Help! Comp won't load OS!

[ju5tin99]

I pulled out an SATA DVD burner that I purchased and couldn't get working, and I put the old DVD rom that I have back in the system. Before I tried to install the burner everything was fine, and when I just unplugged it with the burner still in the case everything was fine. When I was putting my old drive back in, I cleaned up my case organization, and flipped my HD's around so that they would connect from the opposite side of my case to help keep it organized. I really didn't make any significant changes. Now when I turn it on, it boots up past the BIOS, then it stops and says "Error loading operating system". Here's what I've tried already to fix this so you don't give me advice I've already tried:

1. Checked RAM & VC connection, they are fine.
2. Checked that HD was recognized in BIOS, it is
3. Booted from floppy & CD Rom, both worked
4. Booted from WinXP CD & ran Automatic System Recovery, still won't load
5. Reset BIOS to default settings, no change

Note that nothing is currently OC'd. Everything was and is running at stock speed & voltage. Does anybody have any idea how to fix this? I'm guessing that a reformat would work, how about a fresh install of WinXP? If I do have to reformat, is there any way that I can access the drive to back up some data first? I do have most stuff backed up on my second HD, but there is no OS on that drive. Thanks for your help. See specs below.

Athlon 64 3200+ (venice)
Chaintech VNF4 Ultra mobo
2X512mb Corsair Value Ram
eVga 6600GT
1 Maxtor HD, 1 IBM HD (both IDE)
Toshiba DVD rom, Sony CD burner
Fortron BlueStorm 500W PSU

P.S. One more bit of possibly useful information: When I was rearranging stuff, I switched the IDE cables that I was using to connect my HD's and my optical drives b/c the one that was originally connected to my opticals is longer, and I needed it to reach my HD's. Both cables were working before, so I don't know the likelihood of one being bad, but that is the only connection that wasn't restored exactly the same as the last time that the system was running correctly. Thanks again for the help.

 

[Captain Slug]

double-check your boot order settings in the BIOS
It may be set to a specific IDE address that swapping the cables aroun changed. You'll need to test different arraingements (setting HDD-0, HDD-1, HDD-2, or HDD-3 as the second boot device after the DVD-ROM drive)

 

[ClarkKent]

Is it trying to load the OS off the second IDE harddrive instead of the one with OS on it? Maybe that is it. At least worth a check. Might be the cable thing. Is the current current IDE cable you are using a 40 or 80 wire cable cause I've heard that only optical drives will run off of the 40 wire cable. Maybe I'm wrong there but stuff to check out I guess.

EDIT: Sorry Slug beat me to my first question.

 

[ju5tin99]

Well, apparently switching the cables was the problem. I pulled the cable off my optical drives and put it back on my HD and everything booted fine. I guess I'll just have to rearrange them again for now, maybe pick up a longer one in the future. Thanks for the responses guys.