Another Darn A8N32-SLI Deluxe Thread RAID BOOT Issues

[macksomerville]

Alright been searching for a few hours... 1205 bios been using the board for a couple months now opty 170 @ 2.7, 7900gtx sli, x-fi, single dvd-+rw

Have a Raid5 on the Nvidia controller... 4 x 320gb seagates... Have a 74gb Raptor on the Sil Controller...

Setup everything, Raptor to master boot, nvidia as second... ran f10 nvidia raid program, reset the raptor as the master boot blah blah blah...

Now when everything is setup I get a NTLDR %SystemRoot%\Partion error .. which looks like a typical nt loader error for boot sector stuff as windows doesnt even hit the xp logo. I am guessing that Windows is trying to boot off the raid array (brand new empty drives) but tried to boot off the raptor on the other controller first and thats how I am getting an NT popup..

I have tried everything I can think of. I depise the errors I always have with boot issues on these new mainboards with multiple controllers... I swear with so many sata/pata ports makes this stuff a nightmare to configure correctly.

 

[macksomerville]

well updated to the 1303... windows boots now no more ntldr issues but the array wont hold... keeps dropping out and when windows boots gives me four individual disks instead of the array... hmm...

 

[Merc]

Change out the HDD cables. Is this a fresh install of windows and if so did you have the array installed while installing windows?

 

[macksomerville]

I am adding the array to a previously 100% stable system... I enable the NVraid function and literally the system goes to shit... I can see the drives independantly but when the raid function is enabled the system will not allow the raid array to initalize.

Before the system gets to windows you actually see the BIOS hard drive indentificiation screen (thats part of a typical bootup) flash before she loads into windows.

Its a hilarity, the problems booting and such corrupted my nvidia and creative labs drivers twice. I just disabled the controller for now as I spent nearly 12 hours dignosing and testing different cables array styles and number of drives...

The Controller is fubar'd is what I am thinking

 

[macksomerville]

Nm I got it to work... extracted the new SATA Raid drivers outta the new nforce driver pack and reinstalled them manually after removing the device from windows dm...

Worked like a charm... 900gb raid5 not bad I guess...

 

[macksomerville]

Jesus and dont have a 1.44mb Floppy Drive activated in the bios if the drive isnt installed... automatic windows halt and restart.... and the new bios brought back the ACPI errors while installing a Slipped SP2 windows install.

But hey my array works correctly now... lol other than the #4 sata connector that came off the mounts and continues to do so without care on my end and no superglue yet..

lol

 

[BellaCroix]

Jesus and dont have a 1.44mb Floppy Drive activated in the bios if the drive isnt installed... automatic windows halt and restart.... and the new bios brought back the ACPI errors while installing a Slipped SP2 windows install.

Holy crap... you just trouble shooted a problem for me... I updated BIOS on my A8N32, reset "everything", attempted to reinstall Windows and got ACPI errors like crazy. Ended up returning the board... just realized I didnt turn of the floppy support after the BIOS update. Doh!!!