Big Problem(s)

H

Himmler

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
119
My computer will not boot at all! It goes to the windows screen with the blue bar and sits there for a few minutes and then it just reboots. If I try to boot from a CD and go into the windows recovery console or just try and format the hard drives Windows does not see the hard drives and realize that they are there. I have been messing with this problem for a few months and nothing has fixed it. The BIOS and everything recognizes the hard drive, but as soon as I go to boot or do anything, nothing recognizes they are plugged in, so this has led me to believe something is wrong with the motherboard. I have also plugged my drive into a friends computer and it works just fine, it read it and everything.
When I try and boot into safe mode I get the BSOD saying UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME and I have searched this online and it looks like it has to do with power surges and what not. I have texted the voltage on the power connects to the motherboard and they test fine. Does ANYONE know how to do something about this issue?

The main drives I have are 2 WD Raptors in RAID 0 and 1 160GB storage drive. the Raptors are where windows is installed. I would like to keep the data on them and be able to access them but unfortunately i do not think this is possible. would it be possible to install windows on a different drive, boot from it, install the raid drivers, connect the raptors, and access them? If that is possible how would I go about making the computer boot from another drive? Every other drive I connect just basically says that no drive can be found. Help please! I am trying to get this rig working so that I can sell it.

You can view the BSOD that I am getting here..

http://teamwf.com//uploadIMG_4715.JPG
 
Boot from the Windows cd, and hit R to go to a dos prompt. Then run a chkdsk and a fixboot. It is probably a corrupted boot control file.
 
Ive tried to go into the Windows recovery console, the system just does not realize that the hard drives are installed =(
 
Also, is that screenshot you linked to EXACTLY what you see? I mean, did you take the image and upload it, or just link to a generic one? I ask because the error codes printed at the bottom are important.
 
When the computer boots up it sees the discs and confirms they are in a RAID 0 array.

Yes, that is my exact screen with my BSOD.
 
Ok, the problem most definitely is your boot control files. The error code at the bottom is for a bad SCSI controller. As you are not using any SCSI devices, the fact that your OS is looking for SCSI controllers at all is a problem.
 
That doesn't sound like something good. Anything you think I should attempt?
 
The problem is, i think, a simple configuration file that Windows relies on when it boots up. One of these must have gotten corrupted or altered, convincing Win you have SCSI when you really don't. It is probably NOT hardware, because your bios can see the drives fine.

But I have no idea how you would fix this without actually getting into Windows. Your best bet imo is still a chkdisk followed by a fixboot. This should clear and rewrite your boot config files from scratch, saving your data.

If this doesnt work, I guess you have to reinstall/reformat the hard drives, which will cost you all of your data.
 
I wouldn't mind reinstalling windows at this point, but I just want to figure out how to get the recovery console to recognize the drives are plugged in because it always just says that no drives can be found.
 
sonofwang said:
may seem dumb, but do you load raid drivers before going into repair console?
Click to expand...
No I did not, I wasn't aware I would have to load the drivers again, and I don't have the floppy anymore. And I don't anyway to make a new one as all the other comps in my house are imacs.
 
Does your motherboard suport NVRAID or Silicon Image? NVRAID has proven to be alot more stable than Silicon Image's. Reconfigure using NVRAID drivers if y ou can...
 
take the drive out and plug it into another PC as a secondary drive.
Check it from there.
 
I've never worked with raid before, but that sounds like it may be the problem right there (assuming recovery console is dependent upon you loading those drivers in order to detect those drives). And it might explain why windows is freaking out and thinking you have a scsi setup (again, missing raid drivers).
 
