Vista starts only from DVD

[Guest]

Have an HP Media Center m7684n with 2 500 gig drives configures as RAID 0
(mirrored). I upgraded from XP home to Vista home premium.

Recently, while under warrenty, the primary drive crashed. Secondary drove
took over, and the vendor (CompUSA/HP) replaced the drive and rebuilt the
RAID (not, of course, without a double helping of SH*T from both companies).
Trouble now is that the system won't boot up unless I insert the Vista
startup DVD.

I'll power on, system goes through POST, then hits a black screen with
blinking cursor, and that's IT. I'll insert the startup DVD, power down and
then start up again, and get to a black screen that, after a few seconds,
says 'Hit any key to start from CD...'. If I do nothing, system starts up
with no further problems.

I've tried the 'repair Windows startup files' option several times, but no
problems are ever found to fix. Sue would appreciate any feedback for this.

 

[Chad Harris]

Hi Dean--

I'm assuming that when CompUSA/HP replaced the drive, they again
preinstalled Vista Home Premium. Try doing a repair install with the DVD,
and if that doesn't work, unless I'm missing something you can format and
install Vista with the DVD.

***Repair Install Steps*** (can be used for Vista) MVP Doug Knox
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/tips/doug92.mspx

Good luck,

CH

 

[Richard Urban]

Your 2 raid drives are SATA, right? And you also have another drive
connected that is an IDE drive? Yes?



--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

 

[Guest]

Hi, Chad. Thanks for your reply.

No, they did not. The PC came with XP, and both CompUSA and HP had a major
fit because I upgraded to Vista.

Finally, they both agreed that the drive crash was within warrenty, so it
was replaced. As soon as CompUSA tech installed the new drive and fired up
machine, the mirror began rebuilding, and completed a couple hours later. It
started fine twie after I brought it home, but then the black screen thing
started.

I've tried a doing a repair install from the DVD a couple of times, but
there never seems to be anything to repair - the program never catches any
errors.

 

[Guest]

Hello, Richard. Thanks for your reply.

No, sorry if I gave incorrect information. Not sure what SATA is; I have two
500 gig drives configured as a mirrored system, so that if one drive crashes,
the other one will take over as the primary drive (I thought this was a RAID
0, config, but I've been told that it is actually called RAID 1). These are
the only fixed disc drives attached to my system.

Anyway, one drive DID crash, and when the failed drive was replaced, the
RAID volume automatically rebuilt itself at power up. The black screen thing
began about the third time I rebooted after I brought the machine home.