PC won't boot up with second hard drive

P Bo · 26 Oct 2006 at 20:13

I have a 320g Seagate which has XP installed and is partitioned.

I installed my 250 Seagate (new) and the PC won't boot. It recognises both HDDs in BIOS but when I try to install XP on the 250 gig it says there are no Hard drives detected. When I boot up without the XP CD the 320g starts to boot then crashes and asks to boot into safe mode.

I'm trying to run to different versions (with different serials) on the same PC as I use one HD for work and the other for games.

This is driving me crazy.

semi-pro waster · 26 Oct 2006 at 21:29

Are the hard drives IDE or SATA? Does the computer work with just the 320gb hard drive connected? Have you tried installing onto the 250gb hard drive without the 320gb connected?

P Bo · 26 Oct 2006 at 22:05

They are both SATA. I have tried without the 320g connected but still the same problem.

Computer works fine with just the 320g connected.

I bought 2 hard drives at the same time and I've been so busy so only had time to install my game/net hard drive and OS and it's been working fine.

rpstewart · 26 Oct 2006 at 22:09

Are you trying to use a SATA2 HDD on a mobo that only supports SATA1? You could try setting the new drive to SATA1 with the jumper block on the back.

P Bo · 26 Oct 2006 at 22:14

They are both SATA 2 HDs but I have the jumpers on both of them (PC won't recognise either in BIOS without the plastic things on)

P Bo · 26 Oct 2006 at 22:31

They are both SATA 2 HDs but I have the jumpers on both of them (PC won't recognise either in BIOS without the plastic things on)