Help wierd problem...

[Metier9]

i have the asus m2npv-vm and using the onboard RAID controller. I made a raid 1 array with 2 * 80gb HDs and installed XP on it on a 10gig partition.

Now the problem,

I set the raid array to be bootable....

In bios if i set the array as the boot device it doesnt boot and comes up with a "cant find a bootable drive blah blah" message. Now if i set the CDrom drive as the boot device, it will boot into windows... with winxp2 CD in it. As in it seems to think the IDE DVD drive is a bootable HD? Ok the CD does have a boot.ini... but it wouldnt be correct for my system...

Any ideas?

I have an idea, can someone confirm?

When i installed XP from booting the CD it had to write to the E: drive (another HD) some data... So to boot to my XP installation i need the CD in... which when the PC boots the CD it looks to the next avaliable non raided HD (E to get the data to book the XP installation?

[DecomposingStar]

Switch your SATA cables over?

I had this problem yesterday but i don't use RAID. I switched the SATA cables over and it booted up...

Not sure if this will come close to solving your problem, but you could try it,

[Metier9]

edit: Good guess decomposing but i would of thought that sort of problem would force the raid hardware firmware to want to rebuild.

I have an idea, can someone confirm?

When i installed XP from booting the CD it had to write to the E: drive (another HD, non raid'd one) some data... So to boot to my XP installation i need the CD in. Which when the PC boots the CD it looks to the next avaliable non raided HD (E to get the data to boot the XP installation?

[Metier9]

mehh screw it... ill just use win2003 software raid...

[DecomposingStar]

So you didn't install XP onto the RAID drives?
Either change the boot order so it boots from the E:/ (im guessing that's where you installed XP), or re-install XP onto your RAID arrangement.

[Metier9]

I installed XP on the RAID1, raid = C: and D:
E: to G: = normal drives

When i installed XP viva booting the CD it formatted and wrote a little data to E: before it went to install to C: (RAID).

Anyway, its does boot in to the XP installation if i boot from CDrom (no idea why) or the bios is fegged and you cant list the raid array as bootable in the list...

Ill try booting from the drive with the e: partition on it.

[this_is_gav]

Is the actual RAID configured to run the RAID array as the boot device instead of a single drive.

I'll set the ground for what I mean. In the RAID BIOS (not the main motherboard BIOS), if you have more than 1 volume (so a RAID array, and say 2 other single drives) on the same controller, then the actual RAID BIOS usually has a means of setting which of these volumes to boot from. They usually interact with the main BIOS, but not all.

I know my old ICHR5 (Intel S478 board) had this in the RAID config util, and the motherboard BIOS just let it decide.

[Metier9]

Yer, the raid array is set to bootable in the RAID BIOS and then in bios i set it to boot from the raid array.

[Supershanks]

What other hard drives did you ghave plugged in when u installed xp. Windows always makes the 1st hd it sees the boot drive. So if your raid is further down the drive order it can't be the boot drive. As IDE drives are seen by bios b4 sata ports these are the most likely culprits. if u have multi sta drives check the order they appear , u can see this in bios or watch the post screen.

you have 3 options:-
1) unplug other drives & reinstall xp onto your raid . This time xp will make your raid the boot drive as it's the only drive it can find.
2) Use the procedure shown at the bottom of this page Possible Fix by reconfiguring boot.ini using Recovery Console it rebuilds the boot disk on your hd. IProcedure starts from

Possible Fix by reconfiguring boot.ini using Recovery Console

Heading. saves a lot of time compared to 1)
3) Use the thing as is with

E: drive (another HD)

?? as boot. if you look in admin task hd mangement your boot disk will be shown.

luck

[Metier9]

Cheers for that skank ill try it when i get home...

p.s. all my drives are SATA and only a CDROM is IDE.

either way time for some amusing fun when i get home

[Supershanks]

all my drives are SATA

i'd just ensure then that the raid drives are plugged in sata 1&2 so they appear b4 the others.

have fun

[Metier9]

i'd just ensure then that the raid drives are plugged in sata 1&2 so they appear b4 the others.

have fun

yer they are in ports 1 and 2, made sure of that will defiently have to check although it makes for a interesting sort of security feature hehe

[Supershanks]

think i've had at least 2 mobo's which had the port numbering reversed

[Metier9]

<insert naughty comment> i hope mine are not...

[DecomposingStar]

re-install windows without any of the other drives plugged in, just your RAID config.

[Metier9]

Decomp that defeats the object

Anyway ill be sticking 2003 on it, on friday or saturday... So basically what you said decomp hehe...

I looked in the disk management and c: = Boot, e: = system *shrugs*