I'm stumped on why I can't get a second SATA HD to work on my computer (P4 2.8 1g RAM) with MSI 865PE Neo2 board.

History: XP was freezing so I ran disk check which froze and I couldn't get the HD to boot after that. Pulled that drive and added a new SATA drive which is now running XP fine. The problem is when I add the old (bad?) drive so I can grab some files off of it XP freezes on startup. It also won't let me boot off of the XP CD (just a black screen). I've changed the boot order and nothing seems to work.

Any suggestions?

Try plugging the second HDD intoa different SATA channel. Also, are you using IDE mode ?

I have not been working with PC's for quite some time so bear with me...

I have 2 SATA slots on my MB SATA1 and SATA2. I've swapped them with no luck.

Not sure how to tell if I'm in IDE mode. I know my IDE advanced settings are at DMA if available... ???

Check the boot order in bios, make sure the new drive you want to boot from is selected as first boot drive.
Your mobo bios could have a drive order menu, as well as a boot order menu, it's the boot menu you need to check.

If you get the black screen prior to any hardware or RAM identification on the display then the drive is probably.

If the BIOS can't configure the drives then you won't get them to work in Windows.

Your original post is somewhat confusing. You state you can't boot off the WinXP CD. Is that happening when you have the bad drive connected or disconnected. BTW, when disconnecting you need to remove both data and power cables.

Thanks for the replies. With the new drive in and the old drive out XP works fine and I can boot from the HD or the XP CD. With both drives in it hangs on the XP screen and then freezes. (In this instance I have the new HD set as the first boot device and the other HD unselected).

If I go to the bios with both drives in I can see them both.

I've been messing with the boot order and just realized If I set it to boot by CD drive only with others disabled and "no" to other boot devices it still loads XP on my good HD. Not sure why that is happening...

You didn't comment on what you see in the startup screens when the old drive is connected.

I get the regular MSI P4 logo screen, then it goes to a black screen with the blinking cursor on the top left....

EDIT: If I have both drives connected it makes it past the logo screen, on to the XP startup screen and the blue dots move to the right for about 20 seconds then stop and it freezes.

It sure sounds like you have a defective drive. Download and run the manufacturer's drive fitness test. Below are links for most. Don't use the wrong utility.

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread....

Problem solved (at least to my satifaction)

Ok so I tried a quick shortcut at the suggestion of the local PC guru at my unnamed computer store...

Bought an external drive housing with USB connector, put it all together, and everything is there. I'm just going to grab all my files and call it good.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Dom