Weird bootup issue...

[heatmoon42]

So the weirdest thing just happened right now...

First off, I have two hard drives, a Western Digital SATA, and a Maxtor PATA. Windows is loaded on the SATA.
So, I was doing a weekly cleaning: clearing all my cookies, deleting temporary files, defragmenting my hard drive ..that kinda thing.
After all of this, I restarted my computer, and it failed to bootup.

Uh-oh - did my hard drive die?

So after opening up my computer and making sure nothing was loose, I started it back up and looked around in the BIOS. For some reason, the BIOS was reset to only look for hard drives on PATA ports. I switched it to PATA + SATA, and wah-lah ..all set.

So my concern is: did my SATA drive temporarily die or lose power, so the BIOS by default just reset to only look for PATA because it didn't see anything in on the SATA port for that moment? And is this a sign of a dying hard drive? Or can something else change the BIOS settings?

By the way, I was going to put this in the 'Storage and Networking' subforum, but this seems like it has to do more with the BIOS and motherboard settings. But feel free to move it over there if necessary, mods.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Tedster]

nope - and I'm gonna catch hell for posting this, but I already have discussed my objections to having PATA and SATA in the same system. I won't say anymore. See my other threads regarding this. I'm sure another firestorm will ensue.

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

I`m not saying this is what happened, but it`s possible your cmos battery needs replacing. A failing cmos battery could cause bios settings to go astray.

Just a thought.

Regards Howard :wave: :wave:

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

A failing cmos battery could cause bios settings to go astray.

A buggy BIOS can do that as well.

Just a thought.

Regards Mict

 

[Rick]

For some reason, the BIOS was reset

A problem with your CPU, memory or anything that fails POST can force your BIOS to reset the CMOS.

For example, let's say your system detects two memory modules. The problem here is though, one is faulty. Your BIOS is about to start the POST process, but it can't seem to get that 2nd module working right. Your BIOS resets the CMOS (before you even see the POST screen) and gives it another shot. Next time, it will boot up, but you'll probably notice the memory is working at a very low FSB speed or the memory is no longer counted in the reported total memory.

I cannot see how this would be a PATA/SATA issue.