I just bought a 250GB Western Digital hard drive, Model WD2500KS, and I can't get windows to boot from it. At first I installed it and booted from my IDE drive, then ran the DataLifeguard software from within windows. It set up my system to recognize hard drives over 132GB, restarted, then I copied my entire boot drive (IDE) to the new SATA drive. I unplugged both IDE drives, and tried to boot from the new SATA drive, but it would not do it. I plugged my IDE drives back in, with the SATA drive still plugged in, and it would not boot at all. I unplugged the IDE drives and installed windows xp pro from scratch on the SATA drive, but it still won't load the OS. What do I need to do to get this drive to boot? I have looked around my bios but can't find anything to tell the system to boot from the first SATA. My system specs should be in my sig. My bios version is version 1009, the newest, and I reinstalled it anyway. Sorry if this is a repeat problem.

Edit:
I don't think that my sig is working yet, so
Asus A8N-SLI Premium
Athlon 64 4000+
eVGA 7900GS

First, there has to be somewhere in the BIOS to set the boot order. If there is no Boot section, it's likely in the Advanced setting some where around the Advance settings. Also check the mobo manual either the one came on with the mobo or online. I just got an ASUS K8N SLI and I had to make sure that the hdd with Windows was attached the the SATA 1 connection, as in the first SATA connection on the mobo. If you haven't done so, read the entire mobo manual on BIOS settings as well as hdd installation

The hd is plugged in to the first sata connector. In the bios the boot device priority is hd first, then cd and removable, so that is correct. Is there supposed to be a jumper set on the drive itself? I have SSC, PM2, OPT1, OPT2, none are jumpered. I have gone through the manual book that came with the mobo and the pdf that I downloaded, and neither helped. I do not need to set up any type of RAID, and I just read that it should be jumpered for SSC, but now with or without the jumper the drive just softly clicks. Is this drive bad? Thanks.

Yes, it says "Hard Drive" as first, but which Hard drive. In my bios, (an Intel board) you can select which Hard drive to boot from. So it's not so much as the boot order, but the boot drive.

Try that. If that fails, then maybe your board doesn't reconize SATA drives during POST. (just a suggestion, sounds like it does.)

Well, the only options in the boot device priority are hard drive (does not specify which), CD-ROM, Removable, and LAN. Maybe somewhere else in the BIOS there is some way to tell it to boot off of SATA 1. I'll have to read through the manual again. I also heard and read about changing controllers, like the PATA and SATA controllers. I am not sure what this means or how to do this, so if anyone has info on this I would appreciate it.

If you were able to install Windows on the SATA drive, it means the machine is recognizing the drive. Try unplugging the power cable all your other drives. If that doesn't work, PM me later to remind me to check my BIOS settings, I have the same mobo but in a different computer than the one I'm currently on. I'm lucky to remember my name sometimes, which is why I need the reminder. I have my OS on the a SATA II have had no problems. When you say you did a fresh install, did you do the regular rather than the quick format before the installation? Did you create any of the RAID disks that came with the mobo and install them? Double check the power and data cables on the SATA, they could have loosened up. Also, there are 2 sets of SATA connections on the mobo, one for RAID and one fo non RAID, make sure that the hdd is connected to the non RAID connector, I think they are the set on the right and are orange.

Couple ideas:
1. You say you "copied" the entire drive over and that did not work, and eventually you did a fresh install on the new SATA. But did you ever explicitly set the new SATA to be a bootable drive?The first stage of getting a drive set up is to partition it, and you obviously did that. But during that process you have the option of setting the drive to be a boot drive, or not. This sets a flag in the Master Boot Block of the drive so that the BIOS knows where to start from. If the flag isn't set, the BIOS will go looking elsewhere for a boot drive. AFTER partitioning you do a format operation and write stuff to the drive. During formatting you also have the option the make the drive bootable. This just means that two (or more) critical hidden files get written to the very beginning of the drive where the boot loader can find them. Obviously you have done these steps, but if the MBB flag was not set at partitioning time, the BIOS may not even look for the boot loader and other stuff on this drive.

2. On my system (different from yours) in the Boot Sequence part of the BIOS it will show only the devices available. So, for example, when you had only your SATA drive connected, you would only have one HDD to choose - no choice! But after you re-connected your older IDE drive(s), the BIOS should have shown you several to choose from, and you have to set it to the right one.

