OS drive's partition table corrupts itself when changing controllers/new disks introduced.

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th3milkman

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Apr 29, 2013
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Using a P67 Sabertooth, no RAID configuration settings enabled, Win7 x64. All drives are SATA - I have 5 drives attached, including one external drive over e-SATA and additionally, two optical drives attached. My OS drive is in the fastest SATA port, which I presume to be the first or primary controller, closest to the board.

My problem arises when one of my additional storage drives fails to show in Windows - typically, I'll re-install the various SATA controller drivers from the P67 Support page to correct this and reboot. When it does show back up, my C:\ drive may fail to boot on the next restart - I think the actual message refers to BOOTMGR, but I can't recall. Why does this happen?

The only way to fix it is to boot off a recovery CD and use DISKPART to set the disk as active and then run fixmbr commands or let Windows do it's repair thing automatically.

I can also get this problem to happen if I change out which controller my primary OS HDD is attached to - I have to run the repair commands. I typically encrypt my OS drive with TrueCrypt or DiskCryptor and when I run into this issue, it causes all sorts of headaches - having to unencrypt my ENTIRE drive and then go through the motions of booting off the ODD for the repair commands (this usually wastes an entire day.)

What can I do to prevent my additional drives from disappearing, is there something I can check in Windows Disk Management utility or somewhere else? What about the issue arising when SATA ports are changed?

I have read the sticky FAQ on SATA controller issues, but I'm unsure how this relates to my problem, as I'm not really upgrading to a RAID array or switching drives for an OS install.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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Jun 20, 2006
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I don't understand everything your saying, however I'll try to help.

1) Failure to boot can happen if your Windows drive isn't set as the first drive in your BIOS' boot order.

2) I recommend using the BROWN SATA connector for your boot drive. Leave the second one free. Make sure it's set to AHCI in the BIOS (all your drives should be).

3) Do you have any boot issues when ONLY the Windows drive is physically attached?

4) I'm unfamiliar with those encryption programs. Are there any known issues with that software?

5) Have your "disappearing" secondary drives already been formatted and viewable in Windows Explorer?

6) Finally, if you can successfully boot with ONLY the boot drive attached to the Intel, BROWN 6gbps connector, add your secondary drives one at a time (unplug both the SATA and Power connectors to all other drives).

I recommend using the INTEL controller for your hard drives for now. Boot on brown, and secondary on black.

*You'll run out of connections without using the Marvell, but for troubleshooting just use the Intel. Start with only:
a) OS drive on brown
b) DVD drive on black

7) BIOS updates (not sure what OS you have, or if you have any 3TB drives but update to the latest BIOS regardless and also read the comment under v1801 regarding drive capacity)
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/SABERTOOTH_P67/#support_Download_36

Here's your SATA layout:
Intel® P67(B3) chipset :
2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), brown
4 x SATA 3Gb/s port(s), black
Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10
Marvell® PCIe SATA 6Gb/s controller : *1
2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray
JMicron® JMB362 controller :
1 x Power eSATA 3Gb/s port(s), green
1 x eSATA 3Gb/s port(s), red

and note:
*1: These SATA ports are for data hard drives only. ATAPI devices are not supported.

I had my DVD drive on one of these SATA connections and I could read/write fine but I kept getting burn fails. I discovered this issue and switched to a different controller and all was well.
 
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Dereck47

Dereck47

Splendid
Jan 20, 2011
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Is your Windows hidden System Reserved partition on your O/S drive or is on one of your storage disks?

When you install Windows and you have additional drives attached, Windows will mistakenly create the System Reserved partition on another drive instead of the O/S drive where it's supposed to be.

It's possible (not 100% sure) that could be what's causing your problems.
You can go into Windows Disk Management and see where the System Reserved partition is located.

If it's not located on your O/S drive then you probably need to do a fresh Windows install with only your O/S drive connected until the install is complete.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

Titan
Jun 20, 2006
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I believe you are referring to this?
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=409

It seems possible that this may be his issue. If in fact, his issue relates to boot files residing on a secondary drive, I strongly recommend he remove all drives EXCEPT the one to be the boot drive (install to the BROWN SATA connector; the main Intel 6gbps) and reinstall Windows so that everything is properly on the main drive. Only then should secondary drives be added.

*Simply unhook all drives other than the Windows drive and attach it to the Brown SATA. Ensure the BIOS for that SATA connector is set to AHCI. If it boots up then the boot files are correctly on the drive and reinstallation of Windows should not be necessary (in this case it may be a simple Boot Order issue). If you can NOT get the Windows drive to boot on its own (try other SATA connections if you wish) then I'm back to simply recommending a reinstallation of Windows with ONLY that drive attached (aside from the DVD drive of course).

Do you concur?
 
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