A7N8X deluxe sata RAID + ide RAID

[Folkert Rienstra]

Yeah. Basically my boot options are:

As per Setup or just perceived?
If Setup doesn't offer you the choice, small wonder it doesn't work.

SATA disabled: choice between onboard IDE or PATA PCI RAID card

SATA enabled, RAID card installed: choice between onboard IDE or PATA RAID
PCI card; the system won't detect a boot partition on my SATA drive;

near as I can tell, it never even bothers checking - it only scans my IDE
RAID and discovers - hey! - there's no OS here! Think I'll stop working!

Did you follow my suggestion re partitions?
Also, what happens if you remove all drives from the PATA RAID card
(or disable them in BIOS, if possible)?

SATA enabled, no RAID card: choice between onboard IDE or SATA

Basically, I want SATA (boot) + PATA IDE RAID (for data) + onboard IDE (for
optical drives); unfortunately, with my RAID card installed, I can't get my
system to boot from SATA. Someone suggested I use a bootloader, but I've
never used one to try to get my system to boot from a different drive
before - and right now, I'm a little wary of mucking around with my system
too much...

Still, I'd really like to hear some ideas on how to resolve this issue, please.

Yes, but will you listen?

[And yes, I know it's been over two weeks since I first asked about this.
What can I say? Thanksgiving is hell... ]