Member Avatar for sneekypete

yes i have an emachines 1.8 GHz Intel celeron PC and I am trying to add a second hard drive. when i plug it in (power and IDE cable) and try to boot it says "NO OPERATING SYSTEM FOUND". When i unplug the new drive my first drive boots into windows. In the BIOS I looked around and it looks like its on auto. can some one give me a nudge in the right direction. Thanx

  • 4 Contributors
  • 5 Replies
  • 103 Views
  • 21 Hours Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by goldeagle2005

Dani AI

Generated

A few clarifying points and a short troubleshooting checklist that build on what , and have said.

The message "NO OPERATING SYSTEM FOUND" means the BIOS did not find a bootable drive where it expected one. That can be caused by a jumper/cable/device-number mixup, by the BIOS choosing the wrong HDD as first boot device, or by the OS drive losing its active/boot record when the second drive is added. Verify detection first: with both drives connected, enter the BIOS and note exactly which drive models appear and in what order (look for a separate "Hard Disk Boot Priority" or "HDD0/HDD1" menu).

Try these steps in order:

  • In BIOS confirm both drives are detected and set the OS drive as the first hard-disk in the BIOS boot priority (separate from overall Boot Device Order). If you see the wrong drive listed first, change it there.
  • Power down and inspect the drives' jumper diagrams (printed on the drive or on the vendor site). Make sure the drives are configured as two distinct devices (Master/Slave) or both set to Cable Select only if the cable and both drives support CS.
  • If BIOS sees the OS drive but still reports no OS, boot with only the original drive connected and check that its system partition is marked Active (Windows: Computer Management -> Disk Management).
  • If the Active flag looks fine but Windows still won't boot when both drives are attached, boot from recovery media and, with caution, repair the boot code (Windows XP-era: fixmbr / fixboot) only after backing up important data.
  • Swap IDE cables/ports or test the new drive alone to rule out a bad cable/drive or a drive that is accidentally forcing itself as the primary device.

If these steps don’t fix it, post the exact drive make/model and the motherboard/BIOS vendor (as suggested) and the BIOS HDD listing so precise jumper and BIOS menu advice can be given.

Recommended Answers

All 5 Replies

Member Avatar for J_Search

sneekypete,

Simple. Your computer is trying to boot to the second hard drive. You must ensure the jumpers are set correctly. Either one to slave and the other to master, or both to cable select. In any event, you should place the master drive at the end of the IDE cable and the slave in the middle. After which, you should go into BIOS and check if there are any slave/master changes you can make. Auto is usually reserved for detection of HDD specs, not whether it's a slave or master. But every BIOS is slightly different than the other, so this may be true in your case. Get it? In your case? Computer case? OK forget it.

J_

Member Avatar for sneekypete

ok my primary drive is on the end of the cable and the secondary drive is on the middle of the cable. i am not sure where to put the jumpers on the drives so i just played around with it. as far as the BIOS i messed with that to not really knowing what i was doing. but nothing works why is it hitting my secondary drive first when its on the middle of the cable?

Member Avatar for Fred64

I think you should concentrate on the jumpers before messing with the BIOS.
In some cases the possible setting is printed on the drive. If not, you could consult
the homepage of the manufacturer. Finally, you could tell me the brand and model
of the two drives. Then I can figure it out.

Member Avatar for sneekypete

i have the PC at my house i will post up the drive names when i get home. thank you for your help.

Member Avatar for goldeagle2005

Once you figure out how to set it as the master/slave, configure your first drive (the one with the OS, ie. your old drive) as the master, and configure your new drive as the slave. Now you shouldn't have a problem during bootup.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.