XP boot error with SATA and ATA hard drives

[Guest]

Hi,

I have just purchased a new PC with the configuration listed below:

Motherboard: ASUS P5WD2 Premium
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 650 Prescott 3.4 GHz
RAM: 2 x A-DATA 1024MB DDR2 PC4200 533MHz
Hard drive: Maxtor DiamondMax 10 (6v300F0) 300 Gb (SATA)
DVD: NEC ND-3550 DVD +/- RW
Video card: XFX GeForce 7900GT eXTreme 520MHz

Some days ago I started to install Windows XP pro and I kept getting a
boot-up problem. To cut things short (and not list everything done in order
to identify the problem) I have now updated all drivers (at least what I
think including Windows update) and also the BIOS for the motherboard. When
running the system with one hard drive (the drive listed above which is a
SATA drive) everything works fine. The problem starts when I try to install
my two older ATA hard drives on one of the IDE channels integrated on the
motherboard (one Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 (6Y200P0) and one Maxtor DiamondMax
10 (6B200P0)).

With all three disks installed when I try to boot after a shutdown (from
Windows not power off during for example boot-up) it usally works fine and I
can use the disks like normal. If I now try to restart from windows the
system always hangs in the black Windows screen with the little bar going
left to right. In this case I have found out that if I now turn of the power
and restart again the system goes into the screen where I can select to start
in fail safe mode, from last working configuration or a standard boot. If I
here select the last working configuration the system hangs once again. If I
however repeat this same procedure once again I successfully enter Windows. I
have tried this many times and the pattern is there although I have no clue
why! I am quite sure that the problem is related to the ATA hard drives
becuase if I just remove the IDE cable for these drives everything works
fine. If I put back the cable the same problem occurs again. I have repeated
this several times with consistent results

I am no expert in Windows or issues related to this but from my own research
(and please correct me if I am wrong) the problem seems to be related to the
ITE IT8211 ATA controller on the ASUS motherboard. I have updated the driver
for this controller from ASUS support web but this does not help. I have also
discovered that this has a BIOS of it's own (at least no update was done when
I updated the BIOS using ASUS BIOS update utility) which I have not updated
since there is no more recent version available on ASUS support web (I am
currently running 1.3.1.61). If I check for a BIOS update for IT8211 at
Integrated Technology Express (the manufacturer) they have a version
available called 1.7.1.56 but it can only be used for PCI cards and for
motherboard chips they refer to the motherboard manufacturer. I have no idea
if the BIOS version issue is relevant but I thought that I would mention it.

Does anyone know how I can get around the problem without buying new SATA
disks? Is this a BIOS issue or XP related? I have never experienced anything
similar but then again it is my first time mixing SATA and ATA disks.

Any help would be appretiated!

Regards,
Henrik

 

[John]

Hi,

I have just purchased a new PC with the configuration listed below:

Motherboard: ASUS P5WD2 Premium
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 650 Prescott 3.4 GHz
RAM: 2 x A-DATA 1024MB DDR2 PC4200 533MHz
Hard drive: Maxtor DiamondMax 10 (6v300F0) 300 Gb (SATA)
DVD: NEC ND-3550 DVD +/- RW
Video card: XFX GeForce 7900GT eXTreme 520MHz

Some days ago I started to install Windows XP pro and I kept getting a
boot-up problem. To cut things short (and not list everything done in order
to identify the problem) I have now updated all drivers (at least what I
think including Windows update) and also the BIOS for the motherboard. When
running the system with one hard drive (the drive listed above which is a
SATA drive) everything works fine. The problem starts when I try to install
my two older ATA hard drives on one of the IDE channels integrated on the
motherboard (one Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 (6Y200P0) and one Maxtor DiamondMax
10 (6B200P0)).

