I've had my computer for 6 months, with no problems at all. This morning, I backed up several folders of pics, mp3's, documents, and zipped files, and was able to browse the net and listen to mp3's. I noticed nothing out of the ordinary during all of this.

I then turned my computer off to install a new DVD burner, and add an older HD (for the extra storage space). My mobo has only one IDE port, so I have my optical drives (previously a cd burner and DVD drive--the burner has been replaced with the new DVD burner) plugged into that. The existing 160 GB HD runs Windows XP, and is plugged into the SATA1 port on the mobo. The older HD I am adding was in an older computer of mine. I did not reformat it before removing it, so it still has Windows 2000 on it (not sure if that matters at all). It is also an IDE drive, so I bought an adaptor to plug it in to the SATA2 port on the mobo.

Once these had all been installed, I turned the computer back on, and instead of the typical "beep" I hear, there was a short buzz, followed by the usual beep. When the "press del to enter setup" screen appeared, I tried that, but it would not go to the bios. I put the Windows XP startup disc in the new burner drive and restarted, but it still would not boot from the disc. I tried the startup disc in the other optical drive, but to no avail.

any ideas what the problem might be, or how to fix it?

See if it will boot up without the old hard drive connected. Ive tried several IDE-SATA adapters and they never worked and caused the computer not to boot. You can put the old drive on the same cable as the DVD drive and then copy whatever you need off the old drive. Make sure you set the jumpers right, 1 as Master and the other as Slave.

there won't be any kind of confusion on the part of the mobo if I have one HD as a SATA and the other as IDE? The SATA HD does not have any kind of jumper feature on it--do I assume that will be read as the master and the IDE as the slave?

Also, I'm not trying to get anything off the IDE HD, I'm trying to use it as extra storage, as I have outgrown my SATA HD. So, keeping it on the same cable with the DVD burner, will I need to set jumpers according to the position of each along the cable?