Thanks in advance,

My neighbor just got a new machine, please see specs below. The problem is, his old hard drive (we carried over from old pc) which is IDE is attached to the jmicrom PATA controller.

There is already an os installed on this IDE drive, and when we try to boot the computer, it loads everything just fine, detects the drive, and just before windows loads, it reboots.

So does XP (an already pre-existing installation) need a driver to boot off a jmicron PATA controller running in non-raid mode?

I'm thinking either XP needs a disk, which would entail a reinstall? Or repair? Or, boot.ini needs to be changed?

Once again thanks!

Core 2 Duo E8400
Asus Maximus Formula Intel X38 chipset
G.Skill 2X1GB DDR2-800
Maxtor 40GB HDD IDE
Audigy 2
Optical IDE cdrw.
Antec 430 watt power supply.

I'd say spend a little extra, and buy a decent 160Gb HDD

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822145124
($49 + S&H dropped one down a flight of steps and it still worked)
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822148230
($53 + S&H but a better warranty)

either of these drives will smoke that 40Gb ATA drive, for about $50. I'd also go with a fresh install.

(you can always slave the ATA and transfer files after the fact)

Get a new SATA drive Well, you can actually use the old HDD.

My suggestion would be: clean install your XP in the new system, I always recommend this if we get the new mobo. A little pain in the start, but better do this in the beginning to save more headache in the future. The reason is that for some reason Windows can not 'cleanly' remove all previous unnecessary files/drivers/registry etc. I'm not a Windows Hacker/Cracker/Guru or whatever, so the easiest way for me is to clean install Windows.

I'm using IDE optical drive under ABiT IX38 mobo, and I can perform a clean install using my IDE optical drive, which means that the IDE on JMicron runs well. And you're supposed to be able to do clean install as well.

One note: you should take a look into master/slave configuration for both of your IDE drive (HDD & optical) since you're running on one cable. X38 mobo will only have one IDE slot I presume. Well, guess you've already done this since you're able to start your computer (into Windows).

The other workaround on this that I can say (but I'm really against it) is: see if you can load into safe mode. Uninstall any old driver, then restart, then install all your new mobo driver from the CD that came with your mobo.

Thanks for the advice guys! Thankfully my neighbor said he will pick up a sata drive after work tomorrow. Then transfer any needed files over if need be.

Once again thanks!