I came back from vacation and found that when I tried to start my computer, I receive a Boot Disk Error message upon starting it up. When I removed the slave drive, the error message went away. So I bought an external enclosure so that I could access the slave via USB. Now I have a new slave (a Seagate Barracude 7200.7) and I'm getting the same error message. When the slave is present, my computer won't boot. I checked and rechecked the jumpers. Any idea what might be causing this?

If the drive caused pc not to boot when attached, it won't get any better in a usb device. Can you tell us specifically what the error message was? Sounds like the drive is messed up at this point. Can you get to Safe Mode with it on a salve and then run check disk?

I think you better check to make sure the cable is inserted the right way. Check the jumpers again. Be aware that on some drives the jumpers change if the drive is alone on a cable. Also, check to make sure the bios recognizes the drive(s).

The computer was working fine with a slave drive for over a year. This error started suddenly while I was gone. Upon starting up the computer, I got the message "Boot Disk error, insert system disk and press enter" as if I had a floppy in, but I don't even have a floppy drive. It's as if the computer isn't recognizing the master hard drive at all. And again, I changed nothing. But I did learn that we had a lightning storm while I was gone. While trying to install the new slave drive (because I thought the old slave was the problem), I started getting the same errors again. So I removed the new slave, put all settings back to normal, and was still getting the same error message, both with and without the slave drive installed. Also, while the computer wasn't booting, when I went into the bios, the bios would keep freezing. Then, suddenly, the computer booted again and everything was fine. I'm afraid to shut down! It's running fine now. I think it's a hardware issue. Could it be my motherboard or power supply? Also, as of last night, I was getting the exact same message on my second computer. I think it must be a power issue from the storm. Any idea what I could fix?