AN-M2HD won't boot from IDE HDD -- success story

Success booting:

  • CDROM on IDE
  • CDROM on USB
  • HDD on USB

No love from:

  • HDD on IDE (either of two drives I tried)

I was able to boot from CD and install Ubuntu onto the HDD, which was connected to IDE. But then the HDD would not boot from IDE. It would boot fine from USB.

So I found the ABIT mobo forum and set out to write a message and thought, what are these guys going to ask me to do that I know won't make any difference. I mean, the HDD obviously works since Ubuntu installed TO it via IDE, and booted from it from USB. I thought, "they're going to ask me to try using the ABIT IDE cable that came with the mobo." So I did.

I can't explain it, but the ABIT cable lets me boot from IDE. My old one let me use the drive, but not boot. I guess it was getting old and beaten up. I'm posting this here in case someone else has a similar problem. Perhaps the mobo is finicky about IDE cables.