BleepingComputer.com: Drives

emachines e4216 desktop, 3 Ghz Pentium Dual core, 2 Gb RAM, Windoze 7.

I have been using my desktop for six months with an internal 500 Gb IDE HDD as a storage drive with no problems, without jumpers. I recently wanted to run XP Pro from a partition on the main (OS) HDD (ATA), I've done this before, but this time when I re-booted after installing XP, the original O/S (W7) would not boot up, and I found that the PC was trying to boot from the 500 Gb storage dv.
I ended up removing it and all was working OK, I re-connected it and it tried to boot from it again, I tried to select my main drive as boot dv in the boot settings which works, but then the next time it tries to boot from the storage dv again - I saved the settings but still defaults to the storage dv. I tried without jumpers and also as slave, CS, as 15 head and 16 head as I can't find out which mine is.
I deleted the partition and formatted the main dv, re-installed W7 and got it all working again, tried to connect the storage drive again - i.e. as it was before, and it tried again to boot from the storage dv.
I think the main prob is that when I tell it to boot from the main drive it isn't saving the setting, even though I tell it to.
Any ideas anyone?

- Its a Hitachi Deskstar 7K500 storage drive

Are you going into the BIOS and saving the settings ?
Are the settings the same when you go into the BIOS next ?

dif, on 07 February 2012 - 03:01 AM, said:

No, thats the problem - it still defaults to the 500 Gb dv - it won't save the settings.

Are you trying to save the settings ? f10 i think it will be, or are you just exiting the BIOS, if the latter it won't save.

Try a new battery if you are saving and the settings aren't being saved.

CMOS Battery Replacement - http://www.liverepair.com/encyclopedia/articles/cmosreplace.asp. ignore the part about writing settings down...after battery is installed, go to BIOS, elect default settings, hit F10 to save.

Louis

EDIT: New link at http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/81 .

This post has been edited by hamluis: 08 February 2012 - 09:03 AM

hamluis, on 07 February 2012 - 02:18 PM, said:

Link dead... "The resource cannot be found"
The battery was changed around 4 months ago, I did F10 on exit.

You could try clearing the CMOS to see if it allows you to save the BIOS settings.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/tp/clearcmos.htm

ReviverSoft, on 07 February 2012 - 07:58 PM, said:

I did that, and I replaced the battery again, - still the same, what I don't get is why it was OK before I re-installed the O/S. Also, when I try to change the boot drive order or reset to default, the values don't change - that is, I manually select the main drive but the storage drive still shows at the top of the list of drives, but it does boot from the main drive - even when I click restart, Its only when I turn of via the power button that it wants to boot from the storage dv. I can remove the storage dv, but I do need it.

I think... using my vast technical knowledge and abilities I may have sorted it! I set the jumpers to Cable select, It worked but I lost my CD/DVD drive (same connector), Then found I was able to save the cmos settings and remove the jumpers (the way it originally was)(?)... another mystery - but I won't lose sleep over it - as long as its working now.
Thanks everyone for your input.