Hooking up old IDE HD to new computer

Hi, all. New to the site, but looking for some help. Here's the problem...

I recently purchased a new (to me) computer. It's a duo core 3GHz processor, and has a 250GB SATA drive. I am trying to add my 400GB IDE HD to the computer, as it has lots of files that I still want (it was approximately 3 months old when I upgraded my computer).

I have tried setting it up on the same IDE cable as my DVD burner, setting it as master, then as slave, then as "let cable decide", but every time, and configuration, it won't let me start windows.

Any suggestions or advice would be EXTREMELY appreciated. I have searched through the forums, and can't find a thread on this topic. If I've missed it, please, just direct me to the correct place.

Thanks in advance for all your help.

Cheers!

 

Some more info would be helpful - what version of Windows are you using, and are you trying to boot from the PATA IDE drive, or just wanting to use it as storage?

Off the top of my head it sounds like a BIOS issue. You can check in the BIOS, and make sure the drive that contains the OS you want to boot on is showing and is selected as the first boot device.

Sometimes I have had issues where older SATA boards seem to default to a PATA drive when one is installed . . . trying to boot from it instead of its normal boot drive and freezing there instead of going on to check its list of boot devices. This is especially true if there is an OS installed on the PATA drive.