My HDD +CD/DVD cabling is as follow: PRIMARY Master: D: 120GB PATA/HDD Slave : F: DVD/CD burner SECONDARY Master: G: DVD/CD burner Slave : E: 80GB PATA/HDD PLUS: C: SATA HDD 200 GB; this is the first boot and has WINXP My problem is that BIOS doesn’t automatically detect the secondary (G: and E: drivers), I always has to back to BIOS and manually added because somehow the drive detection always turn from auto to none? I need to add that My computer shows the E: 80gb in blue color, the others are on black , the disk management doesn’t detect any abnormality (healty) So, it could be that the BIOS need to be updated or the Motherboard capacity or defective or maybe other thing. Any Advice? 4321

C = sata HDD...boot drive D = primary master 120gb hdd E = Primary slave 80gb hdd F = Secondary master dvd burner G = Secondary slave dvd burner While some will say that this is the slowest combination for transfering data...with the sata as "C" then the combination EIDE drives will not matter as the transfer will be unnoticeable difference. The other issue is to make sure that all EIDE ribbon cables are the 80 wire 40 pin and not more than 18 inches long. In The Matters Of Style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, Stand Like A Rock A lost Cause! computervitals.com

My combination is ok, the EIDE ribbon have the standard specifications that you mentioned. so what could be creating the problem? 4321

When you reset the bios do you save the setting?

Then a bios upgrade would be the next suggestion. For a bios setting to continually reset itself shows a bios issue only. Other than a jumper setting nothing else will reset a value within the bios except a bios virus and that would do a hell of a lot more damage than you are reporting...besides I haven't heard of any happening in a very long time now. A bios upgrade may repair the setting...If not then the Bios is failing on that particular setting and I would either see about replacing it(if possible to that board) or buy a new board that is compatable with your hardware. In The Matters Of Style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, Stand Like A Rock A lost Cause! computervitals.com

My guess would be that some hard drives don't like using jumpers. (I know it was always told to use master/slave) Set the drives for cable select and get newer cables that support cable select if you don't have them. Most newer ones will support cable select. I would consider bios update as last resort.

hi, thanks a lot for your helpful replies, I reformat the secondary HDD and it is stable now but the secondary cd/dvd drive still need BIOS manual activation, I will upgrade the BIOS,may be that is the problem. thanks again 4321