I'm having two hard disks in my system. Both have windows and linux 8.0 installed in it and the bootloader is lilo. I use one hard disk for regular purpose and the other for experimentations. The first one is set to primary master and the second one as secondary master. The problem is that even if i disable the primary hard disk in BIOS , the system boots thru the primary disk. So to boot thru the second disk, i should either disconnect the cable to that disk or disable the controller itself. Why is this happening?

My System config:

Intel Celeron 1 Ghz/128 MB SDRAM/ 2 x 40 GB hard disks/ Mercury 810e motherboard/15" monitor /keyboard and mouse

I don't have a 810e motherboard but if you really disabled the drive in the BIOS it shouldn't boot. At least on all the motherboards I have it works.

Did you try changing the boot sequence to boot from the secondary master first? With newer mobos you can select to boot from any drive.

well one sugestion is are you disabling it in just the boot order or all together disabling the controller?

another is to get rid of the intel (sorry partial to AMD) and get an amd =P

does your BIOS list a boot order, and then have an option for "BOOT OTHER DEVICES" or "TRY OTHER BOOT DEVICES" or something like that ?

If so, try disabling that option, then it should only boot to the devices that you have specified.