3rd HDD causing weird operating issues

[FrankLP]

Hi gang,
I tried searching but couldn't quite find the answer to my challenge...

I recently added a Maxtor 300GB HDD to my system using a PCI IDE Card. My OS (WIN XP) is on a Western Digital 80GB HDD coming off the primary socket of the MB (ASUS A7V333-X). I also have a Western Digital 150GB HDD on the same cable as the WD 80GB.

Although the system works okay, after adding the 3rd HDD I now occasionally get prompts (on all my apps) that the application is not responding. Sometimes the app will kick back in (maybe after 15-30 seconds), other times I have to cntrl/alt/del to close down and start over (ARGH!). Also, the system takes a bit longer to boot up than before.

I noticed that the system seems to be booting “through” the Maxtor drive. I other words, the Maxtor is listed as the primary drive (during boot up). The jumper settings on the Maxtor are set to slave, and I have gone into the MB BIOS and selected the WD 80 as the primary, but the system won’t boot when I do that. I’ve tried swapping the cables (hooking the WD80 to the card and the MX300 to the MB), but this didn’t work either.

Also, I looked at the drives using Partition Magic, and the Maxtor 300 is listed as Drive 1, the WD 80 (containing the OS) is listed as Drive 2 and the other WD 150 is listed as drive 3.

Any ideas on this on how I can get this resolved so the system doesn't boot "through" the MX300?

 

[AWS]

I had to do this to fix the same problem.
Copy ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini from the 300G drive to the main drive ( WD drive ).
Boot back up.
After it boots right click my computer and select properties > adavnced > startup and recovery settings tab. At the top you'll see default operating system. You should see 2 entries. Select the option for the main drive.

 

[FrankLP]

Thanks for the response Bob.

I used explorer to search for the files you referenced, but I could not find them on the 300G Drive. Perhaps I should have mention that I partioned this drive (using Partition Magic) as two seperate "drives". I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

All I saw on these drives were the files that I have stored there. Should I be looking for the files you referenced in a different way?

 

[phreakwars]

Yes, you will need to uncheck "HIDE PROTECTED OPERATING SYSTEM FILES" UNDER THE FOLDERS OPTION IN THE CONTROL PANEL

 

[FrankLP]

Thanks phreakwars...

After changing that setting, I still didn't find those files on the 300G Drive, but I did find each of them on the main 80G WD Drive.

What do you guys think?

 

[FrankLP]

Does anybody else have any ideas on this?