How can I "ignore"a dying hard drive?

[Rashkae]

Bart Silverstrim wrote:

> 
> Others will no doubt correct me, but on those drives there should be 2 
> cables.  One is the SATA cable, one is power.  If I were unsure which is 
> which, you should be able to turn off the computer, open it up, unplug 
> one of the power cables, turn on the machine and see if it boots and if 
> so if the error messages are there.  If they are, you have the wrong 
> drive.  If they're gone, you found it.  If it doesn't boot, you know 
> which drive is your boot drive.  

If you unplug the boot drive, chances are, the BIOS will choose the next 
available drive to nominate as the new boot drive.  This is only a 
'problem' because it will remember this drive as the boot drive even 
when you re-connect the proper one.  This can only be fixed by selecting 
a new boot device in BIOS.  (Your BIOS may vary)