Long story short: Did a reinstall of XP on a new HDD. All good but wouldn't load secondary HDDs. Installed Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition from an online search that would load by itself (The one offered on Dell's site for my XPS Gen 3 required a floppy disk which I didn't have). XP now loads with second HDD attached but not with the third.

Question: What can I do to get XP to load with all three SATA HDDs attached?


Long Story: XP wasn't loading after installing Kaspersky Internet Security tried to fix it by using the Windows disk which made Safe Mode inaccessible as Windows needed to go through the setup process which would get the same BSoD as before. Was attempting to use the Recovery Console when the HDD dropped and broke (Makes musical SOUNDS). I tossed it aside and bought a new HDD.

Installed XP on new HDD. All works and is fine but XP won't load with the other two HDDs attached. I downloaded all the drivers from the Dell site for my computer (Originally an XPS Gen 3) which got the internet working again and downloaded drivers for my GPU and sound card... All is working as should. The Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition from Dell's site required a floppy so I installed one I found online that didn't require any floppy. Since then XP will load fine with my second HDD attached but with the third attached too I get a blinking _ after the Dell start up screen.

I went out and bought Floppy Disks to run the Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition offered on the Dell site and to install it with the Windows XP disk at the beginning in hopes of just reinstalling the entire OS with the proper "stuff" (Never realized how computer illiterate I am until now). Unfortunately, when I run the XP set up I hit F6 and chose either ACHI or RAID to get BSoD. I tried choosing the other and get BSoD. I tried choosing both and get BSoD.

My computer right now works with one drive attached but with both it doesn't, just the blinking _.

I'm running out ideas on how to remedy this and have pretty much exhausted every search engine with different searches for a fix. I don't know what to do and have been stuck in front of my computer for the last 48 hours. 24 hours getting everything up and running again and another 24 hours now just trying to get XP to load with all three HDDs attached.

The two HDDs are from my computer originally before replacing the main drive and reinstalling windows. I thought this was all plug and play but guess not. I really thought the Floppy install with F6 at the XP set up would be the end all but has proven useless. Now I'm installing SP3 (Grr, uninstalled before) in hopes it might make a difference.

Any ideas or suggestions or insights will be much appreciated. I so much want to get away from my computer but can't until it's all back together again.


Thank you. What type of RAID setup did you attempt here ? ?I didn't set up any RAID. I simply attached the new HDD and reinstalled XP on it then plugged back in the other two drives, which the other two didn't work and now only one does.

BIOS and everything is set up still from the original build from Dell which RAID is set for auto-detect Raid or ACHI otherwise (Something like that, will take a note of it when I restart again). Everything I've seen online about setting which HDD to load first and what not doesn't apply to my BIOS. ... In the BIOS its set to: Raid Autodetect/ACHI

Also, I've tried connecting the HDDs up with different ports. I got HDD 1 and 0 and also HDD Bay 1 (HDD Bay was the third drive with 0 the boot and 1 the other) though no matter how I have them connected I get the same results.

UPDATE:
SP3 made no difference. When I have all three drives hooked up I get: Error Loading OS.

I tried loading with my third HDD attached with the second unplugged and got the same error (Was thinking perhaps it was the third HDD but now it seems maybe it was the third HDD uniquely). I don't know why my third HDD would render the system unable to load. The third HDD is a 500GB I use for media, is filled mostly with videos and some applications. The second HDD is 170 (or so) gigs which has music, pictures and some applications. The new HDD with Windows installed is 500 Gigs... I'm thinking maybe my computer can't load more than a TB of hard drive which is why all three drives can't load or the first and third alone, though that doesn't make much sense to me. Both the window OS drive and the third HDD are Seagates, if that makes any difference.

Moreover, after being unable to load with SP3 or with the third drive attached with the second unattached, I tried loading as it has been with the OS drive and the second drive to then get the same error... I loaded now by having both drives unattached.

This is making less and less sense to me and just is becoming increasingly difficult.


