multi(0).disk(0).rdisk(0).partition(1) boot up question...

[Winux P]

Hi Newsgroup,

I'm having alot of trouble booting up WinXP Pro SP1 on one of my computers
(SP2 doesn't work on it). I have two HD's. System-applications disk is
plugged into the mother board on the primary channel and is (obviously) the
C:\ disk (no slave attached). I have a data disk (that has all temp
directories on it as well) D:\ disk which is connected to a Silicon Image
Sil 0680 IDE (non-raid) card with the correct and latest driver, and no
slave attached. Whenever I boot the machine, it just a constant stream of
errors before the machine decides to reboot itself. Errors in general state,
Delayed write failure, cannot save or write data in C:\$Mft$, or
C\Windows\System32\. After that kind of error pops up about 157 times I get
a basic logon prompt, when I enter the user name and password the computer
reboots.

I can only get in via "Safe Mode With Command Prompt", from there I type
'explorer' into the command prompt and get the typical safe mode graphical
windows interface. In there I noticed that my D:\ disk (attached to the Sil
0680) is disk(0) and my system-apps disk C:\, is disk(1). Just want to ask
could this the cause of my problems? If so I can't for the life of me get
C:\ to be my disk(0) and D:\ as disk(1), is this possible? Silicon Image is
of absolutely no help...

Specs;
GX440 Motherboard
Intel PIII 550 MHz Chip
768 MB SDRAM
ATI Radeon 9200 SE Atlantis 128 AGP Card.
13 GB System Disk
60 GB Data Disk
Silicon Image Sil 0680 IDE (non-raid) card.
SB Audigy 24 Bit Sound Card.

Windows XP SP1.

Thanks for your consideration newsgroup.

Regards,
Winux P.

 

[ByTor]

Hi Newsgroup,

I'm having alot of trouble booting up WinXP Pro SP1 on one of my computers
(SP2 doesn't work on it). I have two HD's. System-applications disk is
plugged into the mother board on the primary channel and is (obviously) the
C:\ disk (no slave attached). I have a data disk (that has all temp
directories on it as well) D:\ disk which is connected to a Silicon Image
Sil 0680 IDE (non-raid) card with the correct and latest driver, and no
slave attached. Whenever I boot the machine, it just a constant stream of
errors before the machine decides to reboot itself. Errors in general state,
Delayed write failure, cannot save or write data in C:\$Mft$, or
C\Windows\System32\. After that kind of error pops up about 157 times I get
a basic logon prompt, when I enter the user name and password the computer
reboots.

I can only get in via "Safe Mode With Command Prompt", from there I type
'explorer' into the command prompt and get the typical safe mode graphical
windows interface. In there I noticed that my D:\ disk (attached to the Sil
0680) is disk(0) and my system-apps disk C:\, is disk(1). Just want to ask
could this the cause of my problems? If so I can't for the life of me get
C:\ to be my disk(0) and D:\ as disk(1), is this possible? Silicon Image is
of absolutely no help...

Specs;
GX440 Motherboard
Intel PIII 550 MHz Chip
768 MB SDRAM
ATI Radeon 9200 SE Atlantis 128 AGP Card.
13 GB System Disk
60 GB Data Disk
Silicon Image Sil 0680 IDE (non-raid) card.
SB Audigy 24 Bit Sound Card.

Windows XP SP1.

Thanks for your consideration newsgroup.

Regards,
Winux P.

Did this issue start to happen as soon as you connected the data drive
to the Sil???
Try this:
Put your OS drive on the Sil's "Primary" and if nothing else is on the
Sil place your data drive on the "Secondary".....If those will be the
only two drives on there than your data drives pin can be set to
Master..........
If you have any other issues please post back, **believe** me I can
furthur explain the notorious behavior of those Sil cards.......
Just to answer a quick question for you....Sil controllers **DO** take
over disk order assignment **before** the MotherBoard.....
Sil: Disk0,1,2,3.....MB: 4,5,6,7....etc.....
This of course providing they are all HD's.....

