System = Dell Inspiron 531

Had issue with boot drive, so replaced and re-loaded Windows Vista OS.

Decided to add original drive to grab some data; so installed the old drive in Sata Port 2. The drive did not work -- I thot is might be a bad SATA cable, so started switching things around.

Net is -- drive works fine if new boot drive is in SATA port 0; and prior hard drive is plugged in SATA port 1 (where CD had been plugged). Copied data, etc.

So -- knew I needed to ENABLE SATA Port 2 in BIOS -- but when I go there -- those items are 'Greyed out' and not selectable.

KEY QUESTION - Is there some other change that has to be made to enable SATA ports in BIOS? I went in Device Manager -- found the 'controller' entry -- but nothing seemed out of place there.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Regards, HisRocker

After a number of searches -- found this one on the Dell Forums:

Link = en.community.dell.com/support-forums/disk-drives/f/3534/p/19270781/19472522.aspx

I had the same issue - here is the solution:

Reboot and enter bios setup (F2)

Step 1: HDD SMART: DISABLED

Step 2: Advanced / Integrated Peripherals / Serial-ATA Configuration;
set the SATA controller to SATA 1+2 - this activates the other 2 SATA ports

That should do it - good luck!

:grinthumb