UPDATE:
I tried using fixboot and fixmbr from the Recovery Console with both extra drives attached... Everything fixed and I exited to only have the same problem: Won't boot with booth drives attached or even one anymore. I get the message: No Boot Device Available, XP will only load with the single drive attached now

My only other idea here is to maybe run a Repair Install (Or whatever it's called) with the disk with both drives attached at the time, not sure if that will make a difference or not. Can anyone suggest if this might fix the problem and assure me the other two drives will be safe? When I originally installed the OS I had the two other drives deattached to be sure everything remains intact. Could this perhaps be the root of my problem? Would I have needed those other two drives attached during the install process?

Moreover, in my BIOS it seems the HDDs are all out of order. For instances, Drive 0 will DISPLAY it is missing and to hti F1 to continue. I assume perhaps if the proper drive is connected to Drive 0 in the bios there would be no issue but no matter which cable I hook up to the OS drive I have the same issue. I don't think bIOS is properly recognizing my drives and when doing the Fixbot noted above Windows referred to the OS drive as the D drive.


After 48+ hours of dealing with this I have to take a break as I'm near accepting my defeat. My last effort is to do yet another full reinstall and manually install all the drivers again and all that entails as I'm running out of hope though I do not know if that will solve the problem as I've already tried a full reinstall earlier with those Intel drivers from Dell to f6 in that results in the BSoD.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions or know-abouts please let me know. I mean, even if I could afford to buy a new computer (was looking forward to building my own but having second thoughts now) I'm worried about this whole HDD swapping which if I wasn't to build my own I was going to buy cheap and just upgrade things myself but now I feel so incompetent. =(


Forgot to add in original post:
3.6 Pent 4
3 Gigs RAM
XP Home SP3Only Dell drivers should be used on Dell's...this has been an issue forever...
Especially the SATA drivers...How would I go about installing them? I downloaded them off the website but they require a floppy to install during the XP set up. I've tried to do this but get the BSoD. Also, which do I choose: Raid or ACHI or does it not matter or both? But more important is the BSoD I get after the drivers load from the floppy during the loading of files from the XP disk. I figured out the problem and am way embarrassed.... From the start of this issue I could easily run the disk diagnostics in the BIOS which noticed all the drives but always stated drive 0 as missing when unplugged or as the WRONG drive. I assumed the XP disk needed to be first and tried switching the cables around but it never worked so I then assumed perhaps BIOS was just relaying information from the previous disks, stupid I know, but it gets even stupider...

Ready to finally give in temporarily just to access my video and music files and log back ONTO WoW (I so much miss SWG) I went out to get a 1tb drive to replace all three, but had to try again... So I reinstalled XP on the 500 gig hdd and then attached the 1tb for the same issue to then think, "Maybe if I switch the power cables it'll load." Looking at the cables with the idea of switching the power cables it hit me... I was switching the power cables the whole time and not the SATA cable. So, so stupid. No less, I'm just glad to have this solved.

However, I still cannot get my third HDD to be recognized by XP. I have the capacity for four drives but always had three which while I can load XP with all three drives attached the third drive isn't being listed in Device Manager.

My theory again is that I'm missing the RAID drivers which will require a full reinstall of XP again. I'm very happy with my current install but will go through this all again unless there is any other idea.

Also, I can slipstream the drivers in making my own XP install disk as the floppy method causes a BSoD. My question now is: How do I know if I slipstream ACHI or RAID or both or does it not matter? The RAID drivers from the Dell site comes with both which I'm using nlite to slip in and before I go through yet another full reinstall I just want to be sure I have it all together this time. Thanks.


So Sorry:
As explained above how simple my problem was and how stupid I was for mixing the cable the resolve for this missing third drive is even worse. During this entire process BIOS has recognized all my drives but I forgot I reset it to the system defaults which of course would disable two of the SATA outlets as it originally shipped with only two drives. I just rolled back the driver for my disk controller in the Device Manager (Which was actually the updated driver I installed) which asked for a restart, so I did hoping maybe, just maybe, but also went into BIOS real quick and to my surprise the last two SATA connects were disabled.

Sure enough enabling that one SATA connect fixed my problem. My entire computer situation has been solved. Gawd, I feel like such a newb.