With all three disks installed when I try to boot after a shutdown (from
Windows not power off during for example boot-up) it usally works fine and I
can use the disks like normal. If I now try to restart from windows the
system always hangs in the black Windows screen with the little bar going
left to right. In this case I have found out that if I now turn of the power
and restart again the system goes into the screen where I can select to start
in fail safe mode, from last working configuration or a standard boot. If I
here select the last working configuration the system hangs once again. If I
however repeat this same procedure once again I successfully enter Windows. I
have tried this many times and the pattern is there although I have no clue
why! I am quite sure that the problem is related to the ATA hard drives
becuase if I just remove the IDE cable for these drives everything works
fine. If I put back the cable the same problem occurs again. I have repeated
this several times with consistent results

I am no expert in Windows or issues related to this but from my own research
(and please correct me if I am wrong) the problem seems to be related to the
ITE IT8211 ATA controller on the ASUS motherboard. I have updated the driver
for this controller from ASUS support web but this does not help. I have also
discovered that this has a BIOS of it's own (at least no update was done when
I updated the BIOS using ASUS BIOS update utility) which I have not updated
since there is no more recent version available on ASUS support web (I am
currently running 1.3.1.61). If I check for a BIOS update for IT8211 at
Integrated Technology Express (the manufacturer) they have a version
available called 1.7.1.56 but it can only be used for PCI cards and for
motherboard chips they refer to the motherboard manufacturer. I have no idea
if the BIOS version issue is relevant but I thought that I would mention it.

Does anyone know how I can get around the problem without buying new SATA
disks? Is this a BIOS issue or XP related? I have never experienced anything
similar but then again it is my first time mixing SATA and ATA disks.

Any help would be appretiated!

Regards,
Henrik

Its a hardware or BIOS problem, XP has to boot before it has a chance to
cause any havoc. Why did you flash the BIOS anyway? It appears that the
BIOS is looking to the PATA drives (when they are installed) to boot and
not finding a boot sector. Do either of them have an active partition?
Have you set the SATA drive (many BIOS's call them SCSI) ahead of the
PATAs in the BIOS's boot chain?

Thats all I can think of at the moment,
John

 

[Guest]

Hi John,

I do understand that XP has to boot first but the problem occurred during
the boot but as you say BIOS or hardware sounds like the problem. I did flash
the BIOS because I was trying everything I could and the BIOS on the
motherboard was outdated.

Regarding the boot order my SATA disk is set first, infact it is not
possible in the BIOS to select one of the PATA drives to boot from. I also
read somewhere that this was the case that the moderboard that I am using has
to boot from SATA (found it written by another frustrated ASUS P5WD2 Premium
user) and not PATA. Both my other disks have an active partion (one has two)
and as I wrote when I do succeed to boot they work just fine (I have tested
to copy data back and forth).

Cheers,
Henrik

 

[John]

Hi John,

I do understand that XP has to boot first but the problem occurred during
the boot but as you say BIOS or hardware sounds like the problem. I did flash
the BIOS because I was trying everything I could and the BIOS on the
motherboard was outdated.

Regarding the boot order my SATA disk is set first, infact it is not
possible in the BIOS to select one of the PATA drives to boot from. I also
read somewhere that this was the case that the moderboard that I am using has
to boot from SATA (found it written by another frustrated ASUS P5WD2 Premium
user) and not PATA. Both my other disks have an active partion (one has two)
and as I wrote when I do succeed to boot they work just fine (I have tested
to copy data back and forth).

Cheers,
Henrik

Well if it works once it should work every time ... famous last words
.... LOL.

Have you checked that the hard drive cables and power connectors are
seated properly?
I would also suspect the power supply which can cause 'off the wall'
problems. If possible, try another power supply.
Other than that it looks like your MB isn't so 'Premium' after all.

There are groups dedicated to PC hardware problems and I strongly
suggest posting to one of them.
'alt.comp.hardware' is a good one.

Sorry I can't help,
John

 

[Guest]

Hi John,

I have checked all the cables by now and I don't think that's the problem
because I have been running successfully now with three drives all night.
When I try to restart however the same problem occurrs again...

Thanks any way. I will try the page you recommended.

Cheers,
Henrik

 

[thecreator]

Hi Henrik,

Are you familar with the program called Belarc Advisor. It is free and
can be obtain from here:
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Download it and install it and after you have all the Hard Drives
installed, run it.

I don't yet own a SATA Drive, but have a Power Supply that is SATA
Ready. Does the SATA Hard Drive use the same DATA Cable that the ATA Hard
Drives use?

