Member Avatar for Xephys

Hey,

I hope this is in the correct place and that someone will be able to help out.

I have an old computer, where I installed ubuntu 9.10 on and it told me that my 80Gb WD hdd was failing imminently. So I went and bought a 500Gb SATA hdd with a sata to ide bi-directional adapter(my mobo only uses SATA for raid I think.). Anyways, I removed the ide hdd and connected the bi-directional adapted to the mobo and then the sata hdd to the adapter, leaving the DVD drives and everything else untouched.

As the hdd is new I placed the ubuntu live cd in the dvd drive and tried to load it but I get a 'Boot failure' message asking to insert a proper boot device or cd. I don't understand why it's doing this and would appreciate any help you can give.

My bios detects both the new hdd and dvd drive and I have set the boot order to dvd/cd,hdd,dvd/cd,dvd/cd.

Thanks in advance

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by guybo

Dani AI

Generated

A common cause of this symptom on older systems is not the CD or the new drive itself but a compatibility gap introduced by the SATA-to‑IDE adaptor and the motherboard BIOS. Since the install media was confirmed to be bootable (), the situation points more toward how the adapter and BIOS present devices during POST than toward bad discs. was correct that a native SATA connection is the most reliable fix when the board supports it.

Two adapter families matter here: passive pin-change adapters (they only change the connector) and active bridge adapters (they contain a translation IC). Passive adapters frequently will not translate the SATA protocol in a way the BIOS can boot from, while active bridge adapters sometimes do. Visual inspection for a small IC or part number on the adapter helps identify which type it is; cheap “bidirectional” adapters are often passive and not truly bootable.

Useful checks and diagnostics:

  • Confirm the new drive actually receives SATA power and spins when powered (no spin = no chance to boot).
  • Try the drive in a USB-to-SATA enclosure or adapter on another PC to verify it enumerates and can be partitioned/receive a bootloader.
  • If the disk boots when attached over USB, the onboard adapter is likely the problem; cloning or installing the OS while the disk is USB-attached can make the disk bootable on systems that can see it.
  • Inspect BIOS options for “SATA mode”, “IDE emulation” or “legacy/SATA support” and try the compatibility/legacy setting if present.
  • If any native SATA headers exist on the motherboard, prefer those over an adapter.

Most reliable long-term solutions are: move the drive to a real SATA port, use a USB enclosure to prepare or clone the disk, or replace the adapter with an active bridge unit explicitly advertised as bootable. A BIOS update that documents added SATA/boot support can help but should be treated as a last resort.

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Member Avatar for zerocool21

hey
check your ubuntu live cd first may be its not booting
then replug your new hdd
hope it may work

Edited by zerocool21 because: n/a
Member Avatar for Xephys

Checked it, works fine!
Also tried with xp cd and still nothing!!!

When I insert disc and press any key I get this message:
Searching for Boot Record from CD/DVD-0..Not Found
Searching for Boot Record from IDE-0..Not Found

Member Avatar for zerocool21

may be there is a problem with your dvd rom
try booting from a live usb
should definitlly work!!!!!!!!!!1

Member Avatar for guybo

Make sure your BIOS is set to AUTOMATIC in the discovery mode for both the DVD and HDD. Pre set addresses may be confusing the system. Second, if you have SATA connections on your motherboard, by all means try connecting the new HDD via SATA without the adapter.

Member Avatar for guybo

Are your hdd and dvd connected via the same ide cable as master-slave? Try disconnecting the new hdd and booting solely from the dvd. Then try vice versa. I suspect confusion over a master-slave connection when one is a sata with an adapter.

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