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

Sounds more like a failing drive. Have you run a drive diagnostic yet? If
not, you should, there are freely downloadable from the web sites of most
major drive manufacturers.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Winux P]

Thanks for the quick response ByTor, I'll try it out later on in the day and
let you know. I actually had a Promise Technology card there before the Sil.
For many reasons I took out the Promise card and replaced it with the Sil.
All worked fine until I did a Windows Reinstall, that's when it all started
to go wrong. Boot up is something that went well alot of times and not so
well alot of times... I had no problems with the Promise Tech card which is
why I'm wondering the Sil card is causing me grief...

Thanks again ByTor, I'll get back to the group after I try it out.

Regards,
Winux P.

| In article <#[email protected]>, (e-mail address removed),
| Winux P says...
|
| >
| > Hi Newsgroup,
| >
| > I'm having alot of trouble booting up WinXP Pro SP1 on one of my
computers
| > (SP2 doesn't work on it). I have two HD's. System-applications disk is
| > plugged into the mother board on the primary channel and is (obviously)
the
| > C:\ disk (no slave attached). I have a data disk (that has all temp
| > directories on it as well) D:\ disk which is connected to a Silicon
Image
| > Sil 0680 IDE (non-raid) card with the correct and latest driver, and no
| > slave attached. Whenever I boot the machine, it just a constant stream
of
| > errors before the machine decides to reboot itself. Errors in general
state,
| > Delayed write failure, cannot save or write data in C:\$Mft$, or
| > C\Windows\System32\. After that kind of error pops up about 157 times I
get
| > a basic logon prompt, when I enter the user name and password the
computer
| > reboots.
| >
| > I can only get in via "Safe Mode With Command Prompt", from there I type
| > 'explorer' into the command prompt and get the typical safe mode
graphical
| > windows interface. In there I noticed that my D:\ disk (attached to the
Sil
| > 0680) is disk(0) and my system-apps disk C:\, is disk(1). Just want to
ask
| > could this the cause of my problems? If so I can't for the life of me
get
| > C:\ to be my disk(0) and D:\ as disk(1), is this possible? Silicon Image
is
| > of absolutely no help...
| >
| > Specs;
| > GX440 Motherboard
| > Intel PIII 550 MHz Chip
| > 768 MB SDRAM
| > ATI Radeon 9200 SE Atlantis 128 AGP Card.
| > 13 GB System Disk
| > 60 GB Data Disk
| > Silicon Image Sil 0680 IDE (non-raid) card.
| > SB Audigy 24 Bit Sound Card.
| >
| > Windows XP SP1.
| >
| > Thanks for your consideration newsgroup.
| >
| > Regards,
| > Winux P.
| >
| >
| >
|
| Did this issue start to happen as soon as you connected the data drive
| to the Sil???
| Try this:
| Put your OS drive on the Sil's "Primary" and if nothing else is on the
| Sil place your data drive on the "Secondary".....If those will be the
| only two drives on there than your data drives pin can be set to
| Master..........
| If you have any other issues please post back, **believe** me I can
| furthur explain the notorious behavior of those Sil cards.......
| Just to answer a quick question for you....Sil controllers **DO** take
| over disk order assignment **before** the MotherBoard.....
| Sil: Disk0,1,2,3.....MB: 4,5,6,7....etc.....
| This of course providing they are all HD's.....
|

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I actually had a Promise Technology card there before the Sil.
For many reasons I took out the Promise card and replaced it
with the Sil. All worked fine until I did a Windows Reinstall, that's
when it all started to go wrong. Boot up is something that went
well alot of times and not so well alot of times... I had no
problems with the Promise Tech card which is why I'm wondering
the Sil card is causing me grief...

Is the driver for the Silicon Image IDE controller card installed
correctly? Which hard drive is at the head of the BIOS' boot
order?