Serial ATA, RAID, IDE, Ultra DMA-100/66/33

Cables included: IDE: 1, Ultra DMA: 2, Floppy IDE: 1, Serial Ata: 5


Are you plugging the Data Cables into the correct connector on the
motherboard? Have you partitioned the Hard Drives that are installed?

 

[Anna]

Hi John,

I do understand that XP has to boot first but the problem occurred during
the boot but as you say BIOS or hardware sounds like the problem. I did
flash
the BIOS because I was trying everything I could and the BIOS on the
motherboard was outdated.

Regarding the boot order my SATA disk is set first, infact it is not
possible in the BIOS to select one of the PATA drives to boot from. I also
read somewhere that this was the case that the moderboard that I am using
has
to boot from SATA (found it written by another frustrated ASUS P5WD2
Premium
user) and not PATA. Both my other disks have an active partion (one has
two)
and as I wrote when I do succeed to boot they work just fine (I have
tested
to copy data back and forth).

Cheers,
Henrik

Henrik:
First of all we'll make the following assumptions...
1. All the hard drives involved and their data cables are non-defective;
and,
2. You successfully flashed your BIOS.

I'm not entirely clear on the precise nature of your problem, so let me see
if I correctly understand it...
1. When you boot with your SATA boot HD with no other HDs connected, there's
no problem. The system boots without incident to a desktop and the drive
functions normally without any problems.
2. When you connect your two PATA HDs - presumably secondary drives - you
say the system "usually" works fine but sometimes it doesn't. You can't boot
to a desktop - again, I'm assuming you're booting to your SATA HD. Is all
this correct? What do you mean "usually" the system will boot? It's that
erratic? Sometimes, for no apparent reason, the system will boot with all
three drives connected and be functional - other times it won't?
3. Do you connect your PATA HDs to the (red) IDE connectors and *not* the
(blue) Primary IDE connector? If not, try connecting each of your PATA HDs
to the red IDE connectors and connect your optical drive (I assume you're
using one) to the blue Primary IDE connector.
4. Since you're not using a RAID configuration check your IDE Configuration
in the BIOS (Main menu) and check to see if the listed items are set to the
following (defaults):
Standard IDE
Enhanced Mode
S-ATA

I take it you're using (or plan to use) the two PATA HDs as storage and/or
backup devices although you indicate one or both are bootable. Of course
there's no problem in so doing, but I have to tell you that we *have* run
into boot problems when there's a mix of *bootable* PATA & SATA HDs in this
particular motherboard and we're not entirely sure why we're experiencing
this.

Since this may not be of interest to you or anyone else, I won't cover it
here but let me know if you (or anyone) is so interested.

Anyway, consider my suggestions above and please continue to keep us
informed of your progress.
Anna

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I take it you're using (or plan to use) the two PATA HDs as storage
and/or backup devices although you indicate one or both are bootable.
Of course there's no problem in so doing, but I have to tell you that
we *have* run into boot problems when there's a mix of *bootable*
PATA & SATA HDs in this particular motherboard and we're not
entirely sure why we're experiencing this.

With some BIOSes (i.e. motherboards), this is due to how the
HD boot order includes both PATA and SATA drives as referenced
by the "rdisk()" parameter in the boot.ini file. In such BIOSes,
the enumeration of the drives, i.e. the value "x" in "rdisk(x)"
continues from PATA drives to SATA drives and sometimes back
again. For example, if the PATA drives are put before the SATA
drives in the HD boot order, and assuming just one PATA controller
channel, at the head of the HD boot order will be the Master PATA
drive, then the Slave PATA drive, then ch. 0 SATA drive, then
ch. 1 SATA drive, etc., perhaps wrapping back with the Master PATA
drive following that. If there are PATA drives present, and PATA
drives are at the head of the HD boot order, "rdisk(0)" refers
(in the *default* case) to the Master PATA drive. If there is no
Master PATA drive, "rdisk(0)" refers to the Slave PATA drive.
If there is no Slave PATA drive, "rdisk(0)" refers to the SATA drive
on SATA ch. 0. If there is no SATA drive on SATA ch. 0, "rdisk(0)"
refers to the SATA drive on SATA ch. 1.

