Issue ~ Sata NTFS Drive Issue

[tomwesnick]

Recently purchase a sata drive for additional storage for my pc.
However Windows XP sp2 is having problems with it. If I boot the os
in safe mode with minimal features selected, I'm able to format a
partition on the drive restart the machine and log in successfully.
However if I boot in safe mode with network features turned on with
the previously formatted partition the system becomes unstable. (blue
screen of death) So I believe the features that get booted in network
versus minimal are causing my problem. Is there an application that
will tell me exactly what gets loaded so that I can compare the two
and narrow down the root cause of the problem. (possibly drivers
associated with my onboard network card, etc) Thanks.

Asus P4P800se
2 IDE drive --- Main PATA
2 CD/DVDs -- Secondary PATA
1 SATA --- on board SATA controller

 

[tomwesnick]

I also thought both the drive and nic are sharing the same irq. Could
that be my problem?

 

[Anna]

Recently purchase a sata drive for additional storage for my pc.
However Windows XP sp2 is having problems with it. If I boot the os
in safe mode with minimal features selected, I'm able to format a
partition on the drive restart the machine and log in successfully.
However if I boot in safe mode with network features turned on with
the previously formatted partition the system becomes unstable. (blue
screen of death) So I believe the features that get booted in network
versus minimal are causing my problem. Is there an application that
will tell me exactly what gets loaded so that I can compare the two
and narrow down the root cause of the problem. (possibly drivers
associated with my onboard network card, etc) Thanks.

Asus P4P800se
2 IDE drive --- Main PATA
2 CD/DVDs -- Secondary PATA
1 SATA --- on board SATA controller

tomwesnick:
Setting aside the problems you enumerate concerning booting through Safe
Mode...


It would really help if you would explain clearly what precisely is the
problem you experience when you undertake a normal boot of your system as it
affects the situation your SATA HDD. I take it one of your PATA HDDs is the
boot drive and your SATA HDD is being used as a secondary HDD, right?

I'm assuming - since you didn't indicate otherwise - that the system
recognizes the SATA HDD and a drive letter has been assigned to it. Is that
correct? And the drive has been properly partitioned & formatted, yes?

Are you indicating that there's a BSOD problem when you attempt to access
the contents of your SATA HDD during a normal bootup?

Is this a new problem or one that's always existed since you installed the
SATA HDD?

Are you certain that you've properly connected & configured the SATA HDD in
your system? You've reviewed your motherboard's user guide or manual to
determine that all BIOS settings are correct insofar as they pertain to the
SATA HDD? Any chance a SATA controller driver issue may be involved?

Think there's any chance the SATA HDD may be defective? Have you checked it
out with the HDD diagnostic from the disk's manufacturer?
Anna

 

[tomwesnick]

It would really help if you would explain clearly what precisely is the

problem you experience when you undertake a normal boot of your system as it
affects the situation your SATA HDD. I take it one of your PATA HDDs is the
boot drive and your SATA HDD is being used as a secondary HDD, right?

Well if I undertake a normal boot of the system, during the boot
process the operating system appears to run a chkdsk and repair
function automatically. Upon which I receive the infamous blue screen
of death. Yes on of the two PATA drives serve a my boot drive, the
other is simply storage.

I'm assuming - since you didn't indicate otherwise - that the system
recognizes the SATA HDD and a drive letter has been assigned to it. Is that
correct? And the drive has been properly partitioned & formatted, yes?

The drive has been partitioned and formatted properly, with a drive
letter assigned to it. It was partition in safe mode with no
networking. The drive in question has a capacity 320 GB with one
partition of 1.5 GB.

Are you indicating that there's a BSOD problem when you attempt to access
the contents of your SATA HDD during a normal bootup?

That is correct as well as during a safe boot with networking turned
ON. Just to clarify I see the BSOD after the operating system performs
a chkdsk and repair on the 1.5 GB previously partitioned drive in safe
mode.

Is this a new problem or one that's always existed since you installed the
SATA HDD?