Chernobyl1 said:
take the drive out and plug it into another PC as a secondary drive.
Check it from there.
Click to expand...
I would love to do that but its 2 drives in RAID 0, can't access them from another computer unnless its the same motherboard and raid controller, right?
 
talk2farley said:
I've never worked with raid before, but that sounds like it may be the problem right there (assuming recovery console is dependent upon you loading those drivers in order to detect those drivers). And it might explain why windows is freaking out and thinking you have a scsi setup (again, missing raid drivers).
Click to expand...
Alrighty well tomorrow I'll go into work and make a floppy with the required drivers on it, hopefully that'll work.
 
talk2farley said:
And now on to, perhaps, a more pressing problem: how did a mac get into your house? :eek:
Click to expand...
LOL...my dad loves macs and has one for himself and has one for my mom. Don't ask me... :p
 
Himmler said:
I would love to do that but its 2 drives in RAID 0, can't access them from another computer unnless its the same motherboard and raid controller, right?
Click to expand...

soz I missed that bit.
Yeah as already suggested, you need to load the RAID drivers from floppy to get to the console.
 
Sweet!! Glad I might have finally fixed this headache causing problem. I'll post tomorrow with my results.
 
Yeah so I just got done loading the RAID drivers, everything was going along fine and when I did a chkdsk /r command it said one or more errors on this drive is unrecoverable or something like that and I did a fix boot and it was unable to fix it. What to do? Format? :mad: Man I wish there was a way to get data off these drives...
 
Sorry to hear that, it looks like you need to minimise your losses now.

as the drives now have some functionality, I suggest unplugging them and temporarily installing Windows on another drive using a non RAID controller.
Once running, install the RAID drivers and plug the other drives in but still boot from the new Windows.
Copy everything off that you can.

Unless you have access from Windows booting from RAID, in which case, copy anything off directly.

edit:
theres a possibility you can recover the drive and/or data with some Windows hard disk utils once in the new windows.
I cannot advise on the best utils these days, hopefully someone else here can.
It would be a good idea to create a new thread titled something like
"need good hard disk/data recovery tools urgently!"

Start with the Windows Scandisk util.

I know of a good util called PC Inspector File Recovery
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/download.htm
Its free and is very good at pulling data from really mashed up drives.
I got a lot of data back from a drive that was constantly clicking!
You will need another drive plugged in for it to copy the data onto.
It also makes no changes to the drive you are getting data from so can try other fixes later if you need more.

edit2:
word of warning, with PC Inspector, its wise to have a drive to copy data onto thats as big as the drives you are copying data off as it will try and recover everything, including previously deleted files!
If you cant manage to get that size, get the biggest you can, maybe it will be enough.
It takes a LONG time to run as well, leave it overnight.
 
Thanks dude!! I will definately try this when I get home. I have a 250GB external drive so I have plenty of space to store onto since my RAID'd drives are only like 140GB. I will definately try everything you said here when I get home, and I have a good feeling it work.

A few questions though:

Everytime I have plugged in a different hard drive, the windows setup does not recognize it, the only time it has recognized a HDD was when I loaded up the RAID drivers so this would leave me to believe that it won't read anything but the RAIDed hard drives unless I delete the array but if I delete the array then I will have to format the drives when I create the array again, correct?
 
nps :)
Plug the new drive into the standard IDE PATA ports or SATA ports that are normally used for single drives.
Windows wont detect it if you place it on most RAID controllers unless you install drivers for the controller.

Make sure the new drive is not plugged into the same controller the RAID is on as you need to use them both together later!

When you plug the new drive onto a controller, is it picked up after the memory test on power up?
If not, the controller may be disabled in CMOS.

If its a PATA drive not SATA, be sure to set the jumper to master/master without slave if no CD drive is on the same cable.
If the CD drive is on the same cable, set that to Slave and set the hard drive to Master with Slave (or just Master if there is no other setting).
For now, if you have trouble getting the drive detected, dont have anything as slave on the PATA cable.

Please make NO changes to the RAID system or the RAID Drives!!
If you do you could lose everything.
 
Another thing you can do to try to get data back, Is, get another non-raid drive and install windows on it, than install your raid stuff, and use GDB= Get Data Back, or Spinrite and use those to recovery your data. Spinrite costs more but the program works wounders, i have used it many times on failing drives. Hope this helps out a little
 
Thanks guys.

That sounds like it would work Chernobyl, and I will work on that after work. Hopefully it will and I'll let you know. Thanks again!

