Hmm, I guess it is possible the first SATA port is bad. Do you have 2 SATA ports or 4?

If you have 4 ports, then I'd say just leave the two drives plugged into 2 of the other 3 ports. You don't have to plug them in any specific order. The first drive you install Windows onto is going to be considered the primary boot device. It doesn't depend on which port you have the drive plugged into.

System disk means a hard drive with an operating system loaded on. When you unplug all drives and don't boot to a CD or flash drive, the next in the chain is going to be the permanent storage device with the operating system on it...aka the hard drive.

Since you have the same problem with two different drives when they are plugged in the primary SATA port, I can only guess the port itself is bad.

Hope that helps.

ok so I put in my os disk as the system disk and now it goes to the disk and wants to set up windows so here I Go again F6 for third party drivers, .....set up is loading.......Welcome to set up. F8..C: ......Enter..format ....Quick...formating c...copying.files...It sees the C:/// coping............done ...rebooting........stops at primary channel AGAIN.....3rd time Brustlhr

2 ports can both be bad?

the first top port wants to be the primarywhen nothing is there it says primary channel not found and the secondary channel curser is blinking...........

so i took both off line and it goes though the bios and ends up asking for a system disk i give it the hd1 and it goes blank i put in xp and it loads up in my ram then says it cant find hd wellll now i switced pci slots and it now sees both hds i set it to boot from cd and ................set up is loading........set the sata.....loading files.........F8 i agree......NOT>>
it sees both hds can i deleat c:

yes the pci slot that i was using was bad i changed the controller card to another slot and wala.........now i installed sp2 and........rebooting................sucess........ .I figgered it out
Brustlhr

So you had a PCI SATA controller card?

That would have helped to mention lol.

Marked as fixed.