But if the SATA drives are either "enabled" or put ahead of the PATA
drives in the HD boot order, the first HD that the BIOS looks for is
the SATA drive on SATA ch. 0, then the SATA drive on SATA ch. 1.

So the BIOS's HD boot order will determine not only which HD provides
the boot files, but it will also definine the meaning of "rdisk(0)", "rdisk(1)",
"rdisk(2)", etc, and it will determine which partition, among all the partitions
in the system, is expected to contain the system folder - which could
even be within an Extended partition.

In short, I think the problem involves the BIOS's HD boot order.
So tell us:
1) the BIOS's HD boot order, and
2) tell us which Primary partitions are marked "active" on
each HD (using Disk Management to determine this), and
3) list for us the contents of the boot.ini files on each Primary
partition on each HD.

Without this information, all we can do is guess at the problem.

Be aware that the "HD boot order" is not what is usually termed
the "boot order". The "boot order" puts devices into classes,
saying for instance, that the BIOS will first search out the CD drives
to boot from, then HDs, then USB drives. But the "HD boot order"
lists the order in which HDs will be looked at in the BIOS's search
for a HD with a valid MBR to use. Both of these boot orders will be
listed when you "get into" the BIOS - where thay may be called
"boot priority" or "boot sequence" or "hard drive enablement", etc.


*TimDaniels*

 

[Guest]

Hi Anna,

I will try to answer your questions one by one below:

Yes, all drives are non-defective and they work fine on my old PC. Also my
BIOS flash was successfull. The boot problem actually occurred before the
flash of the BIOS and this action was something that I hoped would solve the
problem.

1. Yes, when I boot only the SATA disk everything works fine and I have been
running the system for a day now without any problem. As soon as I reinsert
the IDE cable for the PATA disks then the problem starts to occur. By
removing the IDE cable again the problem disapears.

2. I am booting from the SATA drive and the two PATA drives are connected to
the same IDE cable and they are set to 'cabel select' all according to
Maxtors recommendation. When I say sometimes I actually mean the following:
After inserting the IDE cable the system tries to boot but hangs on the
Windows loading screen. I then turn the power off and restart (a restart
using the reset button is not sufficient and I actually have to turn the
power off!!!). The second time the system boots I first go into the screen
where I can select how I want to start the PC. If I here select start as
normal (or with last working configuration) the system hangs once again. I
turn off the PC and restart and at the screen described I once again make the
same selection. This time the system actually boots successfully and I can
use all three drives without restriction. I have repeated this more than 10
times and this pattern is consistent.

3. I have connected my DVD to the blue IDE connector (on my board described
as Primary IDE) and the PATA disks to one of the two red IDE connectors (on
my board described as Primary EIDE). I don't know the difference between IDE
and EIDE but this is what is written on the board.

4. Both my PATA disks are for data storage only and will not be used to boot
from. The BIOS setting is as you described 'Standard IDE Enhanced Mode S-ATA'
but I have also tried P-ATA + S-ATA which works just like S-ATA (only P-ATA
doesn't work).

I just want to thank you for taking your time trying to help me. It is much
appretiated because I am getting desperate and I am getting close to buy an
additional SATA disk and throw my IDE disks off the balcony

Cheers,
Henrik

 

[Guest]

With some BIOSes (i.e. motherboards), this is due to how the
HD boot order includes both PATA and SATA drives as referenced
by the "rdisk()" parameter in the boot.ini file. In such BIOSes,
the enumeration of the drives, i.e. the value "x" in "rdisk(x)"
continues from PATA drives to SATA drives and sometimes back
again. For example, if the PATA drives are put before the SATA
drives in the HD boot order, and assuming just one PATA controller
channel, at the head of the HD boot order will be the Master PATA
drive, then the Slave PATA drive, then ch. 0 SATA drive, then
ch. 1 SATA drive, etc., perhaps wrapping back with the Master PATA
drive following that. If there are PATA drives present, and PATA
drives are at the head of the HD boot order, "rdisk(0)" refers
(in the *default* case) to the Master PATA drive. If there is no
Master PATA drive, "rdisk(0)" refers to the Slave PATA drive.
If there is no Slave PATA drive, "rdisk(0)" refers to the SATA drive
on SATA ch. 0. If there is no SATA drive on SATA ch. 0, "rdisk(0)"
refers to the SATA drive on SATA ch. 1.

