Windows 7 only boots with DVD in tray (RAID-1)

[Thedog]

Hello,

I have a major problem. I recently built a custom system for a client using a ASUS P5P43TD PRO P43 motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131395) and setting it up as RAID-1 with Windows 7 64-bit.

Then clients call and says the machine won't boot. I get on site and indeed it doesn't boot. When I put in the DVD to repair I didn't press any key to boot from DVD and the machine started fine (booted into Windows).

I do some googling and find http://social.technet.microsoft.com...l/thread/bb0fdd69-78fe-4bf8-9e9b-039b9a74fcad

I tried the solution to copy the two boot files to the root of the windows drive. I also made the small system partition (100 mb) inactive and when I rebooted the computer promted it was an error and I did the startup-repair. After that it booted fine and Ive rebooted it 3 times without any DVD inside.

The next day client calls me and says its not booting? This issue is getting really frustrated as I have no real clue...

The RAID-1 is in the motherboard so I shouldnt need some drivers or should I? I really need some help on this one guys!

 

[Morrison5891]

Have you checked the boot options in the computer BIOS?
Ensure the RAID is first boot device.

 

[Thedog]

Have you checked the boot options in the computer BIOS?
Ensure the RAID is first boot device.

Yes... Like I said, when I was there I rebooted it 3 times. Now she gets to the safemode/normal screen and all options just gives her reboot (I think). I will pick the computer up and look at it in detail, the problem is that I will probably get it to work perfectly here and then when she gets it it will end up with the problem again.

 

[vdub12]

Check to make sure the BIOS battery is not dead.

I had a system like this once that would work fine until you unplugged it then it would not boot. This is because when it was unplugged the BIOS reset to defaults.

Its not completely unheard of to have a new motherboard with a bad battery. Also while your checking reset the BIOS with the jumper on the motherboard. I had another system once that had a brand new battery and still would not keep its BIOS info. After investigation I found that the BIOS reset jumper had been removed completely. Normally there is two positions (1,2) normal and (2,3) reset BIOS. Other boards just have two stubs that you short to reset the BIOS, those don't apply obviously. However, if there is a jumper make sure its in the normal position.

Finally I have lots of customers that use power strips to turn the power off to there computer when its off. I don't recommend these and if one is in use I normally recommend to bypass it with a power strip plugged into the wall. BIOS battery's die fast when the power to the computer is always killed. When the computers off its should still be getting power. You get some green people that freak out about it but its the way ATX was designed. Power should remain constant when the system is turned off.

 

[Thedog]

Thanks for your input Vdub...

However, it still sees the "RAID" and tries to boot from it so I doubt its the battery... This is more like a regular "Windows wont start" error, just that I added that windows is installed in raid.

 

[vdub12]

Thanks for your input Vdub...

However, it still sees the "RAID" and tries to boot from it so I doubt its the battery... This is more like a regular "Windows wont start" error, just that I added that windows is installed in raid.

Normally if the BIOS on most boards is reset it will still see the raid controller and even detect the drives but the primary IDE would be set to boot and if nothings on it or a CD-Rom is on it it will give you a no boot disk error.

Is the raid a software raid handled by windows 7?

 

[Thedog]

Normally if the BIOS on most boards is reset it will still see the raid controller and even detect the drives but the primary IDE would be set to boot and if nothings on it or a CD-Rom is on it it will give you a no boot disk error.

Is the raid a software raid handled by windows 7?

No, raid is controlled by the motherboard... http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/matrixstorage_sb.htm

There is a utility for Windows where you can set it up software, I just installed that and I can see it detects it as raid. Although, for me it seems to work now. Ive updated chipset drivers in Windows 7 and rebooted several times. At the moment I will leave it unplug from electricity for 10 hours to see if things still work, if it does Im confident in giving it back to client (even though I do not know how the problem was solved)

 

[vdub12]

Another thing to check that happened to me once.

I had a customer that every once in a while he would get a non system disk error but could never replicate it for me. it turned out his motherboard was set to boot from a USB device and whenever he left his camera card plugged in to his printer the error would occur.

 

[Thedog]

So I left the computer powerless for about 15 hours. Now it won't boot... I get "Start windows repair (recommended) and start windows normally. If I select repair it just boots back to the selection screen. If I select start Windows normally it just reboots the computer.

When I try to boot from Windows 7 CD It goes to "Windows is loading files" Then Windows boot manager talks about failing to load hal (hal.dll)...

So I ran "Fixboot" from a live-cd and now the computer boots up. So I am on to vdubs battery theory, guess I will put it a new bios battery and try if it can be "powerless"

 

[Thedog]

Okey... battery replaced, same problem.

How does MBR really work? Isn't it written to the first sector of the harddrive or is it somehow saved in the motherboard?

In theory what would happen with this scenario:
- A Windows computer works fine
- Someone turns of the power and remove the CMOS battery
- Power goes back and user select to boot from harddrive..

Shouldnt that work? for both Raid and regular IDE settings? And I think my battery is working because if it didn't then BIOS settings would be cleared on no power but they are not, so this is something different...

 

[vdub12]

Are both hard drives the same.

I wonder if one of the drives are going out. Try and break the mirror and see if it boots off a single drive.

 

[Thedog]

Are both hard drives the same.

I wonder if one of the drives are going out. Try and break the mirror and see if it boots off a single drive.

Yeah they are the same. You mean break the mirror when its failing to boot? Last time I tried to break a Intel RAID-1 mirror it said that all data will become lost. But I could just unplug one drive and change to SATA mode in Bios.

At the moment I had it without power for 15 minutes and then it booted fine, also changed to ahci instead of IDE in the controller settings.

 

[vdub12]

Yeah they are the same. You mean break the mirror when its failing to boot? Last time I tried to break a Intel RAID-1 mirror it said that all data will become lost. But I could just unplug one drive and change to SATA mode in Bios.

At the moment I had it without power for 15 minutes and then it booted fine, also changed to ahci instead of IDE in the controller settings.

When its not booting just unplug one drive. You can always rebuild the mirror later if you need to.

What brand drives are they?

 

[Thedog]

2 x WESTERN DIGITAL CAVIAR GREEN 1TB SATA/300 64MB

Now I rebuilt the raid and reinstalled... It didn't boot after I installed Windows Updates. Maybe they are the problem? This is so random now I do not know what to do.

I am gonna try to reinstall again and disable windows updates.

 

[Thedog]

Okey, Ive decided to not use RAID-1... Seems to work better.

Using Raid-1 on boot drive, any inputs on that? (I read its not good)

 

[vdub12]

While running update are you updating the raid controller drivers?

 

[Thedog]

While running update are you updating the raid controller drivers?

I don't think so because I suppose they would come as optional rather then recommended updates?

 

[vdub12]

I don't think so because I suppose they would come as optional rather then recommended updates?

see if the manufacturer has updated drivers.

When you say it will not boot what exactly is the error you get.

 

[Thedog]

see if the manufacturer has updated drivers.

When you say it will not boot what exactly is the error you get.

Without CD inside tray it booted to "Start windows repair" or "Start windows normally", when I did start windows repair I got "Loading windows files" and at 100 % it went back to the selection screen. If I took start windows normally it just rebooted.

With CD in tray I would sometimes get hal.dll error

 

[vdub12]

You said it works without the raid right?

I wonder if its a compatibility problem with the controller.

Try building the mirror with windows 7. I think Windows 7 supports software raid doesn't it?