I've just upgraded from Windows Xp to Vista sp2 in a computer with two hard drives , the 1st (C is connected to IDE of motherboard and the 2nd (D is connected to a PCI_IDE Controller ( Silicon Image Sil0680 ATA/133 controller).When I make a netstart ( coolstart) my system loads the Windows Vista in a minimum time and everything is operating fine including Device Manager where " all devices are working properly " and " all drivers are the best existing " but when I restart the computer after reading BIOS the screen remains dark more then 5 minutes and the hard drive's led is off . Finally, after loading the operating system everything is ok , except that I don't see the 2nd hard drive ( D that is connected to PCI_IDE contoller although in Device Manager in category Storage Controllers the controller seems working properly and the driver too , which doesn't happen on a cool start(after shutdown) that everything ( Hardware and Software ) is working fine . Any help appreciated .
What does SMART say of the drive ? Try updating chipset drivers if SMART is ok. Is this an MSI board, VIA chipset ?
this is a though one to answer this is a though one to answer because we need to know the info on the xp format that the the drives were. was it fat32 or NTFS? were they quick formated or fully formated? we also need to know if it was vista32 or X64. i had a similar problem with SCSI drives upgrade from XP home to XP pro. my problem was i did a quick format to NTFS. XP pro didn't detect the drives. can you go back to XP? i suggest get a new ext. drive one that can hold the data of your old drive(s) and the new data; and, or programs installed under pissta(vista). cheek to see if the drive is formated to NTFS(the new drives are formated unlike the old ones). if not do a full format to NTFS(not a quick format). once you have the new drive set up in vista backup all the stuff you need on the new drive. now go back to the xp that you had installed that detected the old drive(s). now install the new drive in xp and cheek if the files, programs, or data are on the new drive from vista. copy all the data from the old drive(s) to the new one. when you finished transferring the data reinstall vista, cheek the new drive to see if it has the data. if all is good then do a full format on the old drives to have more storage. i hope this helps.
Motherboards usually have built in 2 channel of IDE controller.You could try to set from your bios setting to disable the 2nd IDE channel as it could be conflicting with the add on IDE card you have.
my bad never gave conflict a thought, because the post didn't say conflict. did you go to Control Panel System to see if there was a conflict? also cheek IRQs
Its possible the drive attached to your PCI IDE card has a fault that only appears after it has warmed up a bit and is failing to detect correctly on the controller when you are doing a warm reboot. Taking a long time to start booting the operating system is often a symptom that some hardware is taking a long time for the bios to detect. If possible I suggest attaching it as a slave device to your primary IDE controller and see if you have a similar problem. You could also try accessing the PCI IDE bios (you normally get a prompt for the key press after the main bios passes). It is unlikely to be a format issue as suggested since the hard drive would still show up in device manager and in disk management where it would show possibly as an unknown format or just not have a drive letter assigned. I am guessing that it doesn't but the OP isn't perfectly clear on that.
clarification First of all I have to thank you for your interest but let me explain something . When I start from shutdown there is no problem at all , everything is operating perfectly , the problem exists only after warm boot (restart) which delays about 6 to 7 min instead of 2 min required for a cool boot ( start after shutdown ) . I must refer that the problem was appeared during Vista installation which needs to restart 4 to 5 times until finishing . Every time it restarted the computer seemed to hang for 6 to 7 minutes ( C: drive's led off , screen dark ) and suddenly continued to next phase etc