But if the SATA drives are either "enabled" or put ahead of the PATA
drives in the HD boot order, the first HD that the BIOS looks for is
the SATA drive on SATA ch. 0, then the SATA drive on SATA ch. 1.

So the BIOS's HD boot order will determine not only which HD provides
the boot files, but it will also definine the meaning of "rdisk(0)", "rdisk(1)",
"rdisk(2)", etc, and it will determine which partition, among all the partitions
in the system, is expected to contain the system folder - which could
even be within an Extended partition.

In short, I think the problem involves the BIOS's HD boot order.
So tell us:
1) the BIOS's HD boot order, and
2) tell us which Primary partitions are marked "active" on
each HD (using Disk Management to determine this), and
3) list for us the contents of the boot.ini files on each Primary
partition on each HD.

Without this information, all we can do is guess at the problem.

Be aware that the "HD boot order" is not what is usually termed
the "boot order". The "boot order" puts devices into classes,
saying for instance, that the BIOS will first search out the CD drives
to boot from, then HDs, then USB drives. But the "HD boot order"
lists the order in which HDs will be looked at in the BIOS's search
for a HD with a valid MBR to use. Both of these boot orders will be
listed when you "get into" the BIOS - where thay may be called
"boot priority" or "boot sequence" or "hard drive enablement", etc.


*TimDaniels*

Hi Tim,

First of all I am running XP in Swedish so please remember that the words I
use might not be the same displayed in Windows (especially for point 2).

I have tried to answer your questions below:

1. I have checked the BIOS under the tab Boot. The first section is called
Boot Device Priority and here I have Floppy as number 1, SATA as number 2 and
DVD as number 3. Just for your information it is not possible to select any
of the PATA drives here. Below there is another option called Hard Disk
Drives. Under this section I find first the SATA and then the two PATA disks.
As you might have read before in my response to Anna I had quite a distinct
pattern when the problem occurred. When changing the order of the disks in
this section I get a different 'frequency' of restarts required in order to
boot successfully. It is late but I do hope that I am not dreaming... Does
this make any sense?


2. In diskmanagement I find my three disks with 4 partions:

Disk Layout Type Status
SATA Partion Standard no error (system)
PATA1 p1 Partion Standard no error
PATA1 p2 Partion Standard no error (active)
PATA2 Simple Dynamic no error (at risk)


3. I can only find one file called boot.ini (perhaps I am only supposed to
find one but I interpreted your comment that I would find more then one) and
the contents are listed below:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


Thanks very much Tim for helping out!

Cheers,
Henrik

 

[Guest]

Hi Henrik,

Are you familar with the program called Belarc Advisor. It is free and
can be obtain from here:
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Download it and install it and after you have all the Hard Drives
installed, run it.

I don't yet own a SATA Drive, but have a Power Supply that is SATA
Ready. Does the SATA Hard Drive use the same DATA Cable that the ATA Hard
Drives use?

Serial ATA, RAID, IDE, Ultra DMA-100/66/33

Cables included: IDE: 1, Ultra DMA: 2, Floppy IDE: 1, Serial Ata: 5


Are you plugging the Data Cables into the correct connector on the
motherboard? Have you partitioned the Hard Drives that are installed?

Hi,

The SATA disk uses a different cable then the PATA disks and has it's own
slot on the motherboard with a different connection then a traditional IDE
cable. For more information regarding partions please read my seponse to Anna
and Tim.

Regards,
Henrik

 

[Anna]

Hi Anna,

I will try to answer your questions one by one below:

Yes, all drives are non-defective and they work fine on my old PC. Also my
BIOS flash was successfull. The boot problem actually occurred before the
flash of the BIOS and this action was something that I hoped would solve
the
problem.

