BIOS slave drive problem

Griffmastrr · 25 Apr 2020

Hi there.

Having a problem at the moment that I can't sort out.

I am running Windows 10 64 bit and when I run it with one SATA HDD connected to SATA1 on my ASUS motherboard and two DVD drives my BIOS displays as follows.

Primary IDE Master (Pioneer DVD - RW DV)
Primary IDE Slave (Pioneer DVD - RW DV)
Third IDE Master (WDC WD10EARS - 22Y5B1)
Third IDE Slave (Not Detected)

All is well and W10 runs fine at this setup, Boot sequence is DVD, HDD, Floppy.

If I add a second formatted WDC WD10EARS on SATA2 as a back up drive for important data my BIOS then displays,
Primary IDE Master (Pioneer DVD - RW DV)
Primary IDE Slave (Pioneer DVD - RW DV)
Third IDE Master (Not Detected)
Third IDE Slave (Not Detected)

Now will not boot and get the 'Boot device not found insert bootable disk' etc message.

Have tried the following all of which give the same result.
2 other formatted slaves on SATA2.
Different cables.
Other SATA motherboard positions.

I have fitted the slave to my external USB drive caddy and Windows sees it OK.

Without the slave fitted to the motherboard all is fine, can anyone suggest what I might be doing wrong?

Thanks.

bobkn · 25 Apr 2020

Could you supply the specific model of your mainboard?

I'm curious as to what board reports SATA drives as IDE.

SATA drives have no master/slave settings.

Are you using AHCI? If you are using SATA drives, you should be. Advanced Host Controller Interface - Wikipedia

sygnus21 · 26 Apr 2020

Yeah, I curious at the what motherboard myself.

Griffmastrr · 26 Apr 2020

bobkn said:

Could you supply the specific model of your mainboard?

I'm curious as to what board reports SATA drives as IDE.

SATA drives have no master/slave settings.

Are you using AHCI? If you are using SATA drives, you should be. Advanced Host Controller Interface - Wikipedia

It is an ASUS P5W DH Deluxe.

Don't recall seeing AHCI, where will I find this and will take a look.

- - - Updated - - -

Found it.

Have never altered it in the BIOS from day one but have only recently changed to W10 from W7, slave HDD was always shown with W7.

Will it be OK to just change it to AHCI in the BIOS or will it affect DVD drives which are not SATA and will anything require changing in W10?

Thanks.

BIOS slave drive problem-20200426_091701.jpg

- - - Updated - - -

Updated

itsme1 · 26 Apr 2020

Here: Enable AHCI in Windows 8 and Windows 10 after Installation

or
Switch from Raid to AHCI switch ide to ahci.

I remember I was doing the second method.

Berton · 26 Apr 2020

I have a Dell OptiPlex 755 and the BIOS shows 2 choices, either AHCI/RAID or Legacy, having 2 drives lets Windows automatically pick up the RAID part, learned the hard way when taking the second drive out breaks the boot process.

When seeing IDE mentioned in a drive setup it nearly always means the drive/s using a Parallel cable which do have Master [one end] and Slave [middle] plugs while SATA/Serial ATA does not, only allows one drive per cable and port. The term IDE is now PATA/Parallel ATA. IDE is mostly referring to the printed circuit board attached/bolted to the hard drive.

It's been awhile since I've had to work on a motherboard that had both PATA and SATA ports. The PATA uses a 40-pin cable or the newer/faster is an 80-conductor cable, extra conductors were needed to get better speed but eliminating cross-talk between each other of the 40. The floppy drive uses a 34-bit/conductor cable. Downside to floppies is technology, hard to find a board that has BIOS and port support.

Griffmastrr · 26 Apr 2020

Thanks guys, will endeavour to work my way through it now.