Bootable External Hard Drive

I'm going to try to make this as brief as possible.

History: My old computer stopped recognizing the hard drive (SATA). I bought a new hard drive, but the computer doesn't recognize it either.

I tried plugging the SATA cable into the second connector on the mobo, but no luck. I tried using a new SATA cable and tried connecting to each motherboard connector, no luck. My assumption is that the problem is with the motherboard.

My objective is to be able to use the computer and hard drive(s), but I want to spend VERY LITTLE money (as far under $100 as possible, preferably less than $50), since I recently purchased a new computer.

I see my options as these:

1. Replace the mobo.

Limitations: The current mobo is a decent socket A/462 with SATA connectors. It is hard to find these (particularly inexpensive ones) with SATA connectors and I refuse to take my chances on an "as is" board on ebay, etc.

2. Buy external enclosures and boot the drives that way, as needed. This would be my choice, if it isn't too complicated.

Limitations: I don't know if this is possible and how to do it. One hard drive already has Windows XP installed and all of my files in place. The other is a brand new drive with nothing installed on it.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

You should post all your PC's specs.
Include your PSU, this could be a PSU issue er even bad power cable/Molex connector.

Have you changed any BIOS settings or reset CMOS? could be Bios setting!

As for booting to external HDD that would be dependeant on your MOBO supporting this

 

Here are my specs:
Abit NF7-S vs.2 mobo
AMD Athlon XP 3200+
Radeon 9800 Pro
Western Digital 160 GB hard drive
Thermaltake 560W psu

It probably isn't the power connector, because the WD hard drive (the old hard drive) came with it's own COMBINED SATA/Power cable. However, when I switched SATA cables, I also switched to a different SATA power connector on the psu, which didn't help.

I haven't changed BIOS settings and the current settings were working fine.

What setting or spec would determine if a mobo could support booting from an external drive? What should I look for?

 

anyone?

 

If the hard drive you listed is the new hard drive and the one that was being replaced, then you have the same trouble I had a few months ago. I went from an 80gb Sata drive to a 160gb one. You will have to update your bios because the old one will not support the larger hard drive size. Sorry, its been so long ago that I had to do mine, I can't recall where I found all the information at. I'm sure Western Digital will have the BIOS flash update for you though. I will warn you ahead of time, when I did mine, I had to use a floppy, no other choice. This caused me a larger headache becaue my floppy drive didn't work. If you don't trust me, do a search on it. It took me awhile to find the info myself, but it is out there. If the drive listed was the same size as the old one, then I still say update the Bios and give it a try.

 

Actually, the new drive is larger than the old one, so I'll give that a try. Never occurred to me...

Luckily, my floppy drive works fine.

Thanks for your help. I'll give an update soon.