1. Yes, when I boot only the SATA disk everything works fine and I have
been
running the system for a day now without any problem. As soon as I
reinsert
the IDE cable for the PATA disks then the problem starts to occur. By
removing the IDE cable again the problem disapears.

2. I am booting from the SATA drive and the two PATA drives are connected
to
the same IDE cable and they are set to 'cabel select' all according to
Maxtors recommendation. When I say sometimes I actually mean the
following:
After inserting the IDE cable the system tries to boot but hangs on the
Windows loading screen. I then turn the power off and restart (a restart
using the reset button is not sufficient and I actually have to turn the
power off!!!). The second time the system boots I first go into the screen
where I can select how I want to start the PC. If I here select start as
normal (or with last working configuration) the system hangs once again. I
turn off the PC and restart and at the screen described I once again make
the
same selection. This time the system actually boots successfully and I can
use all three drives without restriction. I have repeated this more than
10
times and this pattern is consistent.

3. I have connected my DVD to the blue IDE connector (on my board
described
as Primary IDE) and the PATA disks to one of the two red IDE connectors
(on
my board described as Primary EIDE). I don't know the difference between
IDE
and EIDE but this is what is written on the board.

4. Both my PATA disks are for data storage only and will not be used to
boot
from. The BIOS setting is as you described 'Standard IDE Enhanced Mode
S-ATA'
but I have also tried P-ATA + S-ATA which works just like S-ATA (only
P-ATA
doesn't work).

I just want to thank you for taking your time trying to help me. It is
much
appretiated because I am getting desperate and I am getting close to buy
an
additional SATA disk and throw my IDE disks off the balcony

Cheers,
Henrik

Henrik:
It is indeed a peculiar problem. Let's try the following (assuming you
haven't tried this before)...

Just connect one of your PATA HDs to the PRI_IDE connector (the red one).
Cable Select is fine - just make sure you connect the end connector of the
data cable (and not the middle connector) to the drive. Determine if there's
any problem with this configuration. If the problem still exists, change the
drive's jumper to Master and see if that makes any difference. Don't connect
the other PATA HD just yet.

If the previous connection/configuration works and leaving that PATA HD #1
still connected, do the same with the other PATA HD, connecting it to the
SEC_IDE connector.

If no go, disconnect the PATA HD #1 from the PRI_IDE connector and just try
it with the PATA HD connected to the SEC_IDE connector.

We'll hope for the best.
Anna

 

[thecreator]

Hi Henrik,

Expanding on Anna idea, since the ATA Hard Drives are coming from
different computers, I assume, check the Master and Slave settings on the
Hard Drives themselves. Put them both into Cable Select configurations, then
reattached to the ribbon cable. Now the ribbon data cable itself will
select which one is now Master and which one will be a slave.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

"Henrik" skrev:

I don't know the difference between IDE
and EIDE but this is what is written on the board.

Tita på http://ata-atapi.com/ . It untangles some
of the terminology.

I am getting close to buy an additional SATA disk
and throw my IDE disks off the balcony

Before you do that, consider a PCI controller
card for the PATA HDs.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Timothy Daniels]

"Henrik" har skrivet:

Hi Tim,

First of all I am running XP in Swedish so please remember that the words I
use might not be the same displayed in Windows (especially for point 2).

Okej. Det går bra.

I have tried to answer your questions below:

1. I have checked the BIOS under the tab Boot. The first section is called
Boot Device Priority and here I have Floppy as number 1, SATA as
number 2 and DVD as number 3. [....] it is not possible to select any
of the PATA drives here. Below there is another option called Hard Disk
Drives. Under this section I find first the SATA and then the two PATA disks.

When changing the order of the disks in this section I get a different
'frequency' of restarts required in order to boot successfully. It is late
but I do hope that I am not dreaming... Does this make any sense?

Nej. Du måsta vara klok. But.... you're saying that by
changing which HD is at the head of the HD boot order, you
change the boot difficulty. Interesting.