Yes, connecting any SATA HDD drive to the onboard controller has given
me problems, to the exception of booting in safe mode without
networking.

Are you certain that you've properly connected & configured the SATA HDD in
your system? You've reviewed your motherboard's user guide or manual to
determine that all BIOS settings are correct insofar as they pertain to the
SATA HDD? Any chance a SATA controller driver issue may be involved?

Yes, I've checked the BIOS settings numerous times and they are the
ASUS recommend settings.

Think there's any chance the SATA HDD may be defective? Have you checked it
out with the HDD diagnostic from the disk's manufacturer?

Yes, using Seagate's diagnostics tool has not uncover any HDD errors.
If the drive was an issue, how would it be possible for me to access,
copy, paste, and use the partition while in safe mode w/o networking.

I believe what is causing these OS stability problems maybe a NIC
driver, or its PCI position causing an IRQ conflict of sorts. Because
the system is utterly stable in safe mode without the networking
feature turned on.

 

[tomwesnick]

Just to add to my last post. The problem could be with any of the
processes, services, or hardware drives that load in within safe mode
to enable networking however do not load when networking is disabled.
So that is why I originally asked if there was a way I could determine
what is being loaded during the boot process and being used in the
different modes, so that process of elimination I could determine what
is causing my problem. I don't mean CTL+ALT+DELETE, I was looking for
something more meaty. Like which files (dll, etc) are being used for
each process, what drivers are loaded, etc.

 

[Anna]

<[email protected] responds
Well if I undertake a normal boot of the system, during the boot
process the operating system appears to run a chkdsk and repair
function automatically. Upon which I receive the infamous blue screen
of death. Yes on of the two PATA drives serve a my boot drive, the
other is simply storage.

(e-mail address removed) responds...
The drive has been partitioned and formatted properly, with a drive
letter assigned to it. It was partition in safe mode with no
networking. The drive in question has a capacity 320 GB with one
partition of 1.5 GB.

(e-mail address removed) responds...
That is correct as well as during a safe boot with networking turned
ON. Just to clarify I see the BSOD after the operating system performs
a chkdsk and repair on the 1.5 GB previously partitioned drive in safe
mode.

(e-mail address removed) responds...
Yes, connecting any SATA HDD drive to the onboard controller has given
me problems, to the exception of booting in safe mode without
networking.

(e-mail address removed) responds...
Yes, I've checked the BIOS settings numerous times and they are the
ASUS recommend settings.

(e-mail address removed) responds...

Yes, using Seagate's diagnostics tool has not uncover any HDD errors.
If the drive was an issue, how would it be possible for me to access,
copy, paste, and use the partition while in safe mode w/o networking.

I believe what is causing these OS stability problems maybe a NIC
driver, or its PCI position causing an IRQ conflict of sorts. Because
the system is utterly stable in safe mode without the networking
feature turned on.

tomwesnick:
1. What ASUS board is this?
2. Any updated BIOS you should be concerned with? And you've installed all
the motherboard drivers, yes? Any updated ones on ASUS's site?
3. What's the make/model of your SATA HDD?
4. You state that the system fails to properly boot with your boot drive -
one of the PATA HDDs. So does this problem occurs regardless of whether the
SATA HDD is connected, or does the problem occur *only* when the SATA HDD is
connected as a secondary HDD?
5. Assuming the latter, is there any boot problem if the SATA HDD is
disconnected from the system. Does the system then boot without incident and
thereafter functions without problems?
6. I take it the reason you partitioned the SATA HDD in Safe Mode was that
you could not access Disk Management (which would have been the normal
process) to partition/format that drive because of the problem you were
experiencing. Is that right? And why did you create a partition of only 1.5
GB on a 320 GB HDD? Is that of some consequence here?
7. I asked you whether you're certain that you've properly connected &
configured the SATA HDD in your system? Are you? I'm referring to the
physical connections, not just the BIOS settings. And have you tried
connecting the drive to different SATA connectors on the motherboard?

Could be some driver problem as you suspect although I find it hard to
believe an IRQ conflict would be involved.

