System won't boot from my raid0 array.

[Somebody_007]

So after encoutering and overcoming many problems trying to finnally get it working I'm stuck with one last issue.

I currently have 3 drives connected to my system. One with win7 to make things easier and two more for raid0.

So with the marvell controller of my ga-x58a-ud5 I created a raid0 array. I booted up from my hdd with win7 installed and installed the marvell drivers. After some fiddling around I finally got my raid0 array to show up in my computer. I installed win7 on it and the marvell drivers.

Yet I can't boot from my raid0 array when the other drive isn't connected. It just says enter boot CD. If that drive is connected I'm given the choice to boot from two different win7 OSs. One is the one on my raid0 array the other on the other hdd. Both function as they should. I'm really stumped here.

Does anyone know why this could be occuring and how to fix it?

 

[Somebody_007]

my system specs are: i7 930
: ga x58a ud5
: 470gtx
:640gb WD caviar black X2
:1tb 11.7200
:6gb 1600 mushkin cl6

 

[banthracis]

Curious, was the single HD with WIN 7 connected when you installed Win 7 onto the Raid 0 array?

Also have you tried manually selecting which drive to boot (F12) from when only raid 0 array is connected, and seeing if you'll find the raid 0 array that way?

 

[Somebody_007]

Curious, was the single HD with WIN 7 connected when you installed Win 7 onto the Raid 0 array?

Also have you tried manually selecting which drive to boot (F12) from when only raid 0 array is connected, and seeing if you'll find the raid 0 array that way?

yeah I installed windows 7 on the raid0 after I booted into windows with the single HDD. That might have caused the problem but I can't seem to be bale to boot from my install disk so that was the only solution I saw could work.

Yeah I already tried selecting my virtual drive as primary boot device. All that does however is just take very long(where it ussally boots from your boot device) and display the same message as usual. "Insert boot CD"

Thnx for the advice btw

 

[banthracis]

I haven't encountered a dual boot win 7 before, but I don't think the install process would play nice if it see's an identical win 7 already installed.

 

[coldsleep]

Dare I ask why you're putting Win 7 on 2 different boot devices?

Does the RAID array show up in the BIOS when the single disk isn't attached? If yes, then consider destroying the RAID 0 array, rebuilding it (without the other disk attached) and then reinstalling Win7. If no, then that's really weird.

 

[Somebody_007]

I've got an idea: What if I bootup on my raid array with the single drive attached disconnect the drive. Insert the CD and go from there? would that even have the slightest possibility of working?

 

[Somebody_007]

Yeah that's what I figured. I think I'll wait until my bro comes with another install CD and see if that works. It did freeze(not imediately only when installing updates on shutdown) when I disconnected the single hdd so maybe there are some essential files on it.

I'll try that other boot CD if that doesn't work then I'm really stuck.

 

[coldsleep]

Yeah I know it sounds kind a stupid lol. Put the single drive is actually my mom's I just used to try get my raid array working.
And yes it does show up in the bios and I should have installed with the CD and no other drive but my CD freezes(if I boot from it) on the win7 wallpaper.

This is really basic, but could you have missed loading RAID drivers during the install?

EDIT: If this is a new build, I would ignore the single drive entirely...don't boot with it or anything. You should be able to get things working from a clean state.

Assuming you have nothing important on the RAID 0 array:
1) Boot into the BIOS, destroy the RAID array
2) Create a new RAID 0 array
3) Reboot with the Win7 install disc
4) Hit F6 (?) to load RAID drivers
5) Cross your fingers and hope it continues running

 

[Somebody_007]

Yeah I did but the CD failes to work on other systems aswell(without a raid array) so I didn't even try.

 

[Somebody_007]

Dare I ask why you're putting Win 7 on 2 different boot devices?

Does the RAID array show up in the BIOS when the single disk isn't attached? If yes, then consider destroying the RAID 0 array, rebuilding it (without the other disk attached) and then reinstalling Win7. If no, then that's really weird.

Yeah I know it sounds kind a stupid lol. Put the single drive is actually my mom's I just used to try get my raid array working.
And yes it does show up in the bios and I should have installed with the CD and no other drive but my CD freezes(if I boot from it) on the win7 wallpaper.

 

[coldsleep]

Yeah I did but the CD failes to work on other systems aswell(without a raid array) so I didn't even try.

Ok, if the disc is failing to work on 2 other systems, I think you've found your problem.

 

[Somebody_007]

I've only tried it on one other system so far but I'll try it on one more later. If that failes again do you think the problem could be with the install CD even though it appeared to have done a clean install?

 

[coldsleep]

Was it one other system or multiple systems?

If it installed once but then never worked after that...I don't know, could the disc have been damaged? Or does it have a big greasy fingerprint on it?

This seems like it should be pretty basic. If the disc works on other systems, then it's a problem with the RAID setup in some fashion. If the disc doesn't work on other systems, it's a problem with the disc.

 

[Somebody_007]

Well I did a clean install with this disk on this system 2 months back orso on 1 of the blacks. It worked perfectly. I never used the disc since until now. There are 2 small scrathes on it but nothing out of the ordinary. I've seen CD's work fine which were scratched to the bone.

I think there is a problem with the disc and the raid0 array lol. I thought my briliant plan should neglect the CD issue and solve the raid problems what do you think?

 

[coldsleep]

Ok, how about this?

1) Remove the single disk, leaving just the 2 discs you want to RAID in the computer
2) Go into the BIOS and destroy the RAID array
3) Reboot and install Windows on just one of the hard drives.
4) If that works, reboot, create the RAID 0 array in the BIOS and attempt to install Win7 again, making sure to install RAID drivers.

That should test whether or not the disc is working, whether or not (at least one) of the drives is ok, and whether or not you're having problems with RAID setup.

 

[Somebody_007]

The problem with that is that I can't install win7 currently due to the CD issues I'm currently having. And it's gonna take at least 2 more weeks to get my hands on another boot CD. So I'm just gonna try my brilliant plan which will inevitably fail and then I'll wait for the other CD and try your plan .

 

[Somebody_007]

Ok so I tried my ingenious plan and it.... failed.

But it did reveal the problem. The boot CD was unable to setup the neccesary temporary files on the raid0 array. Which it probably set up on the single drive in the other install which probably led to the failures.

SO there is a driver issue as it seems with the raid array but I installed the drivers so I don't know the problem. How do we proceed?

 

[coldsleep]

Sounds like a question for a Win7 expert. I mean, I would copy the files (on another computer) from your motherboard's CD to a USB drive and then load them that way, but based on your description, I'm unsure if that's where you're actually running into problems.

 

[Somebody_007]

What it looks like to me is that the boot CD cannot acces the drivers to acces the raid array. SO even if I do it you're way(which is the right way according to the manual) how do I get my boot CD to load those drivers?

 

[coldsleep]

What it looks like to me is that the boot CD cannot acces the drivers to acces the raid array. SO even if I do it you're way(which is the right way according to the manual) how do I get my boot CD to load those drivers?

You boot with the disc, then at some point, it asks if you want to load any drivers. You say yes or hit F6 or whatever, and load them from the USB stick. It'll just load them into memory and continue on from there. Shouldn't be too tricky.

 

[Somebody_007]

yeah I figured that(because of the manual wouldn't have thought of that by myself lol) but given my only half working boot CD situation it's a tricky procedure. Looks like I'm gonna have to wait for my bro.

I think it's more or less solved then. Thanx to both of you for your help.