Boot from SCSI, use EIDE for storage

[atsai3]

Hello,

I would like to set up my Dell desktop to boot from a SCSI (Maxtor Atlas 10K II) and use an EIDE (Western Digital WD800BB) for storage. However, I'm having trouble getting the computer to boot to the SCSI -- on bootup, I get an error message like "no bootable partition found - system halted". I did a search of the previous posts on AnandTech and most of them referred to needing to specify somewher to boot to SCSI. But on bootup, the only options I have are to press <DEL> to enter system setup (no SCSI options there) or to press <F6> to enter Tekram SCSI Card setup. Sorry my message isn't more detailed; I'm new at this. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
-a.

EDIT: I switched back to my Segate EIDE boot drive, and now I can't access the second drive (Western Digital). What happened?

 

[Woodie]

Windows won't boot off a non-C drive. (Yes, the WinNT directory can be put on another drive, but the C partition has to allow MS to write to the boot sector.)
Traditionally, drive letters are assigned by the BIOS in the following order:
A/B to one or both floppies (present or not).
C to the first Primary Partition on the first IDE device
Next to the next Primary partition on the first IDE device
Next to the next Primary parition on any IDE device
Next to any Extended partitions on the first IDE device
Next to any Extended partitions on any IDE device
Next to any IDE-CD device(s)
Next to any partitions on SCSI drives... The point of all this was that it is difficult to get an MS OS to boot off a SCSI drive when there is an IDE drive in the system. It may be easier w/ newer Mobos, but I don't have those.

It sounds as if the MoBo BIOS is already trying to boot off the SCSI drive--where there isn't an OS, so the error message. F6 will take you to the controller BIOS, where you can configure the card, and tell it which SCSI drives to actually attempt to boot from (default is id=0).

At this point, you have to reinstall your OS, so try booting from the CD or from a floppy w/ CD and SCSI drivers. Then you should be able to create a primary partition on the SCSI drive, reboot, format the new partition and install your OS.

Good luck...post back w/ more questions, and more detailed system specs will probably be needed.

--Woodie

 

[Locke]

Hey there! I just had this problem, but I got er working. I couldn't for the life of me get win98(floppy boot disk) to recognize the scsi drive.

I eventually had to remove the IDE drive, set the bios to boot from floppy-->CD--->scsi, and set boot to scsi in the(in your case tekram) scsi utility(F6). I managed to reformat the drive, put a Win XP cd in the CDRom drive, and everything else went smooth. Hope this helps!

 

[atsai3]

My problem is, when the boot sequence comes up I don't have the option of specifying SCSI. I can only choose between floppy, ARMD-FDD, ATAPI CDROM, IDE HDD, disabled, option ROM, and ARMD-HDD.

In any case, I got it to work but the drive letters were not right (my computer labeled the SCSI boot drive as D: and installed Win2k to it, and labeled the EIDE storage drive as C.

-a.