I recently had someone contact me about a problem they had with their Netbook. They followed my install instructions (see previous post) and all worked, but then one day he got a GNOME Error 17 upon booting. The Ubuntu install I provided was to use the slave 8GB drive as the boot and root, and the master 4GB for their /home folder.

After going to BIOS, the 8GB drive no longer showed as an option; therefore, leaving you with the 4GB drive which (see above) has no boot information. So now what?

Easy, we need to trick (per BIOS) the IDE controller. So if you disable both drives, when you reboot, it will ask for a bootable device. Then restart, F2-Setup, and then you will now see your 8GB drive. Trick complete.