I used to have 2 WD EIDE drives in a DELL Dimension 3000. At some point I decided to get rid of the slave WD800BB, thus jumpering the master WD800JB to “cable select”.
I never had a boot issue with the 2 drives, but as soon as I remove the second, the computer would stop at the BIOS logo at any start for like half a minute, then popping the notorious “Primary drive 1 not found” screen, with the options to strike either the F1 or F2 key.
Once I strike F1 the machine boots normally, and in the BIOS the WD800JB is being recognized correctly.
What could be causing this? I have a second Dimension 3000 with only a WD800BB on cable select, and that one starts up with no delay.
Thanks,
Martin