Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (
More info?)
I should point out that I ran system restore and restore to a checkpoint
from before I started trying to add drives. It didn't help, which just makes
me think more that I've messed up the boot record or something.
Rob Mack
"rmack" <rmack-nospam-350@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:gRu%d.14072$C47.8561@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com...
>I agree that assignments could mess stuff up. It depends on boot order, the
>way you've made the partitions, etc. The boot drive will be C:.
>
> Anyway, I get partly through starting Windows so it looks like Windows at
> least knows it's on C:. However, if I hook up any of the SATA disks, an
> external 1394-attached disk, or another hdd on the secondary slave then
> Windows gets partway into the startup and bombs. It just doesn't like
> other disks to be present at startup. I can add the 1394 disk after
> windows is running-that's fine.
>
> When I started setting up the SATA disks as my second Raid array, Windows
> would boot and the disk manager would see them, but I couldn't get the
> nvidia raid manager to see them, even though they were members of a
> striped array according to the nvidia raid BIOS. So I fiddled with the
> BIOS setups and even tried them on the Silicon Images controller (the
> board has two SATA controllers). Nothing works, the drives just can't be
> present. At first they could be there, now they can't.
>
> Rob Mack
>
> "BAR" <BAR@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:5740B9C0-9E45-440A-90E0-880B3EA71279@microsoft.com...
>> The installation of SATA drives may affect the drive letter assignments.
>>
>> One should consider how the BIOS, then essentially 'DOS' and then Windows
>> Xp
>> assigns drive priorities.
>>
>> You may be able to configure BIOS to provide for the existing drives to
>> be
>> DISK 0 and then DISK 1. Sometime the installation of a SATA drive would
>> affect BIOS to assign the STA drives as Disk 0: thus affecting Drive
>> letter
>> assignments in Xp and this would cause Xp to 'loose track' of where files
>> are
>> and thus crash or fail to load.
>>
>> Essentially in a four disk [or two disks with two partitions] DOS would
>> assign IDE 0 - Master as C Drive IDE 0 - Slave as E Drive IDE 1 - Master
>> as
>> D Drive IDE 1 - Slave as F Drive.
>>
>> Now do you see how Xp could get confused if additional drives are added
>> that
>> cause 'drive letters' to change.
>>
>> You need to ensure that your BIOS will regard the ATA drives as Disks 0
>> and
>> 1, then the SATA drives as Disks 2 and 3.
>>
>> After you sucessfully boot, Windows will need the driver files installed
>> to
>> use the SATA disks.
>>
>> You may also have to be very careful with the RAID configuration for the
>> SATA drives. Are these using an onboard RAID [SATA] Controller or are
>> they
>> connected via a PCI card?
>>
>> All of these things affect the boot configuration and hardware
>> envirnoment,
>> so you need to be careful with the manual configuration settings that are
>> established in BIOS.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> "rmack" wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I have a Gigabyte K8NS Ultra-939 motherboard with an nvidia nforce3
>>> Ultra
>>> chipset. My boot disks are a pair of mirrored ATA disks.
>>>
>>> Today I tried to install a pair of SATA disks to add a striped array. I
>>> had
>>> nothing but trouble and eventually worked the system down to the point
>>> where
>>> it wouldn't boot if any other hard disk was attached, even an external
>>> 1394
>>> disk.
>>>
>>> The boot gets into the windows splash screen and then the system just
>>> reboots after a flash of bluescreen.
>>>
>>> Is this a problem with the boot sector of my main disk array? What do I
>>> do?
>>>
>>> Rob Mack
>>>
>>>
>>>
>
>