Oh and btw..I am NEVER doing a RAID 0 setup again.
 
Alright here is an update -

I have successfully installed Windows on my new drive and I have booted up into Windows and installed the correct driver for the RAID 0 discs. One problem - Windows does not see them, but the device manager does. Any idea how I can go about to correct this? The discs are taking extemely long to load (took 10 minutes to get into Windows where it took like 15 seconds with just the one drive in) and they are not showing up anywhere except for the device manager and they are just showing up as Disc Drive, nothing else.

Any ideas how I should proceed? Thank you.
 
Are they detected properly on boot up and is the array setup as it was before from the boot menu before windows starts to load? (You will have configured a RAID BIOS at some time for the 2 drives)
This is EXTREMELY important as if its setup wrong, any corrections made to the drives can ruin the data.
If they are detected properly as a RAID set on boot, do they appear in Disk Manager in Windows?
(Right click My computer/Manage/Disk Management)

If they appear there, you may need to assign a drive letter.
Right click the drive and assign a letter.

If the drive isnt there, you will need a decent tool to try and recover the partition(s).
Something that doesnt need the drive letter to function.
This is territory I didnt want to get into as its been a long time since I last looked for tools.

The danger with recovering the partitions is that if its done wrong, its likely to make the situation worse, especially as you have RAID.
You ideally need a tool thats designed for RAID 0.

I have read quite a few honest looking recommendations for File Scavenger and the specs are impressive.
This should be able to recover the partitions and the data but it costs $150 for the RAID version! A last resort maybe?
Fortunately you can test to see if it can find anything by downloading the free demo.
http://www.quetek.com/download.htm
Once you have bought it, you can run your own recovery services lol.

This free program is likely to be better at recovering files than the one I gave you a few posts ago if you can get the partition running again.
The older program unfortunately doesnt recover all file types. Its very good at finding pictures, movies etc but it cant recover all the data, my mistake.
I dont think this new program can recover the partitions though.
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html

If things really are pear shaped, there are professional services which can recover data from what appear to be totally dead drives. Like this one but they are likely to be pricey.
Maybe worth checking though.
http://www.drivesavers.com/enterprise_solutions/index.html

Can anyone else help with some good utils for recovering a faulty RAID drive set?
 
Thanks for the help, again. :D

No, the drives do not appear in the disk management. They do appear correctly during boot up though, but Window's doesn't like them apparently. I will try the free download of that one program and give it a shot. Thanks.
 
Its possible they arent configured in the RAID BIOS.
Can you check that as if thats wrong it will never work.

It should say something "like" this after the normal IDE drives are detected:
press F7 or CTRL+G to enter xxxxxxx RAID menu
Or something vaguely similar.
 
When the computer boots up it recognizes them because it tries to boot from them unless I take them off the boot items, which I did.
 
Its really hard from this end to tell you what you should see as there are many ways these can be setup.
You need to check the RAID config to make sure its setup correctly.
The motheboard manual will have some info on it.
(Assuming that the RAID controller used is one on the motherboard!)

If you are confused by any of it, post the info here and I'll see if I can help.

ps I'm going to bed shortly so I may have to continue tomorrow.
 
I'll double check all the RAID setup info but I am sure it is setup right since the drives do appear in the device manager. Thanks for the help man, I will post my findings tonight and see if you can help out tomorrow.
 
ok, I'll await the results.

For your own info...
The drives will appear in device manager as single drives regardless of how the array is setup.

Can you full screen Disk Manager and take a screenshot for me, just in case something has been missed?
 
Yea...everything looks fine. Sorry it took so long. I've just decided to give it up - its hopeless. I've taken the new drive out and put it back in my new system. Thanks for the help man it was much appreciated.

Oh and in the device manager it appeared as one drive - not two.
 
sorry about the error, I was way tired.
Thats actually a hopeful sign having a single drive (unless one has died!), you might want to try using the demo of that software to see what it finds now!

Glad to help, its a shame we didnt get a better result.
If you want to continue, I'm around.
 
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