A8N Sli Deluxe Disk Boot Failure

[TheNeverSettingSun]

Hey all, I've recently been trying to fix my mothers computer so
naturally I placed her harddrive into my computer to see if it worked.
I bought a new drive and put it in my now working computer also, alas
neither of them worked. The old HD I could have reformatted but I'm
trying to salvage information from it so I chose not to. My computer
before had booted from a SATA WD HD 250gb. Now after trying the
previous HD's on my computer, I plugged my SATA WD HD back in and my
computer gives me a Disk Boot Failure. I have loaded windows xp pro on
this HD. Somehow while trying to fix my mothers computer I managed to
put mine to sleep. My A8N bios is 1015. I've changed the boot
configuration in BIOS I just don't know what else to do. I'm not super
computer literate so any help would be great. Any ideas?
-Thanks
Brandon

 

[Rod Speed]

Hey all, I've recently been trying to fix my mothers computer so
naturally I placed her harddrive into my computer to see if it worked.
I bought a new drive and put it in my now working computer also, alas
neither of them worked. The old HD I could have reformatted but I'm
trying to salvage information from it so I chose not to. My computer
before had booted from a SATA WD HD 250gb. Now after trying the
previous HD's on my computer, I plugged my SATA WD HD back in and my
computer gives me a Disk Boot Failure. I have loaded windows xp pro on
this HD. Somehow while trying to fix my mothers computer I managed to
put mine to sleep. My A8N bios is 1015. I've changed the boot
configuration in BIOS I just don't know what else to do. I'm not super
computer literate so any help would be great. Any ideas?

Can be a variety of things. You just have to go thru the
possibilitys systematically and work out what has done that.

You may have forgotten to plug the power back into the drive.

You may have killed the drive.

Does the drive spin up now ?

You may have damaged the data cable, they are a bit fragile.

If its none of those, you may have managed to change the boot
device in the bios and are no longer telling it to boot that drive.

You may have changed the drive type from the fixed setting you had.

You should be using an AUTO drive type for the drive setting in the bios.

You may have disabled the sata controller in the bios.

 

[Braldy]

Can be a variety of things. You just have to go thru the
possibilitys systematically and work out what has done that.

You may have forgotten to plug the power back into the drive.

You may have killed the drive.

Does the drive spin up now ?

You may have damaged the data cable, they are a bit fragile.

If its none of those, you may have managed to change the boot
device in the bios and are no longer telling it to boot that drive.

You may have changed the drive type from the fixed setting you had.

You should be using an AUTO drive type for the drive setting in the bios.

You may have disabled the sata controller in the bios.

Thanks for the reply. I should have given more information. I have
tried different cables and they haven't helped. I've tried different
power cords also and I think my PSU is like 500-650 so clearly enough
power. The drive does seem to be spinning, or at least has what seems
to be a slight spinning noise. I went through the BIOS for a couple
hours to try to figure out what configuration may have changed but I'm
going back through it now. I've enabled the NVRAID configurations
( IDE Primary Master RAID and First SATA Master RAID) There was no
auto for these. Not sure if that helps. My boot configuration right
now is set to DVD ROM, then Harddisk then CD ROM.

I did a pause on the screen before the PCI device listing and the
SATARaid information comes up asking if I want to enter the RAID
utility. It recognizes on RAID 0 a WDC WD2500JS-00NCB1 232gb HD and
some more information after it. In total it says:

Sil 3114 SATARaid BIOS Version 5.1.39
Copyright (C) 1997-2004 Silicon Image, Inc.

Press <Ctrl+S> or F4 to enter RAID utility
0 WDC WD2500JS-00NCB1 232 GB

NVIDIA RAID IDE ROM BIOS 4.04
COPYRIGHT (C) 2004 NVIDIA Corp.

Detecting array . . .
0 0.0.M SONY DVD-ROM DDV1615
No disk reserved for RAID use, RAID disabled

Is this what you mean by a disabled sata controller?

If I enter the RAID utility it gives me options of course, Create RAID
set, Delete RAID set, Rebuilt RAID1 set, resolve Conflicts, Low Level
Format, and Logical Drive Info. Under physical Drives in the RAID
Configuration Utility it lists that same drive ( 0 WDC
WD2500JS-00NCB1 232GB) but there is no listing under the Logical
Drives. Obviously I don't want to do a low level format and "Resolve
Conflicts" tells me nothing is wrong. I've tried making a logical
drive and still arrived at the same problem without it. Hope this
helps. Thanks so much for your timely response.
-Brandon

 

[Rod Speed]

Thanks for the reply. I should have given more information.
True.

