[skeil909]

Boot config:

3x 36.7GB Raptors on 1,2 & 3 of the NV SATA Controller, configured as a single RAID 0 volume.

2x DVDRW's (master/slave) on Primary IDE controller, 1x 200GB and 1x160GB (master/slave) storage drives on the Secondary IDE.

1st boot device = LiteOn DVDRW
2nd boot device = NV Raid Volume


Problem:

System boots up and runs fine as long as the XP PRO SP2 CD is in the LiteOne DVD drive. Remove the CD and the system cannot find a valid bootable partition.

Change the 1st boot device to the NV Raid and you get the same boot error.


Comment:

I am not sure why the system wants that XP CD to be in the drive whenever the system boots. I have had this problem before with a Gigabyte 8IK1100 board but am unsure as to how I fixed it, it just started working one day. lol

I have tried various changes to the boot.ini but can't seem to correct the issue. I also had the same exact problem with XP 64-bit and the 2 other XP Pro installs on the same setup.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Tumbleweed36]

Hi,

I may have missed something, so forgive if I did. Anyhow, this board requires two things when setting the boot order. First, you need to make sure under each option in Boot order that each type of drive is set to the sequence that you want. Then, you need to tell the computer which of those options come first, second, and third. I suggest:

CDRom
Floppy
Hard Drive that you wish to boot from.

Don't forget to save before you exit.

What I am saying is, the search order may not be quite set up right, since setting the boot order in this board is slightly different than very recent older boards.

 

[linderman]

Welcome to TSF:

I have read several posts of weird problems coming from the Lite ON cd-rom's / i would remove that one and try another if possible and maybe even try it with no cd-rom cabled up.

post the results of your test / dont hesitate to ask more questions

regards

joe

 

[skeil909]

Config clarification / update

All the above suggestions were already in place, but many thanks for the replies.

BIOS Settings:

BOOT: Boot device priority

1st = CDROM
2nd = Hard Disk
3rd & 4th = Disabled

Removable Drives: Floppy Disks

Hard Disk Drives:

1st = SCSI-0: NVIDIA STRIPE 103.43G
2nd = 2ND MASTER: WDC WD2000JB
3rd = 2ND SLAVE: WDC WD1600JB

CDROM:

1st MASTER: LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1633S
2nd ATAPI DVD DUAL 4XMAX

Now let me clarify that the system BOOTS into the installed windows XP on the NVIDIA RAID and runs fine as long as the Windows XP PRO SP2 CD is sitting in one of the DVD drives. Eject the CD and you get this error:

DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER.

My question is why does this matter? The stock Windows XP PRO SP2 CD does not have or load any drivers for the NVRAID.

Also disconnecting the DVD drives does not change anything. The only thing that did make a change was trying this. Since the boot files update and reside on the C: drive which is the WD 200GB, I changed it to the primary boot device with the NVRAID as the next.

Doing that gives me this error:

WINDOWS COULD NOT START BECAUSE THE FOLLOWING FILE IS MISSING OR CORRUPT: <WINDOWS ROOT>\SYSTEM32\NTOSKRNL.EXE
PLEASE REINSTALL A COPY OF THE ABOVE.

I just don't see what XP's startup process is needing that XP CD to be in the drive for. It's just a hinderance to have to keep it in the drive everytime I need to boot the system. What is it loading off that CD and how can I get it to load the file(s) off my C: drive?

:4-dontkno