Gateway E-3600 desktop will not permit booting from second (a new WD Cavier Blue) hard drive

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
1

I recently acquired a 2002-vintage Gateway E-3600 desktop PC.  I added memory (going from 256 MB to 1024 MB) , changed out the CMOS battery, and installed a 160-GB WD Cavier Blue hard drive in the second HD bay.  The original (first) HD is a 40-GB Maxtor HD with Windows XP Professional.  On the WD second HD, I successfully installed a Linux distro, openSUSE 11.4, which I installed with the 40-GB Maxtor HD disconnected. 

I reconnected the Maxtor HD, set the jumpers as WD HD–Master and Maxtor HD–Slave.  The PC booted into the WD HD/openSUSE.

I went into the BIOS Setup menu —> Boot subsection —> Hard disk drives and found both hard drives listed, with the WD first and the Maxtor second. I selected the Maxtor HD but was unable to change the boot order to startup with the Maxtor HD.

So, I changed the jumpers on both hard drives to Cable Select, and rebooted.  The PC booted into the Maxtor HD/Windows XP.   I went into the BIOS Setup menu, Boot subsection, and both hard drives were listed, with the Maxtor first and the WD second.  (According to Gateway documentation, in Cable Select mode, the HD at the end of the cable [which was the Maxtor HD] is the Master HD, and the HD in the middle of the cable [the WD HD] is the Slave HD.)  I was unable to change the boot order.

In short, I have been unable to change the HD boot order in the BIOs Boot subsection, even though both HDs are listed.  THIS JUST IN–Alas, I just found in some Gateway documentation that  a Gateway computer cannot boot from a second (slave hard drive), because  a second hard drive can be used only for storage.  Aarrgghh.

I am surprised at this because I once had an e-Machines W-1500 desktop in which I installed a second HD and could boot from either HD after changing the boot order in BIOS.  e-Machines is the budget division of Gateway, as I understand it, so I thought that a Gateway also would be able to boot from either of two HDs.

Any ideas for a work-around?  Would installing an IDE controller card for the second HD to coexist with the  internal IDE controller(s) on the motherboard fix the problem?  This is an old machine, so I dunno if they are still selling cards compatible with its speed.  (This is where my limited tech knowledge hits a wall–I don’t know much about IDE controllers, how they work, how to install and set up, etc.) 

If adding the card would accomplish the fix, I would get one.  It may not seem practical, throwing $$$ at an old PC, but I learn a lot by playing around with these machines and solving problems as they pop up.  Learning by doing, as they say.

Many thanks for any feedback.

2

Hello,

I think a controller card could do the trick, however if Gateway has stated that is not possible to boot from a second unit must likely you won’t be able to do it. 

3

Nesvic–

Yes, I think you’re right.  Without documentation confirming that adding a controller card will do the trick, it’s not worth the time and money to try.  So, I’ll just move the WD HD into a more cooperative CPU.

Thanks for your feedback.

4

You want windows on the 160 GB slave hard disk to boot.

You also want linux on the 40 GB master hard disk to boot.

You can (unless there is another bios bug, but you may try to see if it works) do it in several steps.

First, put as master the 160GB disk, boot install windows normally. Then check with a non-microsoft fdisk what

is the partition number of the C partition of the windows disks is. For the example, let’s asume that

it is the partition number 1 (you will need this for rootnoverify below) . Remove the disk.

Put the 40gb as master and install linux with these partitions:

/dev/sda1 —> 100MB (you can use more, like 500MB or 1GB if you need, just in case)

/dev/sda2 —> 2048MB (for swap)

/dev/sda3 —> The rest (or whatever partitions you want to create)

Lets asume you go with these 3.

sda1 will be /boot

sda2 will be swap

sda3 will be /

During the linux install process be sure that the boot loader (i do asume GRUB1 not GRUB2, i don’t know what suse uses) is installed in /dev/sda (aka, in the MBR of the 40GB disk)

Install linux, check that it works.

Add the 160GB jumpered as slave.

Boot linux. The 160GB disk will be /dev/sdb

edit the file menu.lst or grub.conf (check how is it named in suse) either in /etc/grub.conf or /boot/grub/grub.conf (or whatever suse puts this file) and add (do not delete the linux entry) this entry:

title Windows
  map (hd0) (hd1)
  map (hd1) (hd0)
  rootnoverify (hd1,0)
  makeactive
  chainloader +1

Ii used to have it like that in the past, but i don’t remember very well, in case it does not work don’t panic it can be changed.

rootnoverify (hd1,0)

this will use the first partition of the second drive (remember, this is the first parittion “1” of the 160 gb we took note above).

i dont remember if makeactive was necesary or not.

Windows needs to think it is booting from the first hard disk (that is for what these map entries are)

grup will give two options, suse or windows. (you can change the default and the timeout)

5

Sorry, if each disk can boot on it own, yo do no need to reinstall anyting. Just edit grub.conf and try.

Put the 40gb as master                     Linux Installed and bootable

Add the 160GB jumpered as slave    Windows Installed and bootable

Check with a non-microsoft fdisk what is the partition number of the C partition of the windows disks is. For the example, let’s asume that it is the partition number 1 (you will need this for rootnoverify below) .

Boot linux. The 160GB disk will be /dev/sdb

This is for GRUB1 / GRUB LEGACY (not for LILO and not for GRUB2)

edit the file menu.lst or grub.conf (check how is it named in suse) either in /etc/grub.conf or /boot/grub/grub.conf (or whatever suse puts this file) and add (do not delete the linux entry) this entry:

title Windows
  map (hd0) (hd1)
  map (hd1) (hd0)
  rootnoverify (hd1,0)
  makeactive
  chainloader +1

6

Rtguille-

Many thanks for your detailed suggestions.

At this point, I don’t want to reinstall suse, since I’ve spend so much time configuring it and application software, etc.  So, I’ll just move the suse HD to another CPU where a second HD boot is more easily done.

Nonethless, your feedback will be especially useful the next time I encounter this problem and do decide to do OS reinstalling.