I have tried different cables and they haven't helped. I've tried
different power cords also and I think my PSU is like 500-650
so clearly enough power. The drive does seem to be spinning,
or at least has what seems to be a slight spinning noise.

Fine. You can see if its spinning up by feel.

I went through the BIOS for a couple hours to try to figure out what
configuration may have changed but I'm going back through it now.
I've enabled the NVRAID configurations ( IDE Primary Master RAID
and First SATA Master RAID) There was no auto for these.

The AUTO is in the drive type table on the first page of settings.

Not sure if that helps. My boot configuration right
now is set to DVD ROM, then Harddisk then CD ROM.

I did a pause on the screen before the PCI device listing and the
SATARaid information comes up asking if I want to enter the RAID
utility. It recognizes on RAID 0 a WDC WD2500JS-00NCB1 232gb
HD and some more information after it. In total it says:

Sil 3114 SATARaid BIOS Version 5.1.39
Copyright (C) 1997-2004 Silicon Image, Inc.

Press <Ctrl+S> or F4 to enter RAID utility
0 WDC WD2500JS-00NCB1 232 GB

NVIDIA RAID IDE ROM BIOS 4.04
COPYRIGHT (C) 2004 NVIDIA Corp.

Detecting array . . .
0 0.0.M SONY DVD-ROM DDV1615
No disk reserved for RAID use, RAID disabled

Is this what you mean by a disabled sata controller?

No, that is the earlier one, just before you mentioned auto.

If I enter the RAID utility it gives me options of course, Create RAID
set, Delete RAID set, Rebuilt RAID1 set, resolve Conflicts, Low Level
Format, and Logical Drive Info. Under physical Drives in the RAID Configuration
Utility it lists that same drive ( 0 WDC WD2500JS-00NCB1 232GB) but there
is no listing under the Logical Drives.

Looks like the drive is fine and you somehow managed to wipe it.

Obviously I don't want to do a low level format and "Resolve
Conflicts" tells me nothing is wrong. I've tried making a logical
drive and still arrived at the same problem without it.

I'd try a recovery program to see if that can get the partition(s) back.

I like Easy Recovery Pro, but it isnt cheap if you have to pay for it.

There are some alternatives on Hiren's Boot CD.

Hope this helps. Thanks so much for your timely response.

No problem, thats what these technical newsgroups are for.

 

[Andy]

Thanks for the reply. I should have given more information. I have
tried different cables and they haven't helped. I've tried different
power cords also and I think my PSU is like 500-650 so clearly enough
power. The drive does seem to be spinning, or at least has what seems
to be a slight spinning noise. I went through the BIOS for a couple
hours to try to figure out what configuration may have changed but I'm
going back through it now. I've enabled the NVRAID configurations
( IDE Primary Master RAID and First SATA Master RAID) There was no
auto for these. Not sure if that helps. My boot configuration right
now is set to DVD ROM, then Harddisk then CD ROM.

Check the order of the drives under Hard Disk Drives.

 

[Braldy]

Under Hard Disk Drives it just says "Bootable Add-in Cards". Nothing
else. The drive doesn't show up in the first configuration screen
either but it shows both of my CD/DVD drives. I might try to find a
recovery program like you said Rod Speed. There isn't anything super
important on it but no one wants to reformat a hard drive. Thanks for
your help the both of you. If you get any more ideas let me know. I'll
try a recovery program and let you know how it goes. Thanks again.

 

[Rod Speed]

Under Hard Disk Drives it just says "Bootable Add-in Cards".
Nothing else. The drive doesn't show up in the first configuration
screen either but it shows both of my CD/DVD drives.

OK, I'd try a groups.google and google search on A8N Sli Deluxe, its
almost certainly a quirk of the way that controller is setup on that system.

 

[Braldy]

I couldn't find anything over their either. At least new information.
I read all the problems people had with earlier versions of the mobo
but nothing specific to mine and any controller problems. Think I
might just take it in to a computer store and see how they do with it
before I decide to just reformat the drive. I'm beginning to think
there is something else wrong besides the drive itself and have lost
all ideas on what else to do. I can't even get into Win Xp pro Cd to
try to repair, it seems to freeze at that "press R" screen. Thanks
again for your time!

