working fine with the 40-wire cable.  I don't have an 80-wire acble on hand, but I'll pick one up at the store and give it a try this weekend.  Any other possible solutions in the meantime?

I think we all missed it and it was so obvious - what we are fumbling around with is a defective drive, either the MBR has been dropped or the disk is physically defective in that area.

Here are the WDC instructions for jumpering their drives.

Install the 250GB drive as the only one (Single) and run the WD disk diagnostics program.  If the disk passes the diagnostics test go to this site and follow the instructions to recover from a bad MBR.  If the disk does not pass the WD diagnostics test use it as a doorstop.

Good luck.

[irrumator11]

I tried installing the 250 as a single, but it's still not recognized at all.  Doesn't even show up in BIOS! So weird.  I'm afraid it's headed to its new career as a doorstop, although luckily it's still under warranty from WD, so they're sending me a replacement (but probably equally crappy) drive.

[patio]

Another option is to set it up as it was so you are able to get to both Windows installations...
Then determine which one is the 250.
Shut down and boot to the Recovery Console.
Choose which Windows install to work on ( the 250 ) and run both fixboot and fixmbr from the Recovery Console and power down.
Now hook up only the 250 as master and enter the BIOS and run auto detect.
If it picks up the drive now it will probably now be bootable.

Good Luck.