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I upgraded by adding a SSD via SATA port on the motherboard. It works fine but will only boot if I also have a (redundant) operating system (Windows XP) on the original IDE drive. I can then choose to boot straight from Windows 7 on the SSD. Without the IDE drive I get a boot error something like Primary Hard Drive Not Found. The IDE drive has now developed a fault and I want to install a new hard drive on the other SATA port rather than replace with in IDE drive. Can anyone offer advice? DM.
You may need to alter the system BIOS settings so the SSD is set as the boot drive. Or, you’ll need to swap the data cable connections between the drives. Download the systems manuals from here: Dimension-8300 Manuals
The bootloader for Windows 7 has likely been installed on the IDE drive. This allows you to boot to other OS installed on your PC. The bootloader installs on the primary drive, which sounds like thats your IDE drive. That could be why it won’t boot to Windows 7 when the IDE drive is removed. Have you tried removing the IDE drive and then doing a fresh install of Windows 7 on the SSD. You may need to access the bios settings by hitting F2 when prompted after powering on the PC. Check the hard drive settings to make sure SATA is enabled not IDE and that the SATA drive is set as the primary boot drive. This may allow you to install and boot Windows 7 on the SSD.
