My system is and still running after almost 11-years, Dell XPS Dimension Gen5 with two SATA HDD's (mirrored) and originally two optical drives. Drive one was a TS-H292B/DECH CD-RW and identified as PATA 0 and drive two is a Philips 8631 DVD-RW and identified as PATA 1. The TS-H292B drive pooped out. I replaced it with an MSI DH-24AS SATA optical drive. I thought, well, there are two unused SATA ports, why not use one with a more modern CD-RW drive. Yes, I tried to research this mix but, alas, I found nothing on-point at the time. Well, to my chagrin, neither drive will boot to the operating system disc even though I moved the jumper on the DVD drive from cable select to slave. I have changed the boot order and that did not work. Allow me to state at this point most emphatic, I am NOT a computer wizard. After seven decades plus a few years the last thing with which I want to deal is a computer issue, but not being flush with cash, I will attempt to fix things (anything) myself but knowing when and where to draw the line. So, after reading the aforementioned, what the heck am I missing? Oh yes, attempting to locate a replacement TS-H292B drive has been next to impossible let alone a compatible alternative. Searches are fruitless! A computer is a marvelous tool but sometimes a royal pain in the kiester (not sure of spelling, but means rear end).
In advance, thanks to anybody that may be able to enlighten me as to how to correct this issue or if I must remove the SATA optical drive and replace it with a neanderthal IDE drive, if one can be purchased. Newegg, for example, shows out of stock as of this date.
John