*TimDaniels*

 

[Winux P]

Thanks Timothy,

The driver was installed correctly, and is the latest one. When the computer
first boots, the bios finds the drive connected to the mother boards'
primary IDE port first, then the CD player\burner on the secondary channel.
After that it scans the Sil 0680 card and finds the D:\ disk on the first
IDE channel and my DVD player on the second. By the time I get to Windows,
the HD on Primary IDE plug on my mother board (being C:\) is now disk(1) and
the D:\ disk (on the Sil Card) is disk(0), that when I get to windows in
'Safe Mode With Command Prompt'.

When looking through my registry the boot disk is always called
multi(0).disk(0).rdisk(0).partition(1), my boot.ini has the same, which is
why I ask if this is the problem? I don't know....

Thanks again Timothy, I'll keep posted on what happens.

Regards,
Winux P.

| "Winux P" wrote:
| >
| > I actually had a Promise Technology card there before the Sil.
| > For many reasons I took out the Promise card and replaced it
| > with the Sil. All worked fine until I did a Windows Reinstall, that's
| > when it all started to go wrong. Boot up is something that went
| > well alot of times and not so well alot of times... I had no
| > problems with the Promise Tech card which is why I'm wondering
| > the Sil card is causing me grief...
|
| Is the driver for the Silicon Image IDE controller card installed
| correctly? Which hard drive is at the head of the BIOS' boot
| order?
|
| *TimDaniels*
|

 

[Winux P]

Thanks Rick, (Or is it The Hon. Mr. Nutcase ???),

Haven't managed to download the utilities, but I placed both disks in an
external USB2.0 casing and looked at them on my other computer. It read fine
and a full scan disk in windows and chkdisk from a cmd prompt found nothing,
problem wise that is. I admit to not knowing much about these things, am I
safe in assuming nothing is wrong with the disks? Hopefully not....

Thanks very muck Rick.

Regards,
Winux P.

| Hi,
|
| Sounds more like a failing drive. Have you run a drive diagnostic yet? If
| not, you should, there are freely downloadable from the web sites of most
| major drive manufacturers.
|
| --
| Best of Luck,
|
| Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
|
| Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
|
| Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
|
| | >
| > Hi Newsgroup,
| >
| > I'm having alot of trouble booting up WinXP Pro SP1 on one of my
computers
| > (SP2 doesn't work on it). I have two HD's. System-applications disk is
| > plugged into the mother board on the primary channel and is (obviously)
| > the
| > C:\ disk (no slave attached). I have a data disk (that has all temp
| > directories on it as well) D:\ disk which is connected to a Silicon
Image
| > Sil 0680 IDE (non-raid) card with the correct and latest driver, and no
| > slave attached. Whenever I boot the machine, it just a constant stream
of
| > errors before the machine decides to reboot itself. Errors in general
| > state,
| > Delayed write failure, cannot save or write data in C:\$Mft$, or
| > C\Windows\System32\. After that kind of error pops up about 157 times I
| > get
| > a basic logon prompt, when I enter the user name and password the
computer
| > reboots.
| >
| > I can only get in via "Safe Mode With Command Prompt", from there I type
| > 'explorer' into the command prompt and get the typical safe mode
graphical
| > windows interface. In there I noticed that my D:\ disk (attached to the
| > Sil
| > 0680) is disk(0) and my system-apps disk C:\, is disk(1). Just want to
ask
| > could this the cause of my problems? If so I can't for the life of me
get
| > C:\ to be my disk(0) and D:\ as disk(1), is this possible? Silicon Image
| > is
| > of absolutely no help...
| >
| > Specs;
| > GX440 Motherboard
| > Intel PIII 550 MHz Chip
| > 768 MB SDRAM
| > ATI Radeon 9200 SE Atlantis 128 AGP Card.
| > 13 GB System Disk
| > 60 GB Data Disk
| > Silicon Image Sil 0680 IDE (non-raid) card.
| > SB Audigy 24 Bit Sound Card.
| >
| > Windows XP SP1.
| >
| > Thanks for your consideration newsgroup.
| >
| > Regards,
| > Winux P.
| >
| >
|
|

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

Never assume. A corrupted disk can still be readable. I would still try the
diagnostics.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[ByTor]

Thanks Rick, (Or is it The Hon. Mr. Nutcase ???),

Haven't managed to download the utilities, but I placed both disks in an
external USB2.0 casing and looked at them on my other computer. It read fine
and a full scan disk in windows and chkdisk from a cmd prompt found nothing,
problem wise that is. I admit to not knowing much about these things, am I
safe in assuming nothing is wrong with the disks? Hopefully not....