2. In diskmanagement I find my three disks with 4 partions:

Disk Layout Type Status
SATA Partion Standard no error (system)
PATA1 p1 Partion Standard no error
PATA1 p2 Partion Standard no error (active)
PATA2 Simple Dynamic no error (at risk)

OK. This says that the single partition in the SATA HD
supplied the boot files to boot the system.

3. I can only find one file called boot.ini (perhaps I am only supposed to
find one but I interpreted your comment that I would find more then one) and
the contents are listed below:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

I assume that you found this in the partition on the SATA HD.
It specifies a mono-boot from the same partition, i.e. the
single partition on the SATA drive. At one time, though,
you must have been playing with dual-booting, as evidenced
by the timeout value of "30" instead of the default mono-boot
value of "0".

I am intrigued by the 2nd partition on the 1st PATA HD, though.
It is marked "active". Are you sure that it doesn't have a boot.ini
file, perhaps in connection with a previously existing OS?
If the PATA HDs were somehow being put at the head of
the HD boot order, the boot files in this partition might be
receiving control and trying to boot an OS which is missing.
Does your BIOS allow you to switch the HD boot order between
SATA and PATA HDs? I somehow feel that a BIOS wouldn't
allow for PATA HDs but not allow them to control booting.

Thanks very much Tim for helping out!

Det var ingenting. Just tell us if it led to any kind of solution.
Otherwise, I think Anna's technique of switching the PATA
HDs around and trying them individually would help a lot
with the diagnosis. And then, there's always the balcony...

Ha det så bra me' det!

*TimDaniels*

 

[Guest]

"Henrik" har skrivet:

Hi Tim,

First of all I am running XP in Swedish so please remember that the words I
use might not be the same displayed in Windows (especially for point 2).

Okej. Det går bra.

I have tried to answer your questions below:

1. I have checked the BIOS under the tab Boot. The first section is called
Boot Device Priority and here I have Floppy as number 1, SATA as
number 2 and DVD as number 3. [....] it is not possible to select any
of the PATA drives here. Below there is another option called Hard Disk
Drives. Under this section I find first the SATA and then the two PATA disks.

When changing the order of the disks in this section I get a different
'frequency' of restarts required in order to boot successfully. It is late
but I do hope that I am not dreaming... Does this make any sense?

Nej. Du måsta vara klok. But.... you're saying that by
changing which HD is at the head of the HD boot order, you
change the boot difficulty. Interesting.

2. In diskmanagement I find my three disks with 4 partions:

Disk Layout Type Status
SATA Partion Standard no error (system)
PATA1 p1 Partion Standard no error
PATA1 p2 Partion Standard no error (active)
PATA2 Simple Dynamic no error (at risk)

OK. This says that the single partition in the SATA HD
supplied the boot files to boot the system.

3. I can only find one file called boot.ini (perhaps I am only supposed to
find one but I interpreted your comment that I would find more then one) and
the contents are listed below:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

I assume that you found this in the partition on the SATA HD.
It specifies a mono-boot from the same partition, i.e. the
single partition on the SATA drive. At one time, though,
you must have been playing with dual-booting, as evidenced
by the timeout value of "30" instead of the default mono-boot
value of "0".

I am intrigued by the 2nd partition on the 1st PATA HD, though.
It is marked "active". Are you sure that it doesn't have a boot.ini
file, perhaps in connection with a previously existing OS?
If the PATA HDs were somehow being put at the head of
the HD boot order, the boot files in this partition might be
receiving control and trying to boot an OS which is missing.
Does your BIOS allow you to switch the HD boot order between
SATA and PATA HDs? I somehow feel that a BIOS wouldn't
allow for PATA HDs but not allow them to control booting.

Thanks very much Tim for helping out!

Det var ingenting. Just tell us if it led to any kind of solution.
Otherwise, I think Anna's technique of switching the PATA
HDs around and trying them individually would help a lot
with the diagnosis. And then, there's always the balcony...

Ha det så bra me' det!

*TimDaniels*

Hi all,

Now I think we might be on to something (I hope!). First of all I have
scanned all harddrives looking for boot.ini file and I only find one on my
SATA drive (I do however find an Internet shortcut to that same file as well
located in 'My Computer'). When it comes to the 30 second timout value that
was once again me trying different things and I thought that it couldn't hurt
but I can change it back to. Also my BIOS doesn't let me select one of the
PATA disks to boot from.

