Server 2003 Can't Boot Without Slave HardDrive?

[Chem]

Running Server 2003 Enterprise Edition (professional) and I can't seem to remove my second hard drive.

Whenever I do the computer hangs at the boot screen for a minute or two and then shows me an error saying unable to detect primary slave hard drive. It then either lets me continue or setup, when I continue it just goes to a blank screen.

I tried searching the MS knowledge base to no avail, any advice is appreciated.

[Aaron]

When you remove your 2nd HDD, do you tell the BIOS that there is no Slave drive?

[Chem]

Tried that, same problem.

[BlitzKrieg]

Simple answer...but often overlooked. Check your jumper on your HDD's, if that fails run the recovery console and then fixboot...that should fix your problem. If either these do not...I have NO clue what it could be without seeing it for myself. When you say "blank screen" you don't mean a QUICK flash of a Blue Screen of Death followed by a black screen do you? If so then your Windows installation is possibly corrupted.

Also, some HDD's require the jumper to be set at Cable Select to function, check the HDD manufacturer's website for information on jumper settings. Good luck.