Thanks very muck Rick.

Regards,
Winux P.

Did you read my post ? If it did not come through below is my reply, I
re-edited a bit if you did see it:

Did this issue start to happen as soon as you connected the data drive
to the Sil???

Try this:

Put your OS drive on the Sil's "Primary" and if nothing else is on the
Sil place your data drive on the "Secondary".....If those will be the
only two drives on there than your data drives pin can be set to
Master..........Or simply remove the data disk & it will confirm the
issue may be related to the Sil....Which I'm betting it just may be.

Just to answer a quick question for you....Sil controllers **DO** take
over disk order assignment **before** the MotherBoard.....
Sil: Disk0,1,2,3.....MB: 4,5,6,7....etc.....
This of course providing they are all HD's.....

 

[Winux P]

Thanks ByTor,

Did indeed read your post and didn't get a chance yesterday to execute your
post, which I really want to do today. I'll get a chance later this
afternoon. I had some boot problems when I installed (replaced) the card
which involved the computer rebooting itself just after the WinXP splash
screen. Strangely this only happened a few times then all started going OK.
But occasionally (I mean rarely) the computer would reboot itself. This
problem exploded when I installed SP2 (WinXP) and all the boot up error
messages of not being able to save, write or find data back to C:\$Mft$ and
C:\Windows\System32 folders.

I was forced to do a reinstall of Windows (not complaining I actually look
for any excuse to rebuild a machine), the first attempt after what I thought
was a successful install, I had to get in via 'Safe Mode With Command
Prompt' where in the Disk Management Console, to my amazement, the disk I
installed WinXP on, thinking it was C:\ System, was actually classified as
F:\???? My big data disk on the Sil 0680 which had nothing on it as yet was
considered as C:\ System and healthy???? I did a reinstall again (to my
enjoyment) pulling the data disk out of the Sil 0680 and all went well, then
plugged back in again and all went well. Problem went away.

I then noticed, everytime I installed or updated a driver or adjusted the
pagefile would bring this problem back, but after a few reboots all was OK.
Now I'm blocked out completely. To answer your question, yeah, I think so
because when I first did the install of the card strange things started
happening but it wasn't all that bad. Now It's all bad. I'll see later if
it's because C:\ (system disk on the motherboard is disk(1)) and the D:\ (on
the Sil 0680) is disk(0)) is causing the problems. Also you mentioned about
the notorious behaviour of the Sil 0680 Card, in your opinion, should I dump
the Sil 0680 and go back to a Promise Technology IDE card? Or After some
adjustments the Sil 0680 can come out to be a good card? And I should hold
on to it.

Thank you very much for you posts ByTor I'll post back tomorrow morning and
let you know the results.

Regards,
Winux P.
: In article <#[email protected]>, (e-mail address removed),
: Winux P says...
:
: >
: > Thanks Rick, (Or is it The Hon. Mr. Nutcase ???),
: >
: > Haven't managed to download the utilities, but I placed both disks in an
: > external USB2.0 casing and looked at them on my other computer. It read
fine
: > and a full scan disk in windows and chkdisk from a cmd prompt found
nothing,
: > problem wise that is. I admit to not knowing much about these things, am
I
: > safe in assuming nothing is wrong with the disks? Hopefully not....
: >
: > Thanks very muck Rick.
: >
: > Regards,
: > Winux P.
:
: Did you read my post ? If it did not come through below is my reply, I
: re-edited a bit if you did see it:
:
: Did this issue start to happen as soon as you connected the data drive
: to the Sil???
:
: Try this:
:
: Put your OS drive on the Sil's "Primary" and if nothing else is on the
: Sil place your data drive on the "Secondary".....If those will be the
: only two drives on there than your data drives pin can be set to
: Master..........Or simply remove the data disk & it will confirm the
: issue may be related to the Sil....Which I'm betting it just may be.
:
: Just to answer a quick question for you....Sil controllers **DO** take
: over disk order assignment **before** the MotherBoard.....
: Sil: Disk0,1,2,3.....MB: 4,5,6,7....etc.....
: This of course providing they are all HD's.....
:

 

[Winux P]

Will do Mr. Nutcase, got the diagnostic utilities will see later, hope my
disks aren't in the dumps....
Thanks again Rick.

Regards,
Winux P.

: Hi,
:
: Never assume. A corrupted disk can still be readable. I would still try
the
: diagnostics.
:
: --
: Best of Luck,
:
: Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
:
: Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
:
: Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
:
: : >
: > Thanks Rick, (Or is it The Hon. Mr. Nutcase ???),
: >
: > Haven't managed to download the utilities, but I placed both disks in an
: > external USB2.0 casing and looked at them on my other computer. It read
: > fine
: > and a full scan disk in windows and chkdisk from a cmd prompt found
: > nothing,
: > problem wise that is. I admit to not knowing much about these things, am
I
: > safe in assuming nothing is wrong with the disks? Hopefully not....
: >
: > Thanks very muck Rick.
: >
: > Regards,
: > Winux P.
: >
: > : > | Hi,
: > |
: > | Sounds more like a failing drive. Have you run a drive diagnostic yet?
: > If
: > | not, you should, there are freely downloadable from the web sites of
: > most
: > | major drive manufacturers.
: > |
: > | --
: > | Best of Luck,
: > |
: > | Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
: > |
: > | Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
: > |
: > | Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
: > |
: > | : > | >
: > | > Hi Newsgroup,
: > | >
: > | > I'm having alot of trouble booting up WinXP Pro SP1 on one of my
: > computers
: > | > (SP2 doesn't work on it). I have two HD's. System-applications disk
is
: > | > plugged into the mother board on the primary channel and is
: > (obviously)
: > | > the
: > | > C:\ disk (no slave attached). I have a data disk (that has all temp
: > | > directories on it as well) D:\ disk which is connected to a Silicon
: > Image
: > | > Sil 0680 IDE (non-raid) card with the correct and latest driver, and
: > no
: > | > slave attached. Whenever I boot the machine, it just a constant
stream
: > of
: > | > errors before the machine decides to reboot itself. Errors in
general
: > | > state,
: > | > Delayed write failure, cannot save or write data in C:\$Mft$, or
: > | > C\Windows\System32\. After that kind of error pops up about 157
times
: > I
: > | > get
: > | > a basic logon prompt, when I enter the user name and password the
: > computer
: > | > reboots.
: > | >
: > | > I can only get in via "Safe Mode With Command Prompt", from there I
: > type
: > | > 'explorer' into the command prompt and get the typical safe mode
: > graphical
: > | > windows interface. In there I noticed that my D:\ disk (attached to
: > the
: > | > Sil
: > | > 0680) is disk(0) and my system-apps disk C:\, is disk(1). Just want
to
: > ask
: > | > could this the cause of my problems? If so I can't for the life of
me
: > get
: > | > C:\ to be my disk(0) and D:\ as disk(1), is this possible? Silicon
: > Image
: > | > is
: > | > of absolutely no help...
: > | >
: > | > Specs;
: > | > GX440 Motherboard
: > | > Intel PIII 550 MHz Chip
: > | > 768 MB SDRAM
: > | > ATI Radeon 9200 SE Atlantis 128 AGP Card.
: > | > 13 GB System Disk
: > | > 60 GB Data Disk
: > | > Silicon Image Sil 0680 IDE (non-raid) card.
: > | > SB Audigy 24 Bit Sound Card.
: > | >
: > | > Windows XP SP1.
: > | >
: > | > Thanks for your consideration newsgroup.
: > | >
: > | > Regards,
: > | > Winux P.
: > | >
: > | >
: > |
: > |
: >
: >
:
:

 

[ByTor]

Thanks ByTor,

Did indeed read your post and didn't get a chance yesterday to execute your
post, which I really want to do today. I'll get a chance later this
afternoon. I had some boot problems when I installed (replaced) the card
which involved the computer rebooting itself just after the WinXP splash
screen. Strangely this only happened a few times then all started going OK.
But occasionally (I mean rarely) the computer would reboot itself. This
problem exploded when I installed SP2 (WinXP) and all the boot up error
messages of not being able to save, write or find data back to C:\$Mft$ and
C:\Windows\System32 folders.

I was forced to do a reinstall of Windows (not complaining I actually look
for any excuse to rebuild a machine), the first attempt after what I thought
was a successful install, I had to get in via 'Safe Mode With Command
Prompt' where in the Disk Management Console, to my amazement, the disk I
installed WinXP on, thinking it was C:\ System, was actually classified as
F:\???? My big data disk on the Sil 0680 which had nothing on it as yet was
considered as C:\ System and healthy???? I did a reinstall again (to my
enjoyment) pulling the data disk out of the Sil 0680 and all went well, then
plugged back in again and all went well. Problem went away.

I then noticed, everytime I installed or updated a driver or adjusted the
pagefile would bring this problem back, but after a few reboots all was OK.
Now I'm blocked out completely. To answer your question, yeah, I think so
because when I first did the install of the card strange things started
happening but it wasn't all that bad. Now It's all bad. I'll see later if
it's because C:\ (system disk on the motherboard is disk(1)) and the D:\ (on
the Sil 0680) is disk(0)) is causing the problems. Also you mentioned about
the notorious behaviour of the Sil 0680 Card, in your opinion, should I dump
the Sil 0680 and go back to a Promise Technology IDE card? Or After some
adjustments the Sil 0680 can come out to be a good card? And I should hold
on to it.

Thank you very much for you posts ByTor I'll post back tomorrow morning and
let you know the results.

I would be very safe to say that you should go back to the promise
card....It is an actual Extended IDE card....Any harddrives connected to
it will be assigned positions **after** the MotherBoard....Providing now
that there are still HD's on the MB......Personally I keep only 1 HD on
my motherboard which contains the OS....Lot less problems for my
needs....
By nature windows installs always seek **Disk0** by default, any other
alternative installs will be chosen by the installer if it is to be on
another partition, hence assigning another drive letter....Especially
logical PT's, primaries can be maintained as C with certain multiboots,
hiding partitions blah, blah.....But this is not your situation....

Trust me when I tell you that the Sil **IS** taking over your disk
order....If you attached the 2 drives to the Sil and **NO** harddrives
to the Mboard do a clean and you will be **fine**....Make sure the OS
goes to disk0......CD Roms don't matter. But be careful again if you
decide to attach a drive to the MB.....

I multiboot 4 OS's on my system.....When I first bought the Sil(same as
yours) I attached a drive to it and Ohhhhhh boy did the fine start.....I
since installed a Promise with 3 HD's attached and the Sil I use with 2
DVD burners, 1 CD burner, & 1 DVD Player all attached....And I'll tell
ya it works great with the roms attached.....You may want to consider
using it for that instead.....I have a 1.4ghz system and can burn 3 CD's
at once and my system will not flinch............

Let me know how ya work out.......It is a good suggestion by previous
posters to run the diagnostics though, just to be on the safe side.