Since I assume you don't have any important data/programs on the SATA HDD
since it has only a single tiny 1.5 GB partition as you've stated - or
presumably if there is some data on it you need you can easily copy it over
to one of your other drives - why not try installing the XP OS onto that
drive and see what happens? See if it will boot & function without problems.
Anna

 

[Lil' Dave]

Recently purchase a sata drive for additional storage for my pc.
However Windows XP sp2 is having problems with it. If I boot the os
in safe mode with minimal features selected, I'm able to format a
partition on the drive restart the machine and log in successfully.
However if I boot in safe mode with network features turned on with
the previously formatted partition the system becomes unstable. (blue
screen of death) So I believe the features that get booted in network
versus minimal are causing my problem. Is there an application that
will tell me exactly what gets loaded so that I can compare the two
and narrow down the root cause of the problem. (possibly drivers
associated with my onboard network card, etc) Thanks.

Asus P4P800se
2 IDE drive --- Main PATA
2 CD/DVDs -- Secondary PATA
1 SATA --- on board SATA controller

Should not work. In your case, its a marginal problem. You can only have 4
workable devices, ide and sata combined. The bus system is not the problem.
Dave

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

You can only have 4 workable devices, ide and sata combined.

Bullshit. I have five working devices here: two IDE hard drives, one
SATA drive, a CD burner and a DVD burner. Could have one more SATA
drive if I wanted to install one.

 

[tomwesnick]

1. What ASUS board is this?

The motherboard is an ASUS P4P800SE

2. Any updated BIOS you should be concerned with? And you've installed all
the motherboard drivers, yes? Any updated ones on ASUS's site?

The BIOS being used is the most current one listed on ASUS's support
page.

3. What's the make/model of your SATA HDD?

The drive is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular
Recording Technology 320 BG 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s

4. You state that the system fails to properly boot with your boot drive -
one of the PATA HDDs. So does this problem occurs regardless of whether the
SATA HDD is connected, or does the problem occur *only* when the SATA HDD is
connected as a secondary HDD?

That is correct the system is only unstable when I have the SATA HDD
connect with that one partition while booting in normal mode or safe
mode w/ networking. I don't have a problem with the partition or drive
if I boot in safe mode.

5. Assuming the latter, is there any boot problem if the SATA HDD is
disconnected from the system. Does the system then boot without incident and
thereafter functions without problems?

Yes with the SATA HDD disconnect and booting in normal mode or safe w/
networking I have no problems booting, using the pc, and receive no
BSOD

6. I take it the reason you partitioned the SATA HDD in Safe Mode was that
you could not access Disk Management (which would have been the normal
process) to partition/format that drive because of the problem you were
experiencing. Is that right? And why did you create a partition of only 1.5
GB on a 320 GB HDD? Is that of some consequence here?

Yes that is correct. I am able to access Disk Management in all modes
but the final result is different between safe mode and normal/safe
mode w/ networking. If I try to create a partition in the normal/safe
w/ networking I receive a prompt "The format did not complete
successfully". I do not receive this error message if the partition is
created in safe mode. I have logged using Process Monitor v1.12 (found
@ http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/processmonitor.mspx)
what happens if I format the drive using Disk Management while in
normal mode/safe w/ networking. So if that would help let me know.

7. I asked you whether you're certain that you've properly connected &
configured the SATA HDD in your system? Are you? I'm referring to the
physical connections, not just the BIOS settings. And have you tried
connecting the drive to different SATA connectors on the motherboard?

Yes I am sure they are connected properly, I understand with the first
generation of SATA connector the physical connection can be quite
flimsy, and therefore made sure the connections were good. I have
connected another HDD to both ports of the onboard SATA controller
with, unfortunately, the same results.

Could be some driver problem as you suspect although I find it hard to
believe an IRQ conflict would be involved.
Okay

Since I assume you don't have any important data/programs on the SATA HDD
since it has only a single tiny 1.5 GB partition as you've stated - or
presumably if there is some data on it you need you can easily copy it over
to one of your other drives - why not try installing the XP OS onto that
drive and see what happens? See if it will boot & function without problems.

