fix boot error when extra harddisk connected

[rmerrick]

Help.
Background.
System Gigabyte X48T, 4G ram, usual bits. Video
Sata Port 0&1 - Gigaraid 2x 750G Raid 0 - Scsii disk Boot.
Sata ports 2&3, 4&5, 6, - 5x 500G 2TB dynamic GPT Raid 5
Sata Port 7 -1x 750G Roms & software disk.
Rocket Raid Scsii 0_1, 5x1TB in raid 5.
Scsii 0_0, 1x500G JBOD. Problem is here.

I have been trying to get this system ready to do extensive HD video editing and multimedia work so thumbnails are critical to sorting out 1000's of clips. Vista just doesnt show thumbnails. I have been waiting years for Windows 7.
This system is fast. Boot drive reads at over 160MB/s sec. The 2 Raid 5 arrays can copy to each other at 250MB/s plus (for multi GB files). Interesting HDTach 3.0.1 only shows 160MB's for the Highpoint array.
They will have to fix their software..

In the last few weeks the system had become very flakey - win7 x64 & vista x64 system -video thumbnail display & codec errors etc, windows explorer hangs, system corruption, bad software & codecs.

The boot manager from the latest (Paragon i think) partition manager for windows 7 got stuck on resize partition and it doesnt time out. I want my pc to be always on for remote access..
Anyway the system finally crashed. I lost one of the Raid0 boot disk array IDs when I tried to delete the boot manager. One disk offline and array gone. 60 hours, 400G of newly imported video from 8mm tapes..

So I decided on clean install just windows 7 after I recovered the data on the raid array.
To that end I removed all the other disks, took a single clean disk and installed vista on it.
Then I went to Bios and deleted the GigaRaid array and recreated it with the original 2 disks.
Changed the boot order in Bios to the first Sata.
Back into windows, initialise the GigaRaid array in windows disk management -Do not partition or format it. Load GetBackDataNTFS and
scan and copy all of the data back to the spare space on the new boot disk.
When I was totally happy I had everything back I loaded Windows Disk management and partitioned the GigaRaid into 250G and 1200G. Formatted the only the 1200G and copied on all of the drivers..
I then shutdown and removed the Vista hard disk and restarted with the Windows 7 DVD. Loaded the Gigaraid drivers and proceded to install Win7.
On first reboot, error 80xxxx .
Back to setup and disk management. Delete the new 250G partition and let Install do its stuff. So it creates a 100MB "system" as the first partition then 260G for the C drive and installs itself.

Whoo hoooo! it works.
I shutdown and add the GPT array and the single Roms drive.
Into Bios to set the boot to the Scsii Gigaraid & restart and the dynamic array and Roms disk is there.
Shutdown and install the RocketRaid Card with its 5 disks attached.
Back to bios to set Boot to Scsii Gigaraid.
It always puts Sata 0 first.
Or Scsii 0_1 (the RocketRaid).

Boot back into windows and everything is where it should be.
Clean and fast too. Install all of the software I need.
Now I have a nice system. Time to copy the video I recovered onto the Raid5 array.
So I plug the sata cable into the disk and go into the Highpoint management to scan the disk. Come up ok and is visible in windows.
I copy the data over to the raid.

The I decide to see it the computer will reboot back into windows unattended.. Nope! Screen fills with rubbish that looks like Linux. Says changing boot disk, then stops.
I go back into Bios and reset the boot disk back to Scsii 1_0 (GigaRaid)
Reboot and press F12 for the boot menu. Select the last item - GigaRaid.
Boots back into that Linux looking system (says debian).

I disconnect RocketRaid disk 6, Scsii 0_1 and back to bios and set to Scscii 1_0, Gigaraid, reboot back into windows..

Plug the Rocketraid Scsii 1_0 and reboot - back into Linux??

Question is..
1 What is the purpose of the 100MB that windows installed onto the boot disk.
2 how do i find the boot manager that screws the system when I connect a new drive (including USB key).
3 How do I force the boot to the correct disk array regardless of which drives are installed or not.
4. Is there a boot "something" I can install on every disk to point to Scsii Gigaraid



DISKPART> list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 465 GB 127 MB *
Disk 1 Online 465 GB 2048 KB * *
Disk 2 Online 465 GB 2048 KB * *
Disk 3 Online 465 GB 2048 KB * *
Disk 4 Online 465 GB 129 MB *
Disk 5 Online 698 GB 0 B
Disk 6 Online 1397 GB 1024 KB
Disk 7 Online 3725 GB 0 B *
Disk 8 Online 465 GB 1024 KB

DISKPART> list vol
Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 K 2-5TB Dynam NTFS Stripe 2328 GB Healthy
Volume 1 E DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 2 F 700G_Roms NTFS Partition 698 GB Healthy
Volume 3 System Rese NTFS Partition 100 MB Healthy System
Volume 4 C Win7 NTFS Partition 258 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 5 D Documents NTFS Partition 1138 GB Healthy
Volume 6 G Raid5 NTFS Partition 3725 GB Healthy
Volume 7 H 500_ NTFS Partition 465 GB Healthy


Ray

 

[sup3rsprt]

Question is..
1 What is the purpose of the 100MB that windows installed onto the boot disk.
2 how do i find the boot manager that screws the system when I connect a new drive (including USB key).
3 How do I force the boot to the correct disk array regardless of which drives are installed or not.
4. Is there a boot "something" I can install on every disk to point to Scsii Gigaraid

The 100MB partition stores the Windows boot manager. That is the partition that the Master Boot Record labels as the boot partition (aka "active" partition).

Each hard disk can have it's own MBR, boot sector, etc. And when you plug in a new disk, the BIOS may try to load the MBR of another disk (depending on boot order). It sounds like that is what happens in your case.

 

[rmerrick]

boot manager.

thanks, that is the problem.
Can I assign a drive letter to the 100MB partition and go and edit the boot manager with notepad or bcd edit or similar.
Also can someone suggest an easy and SAFE way to install a MBR on each disk to point to the right partition for booting?
This is a pain to have to disconnect that one disk every time I boot then reconnect after everything is running..
Thanks

 

[sup3rsprt]

Can I assign a drive letter to the 100MB partition and go and edit the boot manager with notepad or bcd edit or similar.

Yes you could, but I don't think that it would help in this case. Since your computer is not booting from the correct disk.

Is there is nothing you can do in the BIOS to get it to boot from the hard disk that has Windows 7 on it? (besides disconnecting the other drive)

If that's really the case then a boot manager is going to be one viable solution. Either that or install Windows on the hard drive that the BIOS (for some reason) always wants to boot from.

BTW, have you updated the BIOS for your motherboard, add-on cards, etc?