Recently over the past week when i go to switch on my pc in the morning it stops on the first screen where it tells you the pc details, drives etc. It is ok and boots fine if i hit the reset button. It seems to find the ide drives but not the sata on first boot for some reason. I have never had to install sata drivers to get them working in this pc and been ok for years now. Do i just need to reinstall the mobo drivers or is it something else?

I tried to boot earlier and it failed again. I did what you said and it finds them straight away when the drive with the OS is unplugged so it looks like that could be the culprit. Looks like it is time for a new drive.