Very good info, thanks. I used the DataLifeguard tools to copy the entire old drive to the sata drive, and it did not boot. So I wrote a new MBR using the windows xp install disk and that did not do it. I will write a new MBR on this new install, as well as the other thing that can be done (I forgot what it is called right now) and see if that fixes it. Also I will plug in my old pata drives with the sata and see if I get options for which drive to boot from. Thanks.

I have that same exact hard drive and installed window with no problems. One thing also to check is to see if your controller is SATA I or SATA II. If it is only a SATA I controller, see if you can get a BIOS update that will give you the better transfer ( my intel board had an update that also updated the controller ). If you can only use the controller as a SATA I controller then you need to make sure and put the jumper on the hard drive as a 150Mb transfer only. This will force the HDD to be a SATA I drive which it is NOT. This drive is a SATA II 300Mb transfer.
Hope this helps........................because this drive is awesome. I was able to partition the drive with and 80GB and formatted the whole partition (not quick format ) in only 15 minutes.
Good Luck!

The controller is SATA II. One thing that I found in the manual is the access mode. Should this be set on 'auto' or 'large'?

Probably set "Auto", but check the controller manual. I believe in mine it says that setting this to "Large" forces it to assume the HDD and OS are set to support large (i.e., over 137 GB) drives with the LBA48 protocol. Setting "Auto" means it will check and do that provided the support is there AND provided that the HDD was partitioned in a system that supports LBA48 - aparently there is info written to the disk about that. If the BIOS finds it cannot rely on LBA48 for large drive suport, then it is allowed under "Auto" to fall back to the lesser option.

You're right - 'auto' is the one to use. 'Large' crashed the system right after boot. I am sitting right now looking through the BIOS, and the drive shows up along with my other two eide drives. Under the 'Boot' menu I have these sub-menu choices:

Boot Device Priority
Removable Drives
Hard Disk Drives
CDROM Drives
Boot Settings Configuration
Security

In the 'Boot Device Priority' sub-menu I have 'Hard Disk' as number one, then CDROM and removable. There is no way here to select which hard disk to boot from.

In 'Hard Disk Drives' sub-menu there it has all three drives listed, with the 1st SATA-M drive being third. I moved it to the first place.

There is nothing in 'Removable Drives', 'CDROM Drives', 'Boot Settings Configuration', or 'Security' about hard drives. At the main menu all the drives attached to the system are listed, an when I select the sata drive (described as the First SATA Master) the only options I can choose are 'Extended IDE Drive' Auto/None, and 'Access Mode' Auto/Large.

Hope this gives some information about what I have setup as of now. The BIOS is Phoenix - AwardBIOS version 1009. I have no idea why I can't boot from my new drive. I save and exit the BIOS and when the system tries to load an OS it says 'Error loading operating system'. Nothing else is happens after that, just a blinking cursor after the line of text. Any more assistance would be great.

As I said, I have the same board and my BIOS is set the same as you have yours. Plus under Advance NVRAID Configuration is set to Diasabled, Onboard Device Configuration Silicon SATA Controller is set to Enabled, under SLI Configuraiton EZ-Plug Warning is Enabled, SLI Braodcastr Apperture is Disabled and A1-Selector is set to Automatic. My OS is on a SATA II connected to the SATA 1 on the mobo and have not had any problems getting into Windows. If the BIOS settings are identical, it really sounds like either the Windows installation is corrupt or a problem with the hdd. I would unplug all the other hdd while working on the problem? Did you install any of the RAD drivers on the ASUS CD? I didn't.

Nope, no raid drivers. Did not need them since there is only one drive I want to use. I will try reinstalling XP on it and see if it boots. If not then I would have to assume the drive itself is bad. But that does not make sense because the XP installation recognizes and installs onto it.

g-paw, what color sata connector do you have the drive plugged into, black or red. On mine there are four black and four red sata connectors, and I have my drive plugged in to the first black sata. The black ones I believe to be the NV ones. The red ones are Silicon Image. I have not tried a red one.

I have them plugged into the Black ones. The drive with the OS is plugged into the top right Black one, the second drive is connected to the lower right, and the 3rd to the lower left. In the BIOS it shows SATA 1, SATA 2, and SATA 3 drives with SATA 1 having the OS. Have you tried setting up, i.e., is formatting, the disk with Data Lifeguard from a Floppy with only the drive in question attached? I would give this a shot before doing a fresh Windows install. I've had to do this in the past when I've had similar problems.