 

[Winux P]

Thanks heaps ByTor,

Couldn't find another Promise Technology IDE controller, so I went down the
next alternative you suggested and plugged both disks into the Sil 0680. On
boot up I set disk 0 and 1 on the Sil and what a different story. I was so
pleased I decided to do a full reinstall of Windows XP with the disks on the
Sil 0680 and how fantastic. The System C: disk is now always disk 0 and get
absolutely no trouble when booting my system. Not only that the system seems
to run faster (maybe that's the reinstall, but my gut feeling tells me
something else). I could even put another pagefile on the D: disk and move
the system temp folder there (D:\Temp) without any trouble at all. Wouldn't
happen previous to this configuration, it would crash like my original
posting rambled on about.

I'd like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank you (very much too)
ByTor for such great advice, great advice that worked well, never thought I
could boot from a card, I once again I have confidence in my system, The
PIII lives...!

Thank you so much ByTor, I'm over the moon pleased.

Best Regards,
Winux P.

Now I'd better run that disk diagnostic tool Rick ("Nutcase") got me
paranoid about as well.... can't hurt though.

: In article <[email protected]>, (e-mail address removed),
: Winux P says...
:
:
: I would be very safe to say that you should go back to the promise
: card....It is an actual Extended IDE card....Any harddrives connected to
: it will be assigned positions **after** the MotherBoard....Providing now
: that there are still HD's on the MB......Personally I keep only 1 HD on
: my motherboard which contains the OS....Lot less problems for my
: needs....
: By nature windows installs always seek **Disk0** by default, any other
: alternative installs will be chosen by the installer if it is to be on
: another partition, hence assigning another drive letter....Especially
: logical PT's, primaries can be maintained as C with certain multiboots,
: hiding partitions blah, blah.....But this is not your situation....
:
: Trust me when I tell you that the Sil **IS** taking over your disk
: order....If you attached the 2 drives to the Sil and **NO** harddrives
: to the Mboard do a clean and you will be **fine**....Make sure the OS
: goes to disk0......CD Roms don't matter. But be careful again if you
: decide to attach a drive to the MB.....
:
: I multiboot 4 OS's on my system.....When I first bought the Sil(same as
: yours) I attached a drive to it and Ohhhhhh boy did the fine start.....I
: since installed a Promise with 3 HD's attached and the Sil I use with 2
: DVD burners, 1 CD burner, & 1 DVD Player all attached....And I'll tell
: ya it works great with the roms attached.....You may want to consider
: using it for that instead.....I have a 1.4ghz system and can burn 3 CD's
: at once and my system will not flinch............
:
: Let me know how ya work out.......It is a good suggestion by previous
: posters to run the diagnostics though, just to be on the safe side.
:

 

[ByTor]

Thanks heaps ByTor,

Couldn't find another Promise Technology IDE controller, so I went down the
next alternative you suggested and plugged both disks into the Sil 0680. On
boot up I set disk 0 and 1 on the Sil and what a different story. I was so
pleased I decided to do a full reinstall of Windows XP with the disks on the
Sil 0680 and how fantastic. The System C: disk is now always disk 0 and get
absolutely no trouble when booting my system. Not only that the system seems
to run faster (maybe that's the reinstall, but my gut feeling tells me
something else). I could even put another pagefile on the D: disk and move
the system temp folder there (D:\Temp) without any trouble at all. Wouldn't
happen previous to this configuration, it would crash like my original
posting rambled on about.

Actually if your HD's are ATA133 compatable so is the Sil, so if your
MotherBoard was only ATA100 than you will notice a speed
difference.......But a clean install does add also...... ;0)

I'd like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank you (very much too)
ByTor for such great advice, great advice that worked well, never thought I
could boot from a card, I once again I have confidence in my system, The
PIII lives...!

Thank you so much ByTor, I'm over the moon pleased.

You're welcome.....glad to help.

Best Regards,
Winux P.

Now I'd better run that disk diagnostic tool Rick ("Nutcase") got me
paranoid about as well.... can't hurt though.

I'm glad it all worked out for ya though....nice to have a smooth
running system isn't it.........I'll probably be safe to say that your
disks are fine........... Good Luck!