Solved dismantled 2 disk RAID array (data) corrupts win7 OS on SSD

[orbish]

Hello!

My setup was the following:

60GB SSD - win7 64bit
3TB RAID0 array - data

I needed to break down my RAID array so they could be accessed by two other OS. Once I broke down the RAID, Win7 fails to boot. It goes into constant reboots. The thing that REALLY confuses me, is that the OS should not care about my RAID array. The OS was specifically installed to a completely different hard drive. On a different bus.

Any help/explanations/ideas would be a lot of help.

(didn't really know how to search this problem on google)

Thanks!

 

[Orbital Shark]

Hi, and welcome to the forums

At which point does it reboot? Can you access the boot options menu (constantly pressing F8)?

p.s. Dig the username


OS

 

[orbish]

Thanks for the welcome!

Well, I can get it to the repair/safe mode menu. Safe Mode will flash BSOD>reboot after loading CLASSPNP.SYS.

Repair fails.

 

[Orbital Shark]

Does the repair give any details on the fail?

 

[orbish]

Switched from droid to netbook to actually give details

Repair can start up, finds Windows install on F: (which I find odd). Select startup repair. Startup repair cannot repair this computer automatically.

Details: (or lack thereof)

Problem Signature:
Prob Event Name: StartupRepairOffline
Prob Sig 01: 0.0.0.0
Prob Sig 02: 6.1.7600.16385
03: unknown
04: 21200744
05: AutoFailover
06: 3
07: NoRootCause
OS Version: whatever
LocaleID: 1033

I have no problem booting with a live linux distro/backing up data and wiping the SOB. I am just so irritated with how/why this has happened. The RAID array should have no bearing on the OS install! Logic is in disarray!

Going to disable SATA ports of two 1.5TB drives in BIOS and give that a shot.

 

[orbish]

In BIOS: The RAID SATA ports have 3 options.

RAID/AHCI/Disabled.

AHCI is needed for another OS (which should not be mentioned) to access those disks.

Switched to disabled and windows boots up. I have to admit, I'm pretty confused at the moment. I guess I'll probably need to reinstall 7 with AHCI enabled. The bitch of all of this is, I need to install 7 FIRST. So my linux and hack installs will have to start from scratch all over again

 

[Orbital Shark]

It sounds like the MBR is screwed up...

You might want to look at http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20864-mbr-restore-windows-7-master-boot-record.html

 

[orbish]

Thanks for the tips and quick replies, Shark!

I started searching AHCI and problems with windows7 and came across this link: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html

It appears in order to use AHCI I need to enable it in BIOS prior to Install of OS. It looks like I'll need to format after all. I will leave this info up so if anyone else has this problem they can reference this.


EDIT: Any way to mark this thread as solved?

 

[Orbital Shark]

You're welcome, just wish we could have got a better solution for you

To have a thread marked as solved click the on you're first post then type 'solved' into the box

And, please enjoy the rest of the forums

 

[spyknee]

I do not believe you have to do a fresh install to enable AHCI. Wish I had the link to give you. Google more in depth. I bet theres a "Brink" tutorial here!
Your SSD should be able to run in IDE mode.
What was it in when OS installed?
Did you change its port when breaking array? It should be in port 0.
When setting up the SSD, did you move temp files, tmp files, or page file off the SSD to the array?

 

[orbish]

spyknee, thank you for calling me out on giving up too easily, I found a solution!

I will give further details on my setup.

Mobo: Gigabyte G33M-DSR2
SSD: OCZ Agility 60gb SATA port 1
DVD-RW: SATA port 0
1.5 tb data drive: SATA (designated RAID/AHCI port) 2
1.5 tb data drive: SATA (designated RAID/AHCI port) 3

SSD is plugged into one of the two SATA ports that is designated and setup to run similarly to IDE. It was NOT plugged into designated RAID array SATA ports on the motherboard. So the original set-up was set to run in IDE mode. The computer case has not been opened throughout this. So everything is physically the same.

The RAID array was setup prior to OS installs. Linux/tsktskOS could NOT see array (hence all of this).

I cannot say with absolute certainty whether or not the RAID array had system files on it, because it has since been broken and formatted to two NTFS 1.5tb drives. However, I pay attention to every KB on these drives and I'm certain nothing of system importance was on them. I don't even like seeing thumbs.db on these drives.

The solution can be found here.

Summary:

open regedit
browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci
change "start" value from 3 (or whatever) to 0
restart (enter BIOS)
change ports to AHCI
save (reboots)
windows boots up, installs crap
reboot
WIN

Currently posting from Win7 with AHCI enabled in BIOS. Linux/tsktskOS both see Hard Drives!

 

[Orbital Shark]

That's excellent news

 

[spyknee]

Gotta luv it when its EZ. wtg