Vista extremely slow to start

[carl_josefsson]

Hi,

I've recently upgraded my hardware from one PATA-drive to two SATA-
drives with RAID 0 configuration, but the Vista install on the new
drives is extremely slow.

I first noticed trouble when I reinstalled Vista on the new drives, it
said it couldn't install on them. After some hassle with formatting
and removing the old disk I finally got it to install at least. The
installation progressed unusually slow and finally rebooted with an
error (unfortunately I can't remember what it said) and I had to redo
the installation.

After the second try I got it to install correctly, although slowly,
and boot up. The green progress bar was displayed for several minutes
then the screen went black, still getting signals so no sleep. After
around ten minutes of nothingness Vista started and displayed the
welcome screen, but hanged some minutes later. I rebooted and waited
the 10-15 minutes again, but this time the computer rebooted itself at
the blackscreen.

So, my question is, where lies the issue? Hardware, drivers, OS?

Thanks,
Carl

 

[peter]

You did load the chipset Raid SATA drivers.????????????????/
peter

 

[vista terminal ator]

drivers, OS

 

[R. McCarty]

Vista supports an advanced form of SATA drive access. How
did you configure your BIOS ( or Controller Card ) operating
mode. Also most SATA drives have a jumper to limit the speed
to what's referred to as SATA-I or 150 Megabyte throughput.
Did you check and remove the jumpers if your controller supports
full SATA-II ( 300 Meg ) throughput speeds. SATA throughput
on Vista should exceed 80 Megabytes-per-Second on average. It
seems like you've either got something configured wrong or not using
the correct RAID array drivers. There are just too many variables
to give you a simple answer.

 

[carl_josefsson]

Thanks for the quick answers.

The jumpers are all off so it should run at maximum speed. There were
some configurarions in the BIOS that had me puzzled. I first of all
enabled RAID, then there were four options which I don't have a clue
what they mean/do; SATA 1 Primary RAID, SATA 1 Secondary RAID, SATA 2
Primary RAID and SATA 2 Secondary RAID. At my first install I enabled
only the SATA 1 options, at my second install I enabled all four
options.

And at the RAID utility I chose striping and bootable for the array.

Carl

 

[Adam Albright]

Hi,

I've recently upgraded my hardware from one PATA-drive to two SATA-
drives with RAID 0 configuration, but the Vista install on the new
drives is extremely slow.

I first noticed trouble when I reinstalled Vista on the new drives, it
said it couldn't install on them. After some hassle with formatting
and removing the old disk I finally got it to install at least. The
installation progressed unusually slow and finally rebooted with an
error (unfortunately I can't remember what it said) and I had to redo
the installation.

After the second try I got it to install correctly, although slowly,
and boot up. The green progress bar was displayed for several minutes
then the screen went black, still getting signals so no sleep. After
around ten minutes of nothingness Vista started and displayed the
welcome screen, but hanged some minutes later. I rebooted and waited
the 10-15 minutes again, but this time the computer rebooted itself at
the blackscreen.

So, my question is, where lies the issue? Hardware, drivers, OS?

Thanks,
Carl

Check into a BIOS upgrade for your MB that addresses SATA issues, also
make sure your BIOS is configured correctly and that you have any
needed SATA Vista capable drivers for the SATA controllers. A tall
order in that you might need all three to get some SATA drivers
running correctly.

While I don't have Vista installed on the root SATA drive, I do have
multiple SATA drives on my system and had to fiddle around a lot to
get them up to speed. Yep, the MB was "certified" Vista ready and had
the certified logo. So much for that BS. None of that matters. You can
still have problems.

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

So, my question is, where lies the issue? Hardware, drivers, OS?

Nobody could ever know with the lack of details here. I have RAID-0 running
fine here, so it is not some inability of the OS.

What motherboard do you have, and which controller are you using on that
motherboard?

ss.

 

[vista terminal ator]

so it is not some inability of the OS.


dont be so sure.. I read somewhere that Vista had big problems with some
nvidia controller drivers for hard disks....

Vista sure has problems.. and that problematic characteristic is leaking to
its users brains.

 

[Johnny]

Hi,

I've recently upgraded my hardware from one PATA-drive to two SATA-
drives with RAID 0 configuration, but the Vista install on the new
drives is extremely slow.

Carl,

My experience has been that the embedded Raid solutions are usually very
poor. They have no cache to speak of and in most cases have very poor
driver support.

If you must have RAID on your workstation, then I would suggest getting
a 3ware, adaptec, etc, raid controller that has some good support and
performance specs.