That is what I was planning on this evening. Disconnect the main IDE
channel that has my boot and 1st storage drives and try an install of
the operating system solely on the SATA drive. Hopefully all goes
swimmingly.

Just some additional info. Under my initial assumption that maybe one
of the services that do not load in safe mode might have been causing
my problem I logged the services using Process Explorer v10.21 (found
@ http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/ProcessExplorer.mspx).
And by disabling one by one from starting upon reboot in safe mode w/
networking, I have narrowed down the services to DNS Client & DHCP
Client. If either of these two services are started with boot up I
experience the problem of stability as it relates to that SATA drive
w/ one parition. For example if I have a partition which was created
in safe mode and reboot the machine in safe mode w/ networking, one of
the two happens........

1. Upon reboot system wants to run a chkdsk on the partition finds
some errors fixes them and I'm at the desktop. However if I try to
access or use the drive an error prompt appears "Drive is Corrupt or
Unreadable" Upon which I boot in safe mode w/o network delete the
partition, re-partition a tiny drive for testing diagnostic purposes.
Use the newly created partition to copy random files in, everything
seems to be okay. Reboot in same mode (safe) drive to access the
files, copy them, open them still seems to cooperate with no problems.
Reboot back in safe w/ networking (with either DNS Client or DHCP
Client ON) problems occurs while trying to access drive. The only
other services running are the common services that boot in both
modes.

2. Another example would be I Reboot machine system wants to run a
chkdsk, I cancel it, see a BSOD.

Anna could you address this assumption, is there any validity to it.

 

[tomwesnick]

Bullshit. I have five working devices here: two IDE hard drives, one
SATA drive, a CD burner and a DVD burner. Could have one more SATA
drive if I wanted to install one.

From my understanding if your using an older generation operating

system then only 4 devices can be used. But given that I am running
Windows XP and according to material I've read, I should be able to
run both ide channels as well as use the onboard SATA ports.

 

[Anna]

tomwesnick:
First of all, and perhaps I should have made this clear from the outset -
let's forget about what happens or doesn't happen when booting into Safe
Mode or Safe Mode w/networking, etc. Let's concentrate on working with a
normal boot so we don't unnecessarily muddy the waters as it were. OK?

And let's forget for the moment about disabling this or that service,
potential IRQ conflicts, and any or all "exotic" types of possibilities that
might be causing your problem. OK?

Let's see what happens when you install the OS onto your Seagate 320 GB SATA
HDD. That's a fine HDD and all things considered probably should serve as
your boot drive with your other PATA drives serving as backup/storage
devices. Again, as I have stressed, please consult your motherboard's user
guide to ensure all settings & connections are proper.

One thing...if memory serves me correctly that motherboard is a few years
old and I believe (although I'm not entirely certain about this) that it
supported only the SATA 1.5 Gb/s data interface and not the 3.0 Gb/s
interface of your present Seagate. While the Seagate should be backwards
compatible, from time-to-time it's necessary to set the jumper so as to
limit the device to the smaller data interface in order for the system to
recognize its existence. So check that out, OK?
Anna

 

[sean]

I'll bet the drive has a number of bad sectors, download and use the
WD drive test app, this is much better than the Seagate equiv.

http://support.wdc.com/download/?cxml=n&pid=999&swid=3

Make sure you do the extended test, might take an hour or 2

 

[tomwesnick]

Yes, you are correct the motherboard doesn't support 3.0 Gb/s, however
the jumper is set to throttle the drive to 1.5 Gb/s.

 

[tomwesnick]

I didn't have any luck partitioning the drive or installing Windows XP
solely on the SATA drive. The only possible explanation I have is that
it may be a faulty SATA controller. But this seems to be contradicted
by the fact I was able to partition and use the drive only in Safe
Mode. So I'm at a complete loss. Was thinking of purchasing a PCI
controller for the drive but, wasn't sure if I'd be throwing good
money after bad.