Hard drive boots in Master/Slave mode, but not by itself

I

irrumator11

New Member
- I currently have two hard drives inside my computer, one is 120GB and the other is 250GB. Both are Western Digital. Both have Windows installed.
- When both hard drives are connected, with the 250GB as master, and the 120GB as slave, everything is hunky dory and works fine. However, since I don't really need the second hard drive, I want to disconnect it. That's where I run into problems.
- If I disconnect the 120GB drive, by unplugging the power plug and the ribbon cable, and then try to boot up the computer, I get the dreaded black screen with "No operating system found." Moreover, in the BIOS, there is no hard drive present at all.
- I tried playing around with the jumper settings on the 250GB drive - didn't help. I tried connecting the 120GB drive alone - that works fine, and boots up Windows.
What am I doing wrong? Thanks for all your help.
 
Which drive did you first install in the computer? Sometimes the BIOS automatically marks the first drive as necessary to be there. Remove the 120GB hard drive, then remove the CMOS battery for 5-15 minutes. Put the battery back in, then try booting up on the 250GB drive.
 
Sounds to me like you have windows installed on the 120GB drive. This is a problem if you disconnect it.

If you reinstall windows onto your lager drive then you can remove the 120GB one.
 
I have Windows installed on both hard drives. I tried to do a wipe-and-reinstall on the 250GB one, but unless the 120GB drive is also plugged in, the BIOS does not recognize the hard drive at all. So weird!
 
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