 

[Rod Speed]

I couldn't find anything over their either.

OK, I'll have a look tomorrow.

At least new information. I read all the problems people had with earlier
versions of the mobo but nothing specific to mine and any controller problems.
Think I might just take it in to a computer store and see how they do with it

Those just reformat because its the easy way out.

before I decide to just reformat the drive. I'm beginning to
think there is something else wrong besides the drive itself

I doubt it, and putting the drive into a different system would prove that.

and have lost all ideas on what else to do.

The only viable way to check everything else is to put the drive into another system.

I can't even get into Win Xp pro Cd to try to repair,
it seems to freeze at that "press R" screen.

You meant the first R you see after booting the CD ?

You may well need to use a slipstreamed XP SP2 CD,
that has much better sata support than the original XP CD.

Thanks again for your time!

I'm happy to keep going for as long as it takes to resolve it.

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?Rita_=C4_Berkowitz?=]

You may well need to use a slipstreamed XP SP2 CD,
that has much better sata support than the original XP CD.

BULLSHIT! Had he been using SCSI none of this torture would even be
necessary. They never learn.









Rita

 

[Arno Wagner]

Rod Speed wrote:

BULLSHIT! Had he been using SCSI none of this torture would even be
necessary. They never learn.

You do know that SATA is treated as SCSI on the software side both by
Windows and Linux? Which means that your argumentation is entirely
bogus...

Arno

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?Rita_=C4_Berkowitz?=]

You do know that SATA is treated as SCSI on the software side both by
Windows and Linux? Which means that your argumentation is entirely
bogus...

It's irrelevant since you don't have these problems with SCSI. Even with a
SCSI RAID with special drivers you are still prompted to load them should
they be needed. He's just stuck in SATA hell, that's all.







Rita

 

[zappo]

You do know that SATA is treated as SCSI on the software side both by Windows and Linux?

No it isnt with windows.

Which means that your argumentation is entirely bogus...

You did manage to get that bit right.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

You do know that SATA is treated as SCSI on the software side both by
Windows and Linux?

Which means that your argumentation is entirely bogus...

Bwahahah.
Babblebot and logic, what a delightful combination. Almost comical.

 

[Andy]

Under Hard Disk Drives it just says "Bootable Add-in Cards". Nothing
else. The drive doesn't show up in the first configuration screen
either but it shows both of my CD/DVD drives. I might try to find a
recovery program like you said Rod Speed. There isn't anything super
important on it but no one wants to reformat a hard drive. Thanks for
your help the both of you. If you get any more ideas let me know. I'll
try a recovery program and let you know how it goes. Thanks again.

Sounds like whichever SATA interface the drive is connected to is not
enabled in BIOS Setup.

 

[Braldy]

Alright well I'm happy to go as long as it takes for me to resolve it
too.

It was running on Windows XP pro which apparently was a bootleg
version since microsoft was locking me out from updates. If I was to
go buy a new version of windows would it help? Perhaps the SP2 WinXP
version? I only have the win 98 XP upgrade here and I need to buy a
new XP anyway. If you want all the pictures of what the computer goes
through at boot up I think I can manage to get that for you through
email or something.

 

[Braldy]

Alright well I'm happy to go as long as it takes for me to resolve it
too.

It was running on Windows XP pro which apparently was a bootleg
version since microsoft was locking me out from updates. If I was to
go buy a new version of windows would it help? Perhaps the SP2 WinXP
version? I only have the win 98 XP upgrade here and I need to buy a
new XP anyway. If you want all the pictures of what the computer goes
through at boot up I think I can manage to get that for you through
email or something.

Edit: I bought a windows XP SP2 OEM copy and tried to boot from it.
The windows setup still did not recognize a drive and would go no
further to repair etc.

Now if I go into the BIOS at startup and into the Advanced tab, then
into NVRAID Configuration should any of those be enabled? I have tried
to enable one, whichever one I saw that my drive was connected to and
it still told me I had a DBF. Also should I enter the raid Utility and
change anything there? The raid utility shows my drive as Physical
Drive 0, the 250gb HD but I have no Logical drives. I know I can
create a logical drive using JBOD is that something I want to do?
Should I change anything within this RAID Configuration Utility? It
seems weird that the drive is recognized in the RAID Utility but I
cannot boot from it and It's not recognized elsewhere. Is this a clear
tell sign that it's wiped? Thanks for your time.

 

[Braldy]

bump?