Question System won't boot after installing and uninstalling SATA cable

[RTechT]

So I recently purchased a red Serial ATA cable to connect my DVD drive to my computer. My computer had two HDDs plugged in before. I connected the cable and fired up the system, and it showed the BIOS screen fine but then it pulled up an Intel boot agent screen and said "Initializing link" or something like that and then said Failed, check cable. After that, the system said "Non-system disk or drive. Replace and then strike a key". The first thing that came to my mind was to try a different SATA port, and I plugged my DVD driver's new SATA cable into the port that seemed to be the third. This time it made it to the Windows logo, but it didn't load beyond there and froze. Then, I put my first HDD into what seemed like the 2nd SATA port (they weren't numbered, which I guess is how all SATA ports are), and then connected my 2nd HDD into the third port and the DVD drive into the fourth. I then turned the system on and this time it froze at the POST screen. I figured maybe it was just a bad cable and unplugged it, leaving my HDDs only plugged in. I turned the system on again and this time the Intel boot agent showed up and threw the same check cable error, followed by the previously mentioned non-system disk drive error, even though the DVD drive is unplugged and now the system is back to the state it was in before all this. I'm stumped at this point, and help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[DRagor]

and now the system is back to the state it was in before all this

Actually it is not. Connecting drives to different SATA ports is enough to make BIOS not know where is boot disk. You either have to connect drives exactly as they were before, or go to BIOS and change boot disk priority to the correct one.
As for original problem, there are three possible causes: bad DVD, bad new SATA cable, or bad SATA port. All those conditions have to be tested using one disk, changing port/cable until you find the combination that does not work.

 

[RTechT]

So I have to reassign the drives and SATA connections through the BIOS? I didn't do that previously as I thought the system would probably do that itself, but thanks for the suggestion I'll try that out!

 

[SkyNetRising]

then it pulled up an Intel boot agent screen and said "Initializing link" or something like that and then said Failed, check cable.

This means, your system is trying to boot from network.
You should disable network boot in BIOS boot priority settings (since this obviously causes confusion).

 

[RTechT]

This means, your system is trying to boot from network.
You should disable network boot in BIOS boot priority settings.

Thanks for the answer! It is strange though, as I've never seen that happen before I plugged in the DVD drive but I'll fix it, thanks again!

 

[RTechT]

Alright guys, I tried out the suggestions here. The boot order was correct already, as changing it still showed the non-system disk error, but after disabling network boot the initliazing link error is gone.

 

[RTechT]

Fixed it, I used a SATA cable that came with the PC for the DVD drive and the new one with an HDD, fixed the boot order and now the system boots and works. Thanks for all the help guys, appreciate it!