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Windows Vista issue (SATA+IDE)
Sephur
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I have a strange problem... I used to have Win XP on an IDE drive... I purchased a 320GB SATA drive today with Windows Vista Home Premium OEM. The install was a nightmare, primarily due to what I think was Vista's intolerance of SATA drives at the install process.
This is my first SATA drive. I'm a bit crap at them.
I could not even get into the Windows Vista install without reconnecting an old IDE HDD to the computer and once I could do that, I had access to loading SATA drivers for my nForce motherboard. I was also able to correctly partition and install Vista onto the 320GB SATA drive.
Now, I have finished installing and Vista runs quite well. Everything runs well BUT I cannot seem to boot into Vista if I try to remove the IDE drive.
It's rather strange--I can DEFINATELY confirm that Vista is installed on the SATA drive and that the IDE is seen by Vista merely as an extra drive. The BIOS is likewise giving boot priority to the SATA drive. However, when I try to boot up the system without the IDE the system will not get past the black screen with the green loading bar.
If I reconnect the IDE, I can get back in.
I'd like to ditch the IDE entirely, as it's bound for my girlfriend's PC.
Is there something about SATA drives I don't know? Like 'everything'?
This is my first SATA drive. I'm a bit crap at them.
I could not even get into the Windows Vista install without reconnecting an old IDE HDD to the computer and once I could do that, I had access to loading SATA drivers for my nForce motherboard. I was also able to correctly partition and install Vista onto the 320GB SATA drive.
Now, I have finished installing and Vista runs quite well. Everything runs well BUT I cannot seem to boot into Vista if I try to remove the IDE drive.
It's rather strange--I can DEFINATELY confirm that Vista is installed on the SATA drive and that the IDE is seen by Vista merely as an extra drive. The BIOS is likewise giving boot priority to the SATA drive. However, when I try to boot up the system without the IDE the system will not get past the black screen with the green loading bar.
If I reconnect the IDE, I can get back in.
I'd like to ditch the IDE entirely, as it's bound for my girlfriend's PC.
Is there something about SATA drives I don't know? Like 'everything'?
Sephur on
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It sounds to me like your MBR is only setup properly on the IDE drive and not the SATA. So even though SATA is given priority over IDE, it's not finding it there and falling through to the IDE drive.
Here's some extra information I've wrangled up:
- Vista will boot no problem from the SATA drive if I disable the IDE interface on my motherboard in the BIOS. If I activate IDE without the hard drive, it will hang on the black screen with the green loading bar (which is a software component of Windows Vista, so it has to at least get to the Vista OS data on the SATA drive).
I'm at a point now where I have IDE disabled on my mobo and my computer operates fine... but IDE is disabled--so no DVD Drive access. It's OEM Vista so I'm loathe to activate it until my configuration stablises.
Honestly, at this rate, I'm thinking the solution to my problem is 'buy a SATA DVD Drive and leave IDE off entirely.'
But I want this solved. It bothers me.
EDIT: As for your questions: It boots into the black screen with the pulsing green loading bar. There are no errors, but the loading continues indefinately without ever getting into the OS... Incidentally, this is also what happened when I tried to boot from the DVD while installing, without the IDE HDD connected. I think your MBR theory has merit--but at the same time, if IDE is deactivated, booting is possible... and painless.
What is the possibility of installing a different OS temporarily to see if a different OS is fine with having IDE enabled but no HDD on it? This is what I would do after updating the bios or if there was some reason that doing this first was easier, just in case vista's drivers for your sata/ide chipset are crap.
edit: Thought of another thing at like 2am when I woke up. Have you verified that your drives are jumpered and cabled properly? If you have the IDE hard drive and DVD drive on the same IDE controller and have them hard set with hard drive as master and DVD as slave and then remove the hard drive, that will cause problems. Not usually the problem you're describing here, but this is a new OS and it's quick and easy to check, so might as well do it.