Now to the intresting part. I ran an analisys program from Maxtor called
MaxBlast 4 and here I can see that this program considers one of my partions
of the non-dynamic disk to be bootable. Could this be why and if so how can I
change it?

I thought I would write this new information and now I am going to tryout
Annas recommendation leaving the non-bootable disk. I am keeping my fingers
crossed!!!

Regards,
Henrik

 

[Anna]

Henrik:
Just one other thought while we're on this subject...

While this won't help you with respect to your present problem re
recognition of your PATA HDs, it's something to keep in mind for the
future...

As you are no doubt aware, your ASUS P5WD2 Premium motherboard comes
equipped with a eSATA (note the "e" for "external") port. This is a
wonderful device and we hope it won't be too long before *all* PCs, both
desktops & laptops/notebooks come so equipped.

With an eSATA external port a user is able to employ a SATA HD as an
external device while, for all intents and purposes, the system treats the
drive as an *internal* HD with all the advantages therein. In terms of
performance, i.e., data transfer speed, the SATA HD is far superior to a USB
or Firewire external HD. And, for the first time, we will have a *external*
HD that is reliably bootable.

So keep all this in mind if & when you purchase your next HD for that
machine.
Anna

 

[Guest]

Hi again,

I have finally got everything working!!! Thank you all for your help and
guidance!!! If you are intrested this is what I did.

First of all I followed Anna's advise to try just one of the discs. After I
discovered that one of the partions on let's call the disk PATA2 was
recognized as bootable by Matrox MaxBlast 4 I decided to first of all try
only the other disk, PATA1. This work just fine and after this I decided to
delete both partions on the PATA2 disc and then reformat it. After this I
still had the same problem. I then continued following the advice and mounted
PATA2 drive in the secondary IDE slot and now it all works fine. This is
great and all but I still can't help feeling a bit surprised why this worked
because from what I understand it should not be a difference between
installing the discs on one channel instead of two shoudn't it (unless my
reformating had anything to do with it)?

Anyway now I am very happy and going out for a beer or two! Once again
thanks a lot!

PS. Thanks for the tip on external SATA disks Anna.

Best regards,
Henrik

 

[Timothy Daniels]

"Henrik" skrev:

I have finally got everything working!!! Thank you all for your help and
guidance!!! If you are intrested this is what I did.

First of all I followed Anna's advise to try just one of the discs. After I
discovered that one of the partions on let's call the disk PATA2 was
recognized as bootable by Matrox MaxBlast 4

Huh? You must have switched disk identities. In your last post,
PATA1 had the two partitions, with the 2nd partition marked "active".

I decided to first of all try only the other disk, PATA1. This work just fine

This is the previously PATA2 disk, the 1-partition dynamic volume
that Disk Management labeled "at risk".

and after this I decided to delete both partions on the PATA2 disc
and then reformat it. After this I still had the same problem. I then
continued following the advice and mounted PATA2 drive in the
secondary IDE slot and now it all works fine.

So now you have the previously PATA1 disk (which had 2 partitions,
one marked "active", and which you've reformatted) on the second
IDE channel. And I assume you used a 2nd 80-wire ribbon cable
and put the single disk on the end connector (not the middle connector).

This is great and all but I still can't help feeling a bit surprised why this
worked because from what I understand it should not be a difference
between installing the discs on one channel instead of two shoudn't it
(unless my reformating had anything to do with it)?

There may be a bad connector on the original cable.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Guest]

Hi Tim,

Sorry for the mix-up with PATA1 and PATA2. It should have been PATA1 with
the two partions. When I changed the disks around the only thing I did was to
remove PATA1 from it's old cable and switched with a new cable that I
inserted into secendary IDE. Together with the removal of the bootable
partion it all works. Perhaps you're right that one connector is bad on the
first cable. At the moment I am satisfied with it all working and the next
time I by a new disk it will be a SATA disk! By the way are you Swedish or
was that just something you've picked up somewhere?

Regards,
Henrik