Hard disk inaccessible in Windows going from KK266-R to XP333-R

[psxjunky]

Just upgraded my mobo to XP333-R from my trusty old KK266-R and while booting W2K I get a blue screen of death with an INVALID_BOOT_DEVICE error.

I have two hard disks. Primary master is W2K and Primary slave is Win98SE. Both of these are refusing to boot. Windows starts loading and after that I get the BSOD from W2K and just a plain black screen from W98SE. The hard disks are fine, because I can boot from a DOS floppy and access the disks just fine. The mobo is also good because I can connect a different hdd and partition and format it without any problem.

So I am thinking the problem is due to the change is chipset - KK266-R used VIA, and I had the VIA-IDE drivers installed in both W2K and W98SE. Now I just changed the mobo without reinstalling the OS and windows is probably trying to use the VIA IDE drivers with the ALI chipset of the XP333-R and (obviously) failing. What do you guys think ?

If my assumption is correct, does anyone know of a solution ? What can I do now to boot the machine without having to reinstall the OSes ? Is there any way to force Windows to use the default IDE drivers and not the VIA drivers ? I have tried to boot in safe mode thinking it will force using the default drivers, but I still get a BSOD.

Thanks in advance for any suggestion !

By the way ... is there an updated version of the XP333-R manual available somewhere ? Mine seems to be horribly out of date as it shows the layout of KA266-RPlus in many places ! I found only the English quick installation manual on http://support.iwill.net and a Chinese Manual ... but no English (full) manual.

 

[stevewm]

Fixing Win98 is easy, just delete the ENUM key in the registry (i think its HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\). To fix 2k/XP boot with your KK266-R board one last time and delete EVERYTHING in the Device Manager. This should at least get it to boot. If that doesn't fix it you'll need to reinstall.

 

[jordo]

yeah a mobo change is generally a good time for a fresh install of windows.

 

[psxjunky]

Thanks guys ! I'll be reinstalling Windows anyway (in fact I'll be upgrading to XP Pro) but I still need to boot the partitions one last time to back up the data I had.

The problem is that I don't have the old KK266-R board anymore ... I had to RMA it to get the XP333-R. I can still access the disks by booting from a DOS disk. Does anyone know where the registry data lives on the disk for Win98SE ? Also, where does Win2K store the device manager info ?

Thanks !

 

[CoDerEd]

I guess if you only want to back up the data you
can use your friend computer install the hd in there
and you can back up your data into CD or keep it on the hd 'till you done.

Or you say that you can make partition on another HD,
then why not install OS in there to boot up and you can back up your data...
( i still keep my old HD as a back up, with win 98 installed on it)
after you back up your data you can easily reformat and re install the OS.

Personally i don't like the idea of dual booting, what i ussusaly do
is install all of the OS an the different HD so i can install all of them
once at a time(i disconnect the other hd when i install he os),
and choose the boot HD from the bios

peace

 

[psxjunky]

<< I guess if you only want to back up the data you
can use your friend computer install the hd in there
and you can back up your data into CD or keep it on the hd 'till you done.

Or you say that you can make partition on another HD,
then why not install OS in there to boot up and you can back up your data...
( i still keep my old HD as a back up, with win 98 installed on it)
after you back up your data you can easily reformat and re install the OS. >>




That's what I am planning to do ... but only as a last resort in case I don't find ANY way to boot these disks.




<< Personally i don't like the idea of dual booting, what i ussusaly do
is install all of the OS an the different HD so i can install all of them
once at a time(i disconnect the other hd when i install he os),
and choose the boot HD from the bios

peace >>



Same here ... I don't trust any piece of software to manage dual boot for me either I was doing the same thing. My Win98 and W2K installations were on entirely different disks, and I was using the BIOS to switch between the two.

 

[CoDerEd]

well may be you tried this already.
can you go to safe mode?, cause you can uninstall the driver from safe mode
just like stevewm said empty the device manager.

but i think reformat your hd still the best idea after you backup your data.

good luck

 

[psxjunky]

Yep ... already tried safe mode and still get the BSOD

 

[Red Dawn]

The problem you are having is that the W2K Bootloader isn't recognizing the IDE Drive because it doesn't have the IDE Controller Drivers installed because your new board has a different chipset than your old board. If you are upgrading to WinXP make a set of Floppy Boot Disks from your Win XP CD or better yet, download a copy of this Boot Disk from EZINSTALL which automates the installation of WinXP (Win2K,Win Me and Win98 for that matter) All you have to do is bootup from the Floppy and plug in your name, your companies name and the Serial Number and the probram will do the rest. It will repartition your drive if you wish and even convert it to NTFS is you choose too.

 

[psxjunky]

Red Dawn: Thanks for the info ! I thought too the problem is because of the change in chipset and now you confirmed it.

Isn't there a way to force W2K to use the 'default' IDE drivers (which I am guessing are independent of the chipset) ? I thought booting in safe mode will do it, but unfortunately it didn't help and I got the same INVALID_BOOT_DEVICE error.

Thanks for the EZINSTALL boot disk link. What is the advantage of using this disk as opposed to the standard WinXP setup ? I haven't yet installed XP and netiher have seen anyone installing it, so I don't know if there is anything unique to the XP setup procedure that is different from previous Windows installations. I see from your post that the EZINSTALL disk automates the whole setup procedure, but since this is the first time I'll be installing XP Pro, I kind of like to do it interactively and take the time to understand better what's going on.

So is automation the only advantage of using the EZINSTALL or are there other benefits too ?

 

[Red Dawn]

<< So is automation the only advantage of using the EZINSTALL or are there other benefits too ? >>

It's faster, you only need one diskette, it gives you the option to convert your partion to NTFS, it has a program that will back up your registry (if you don't convert your Partition to NTFS), it will Partition and Format your drive.



<< Isn't there a way to force W2K to use the 'default' IDE drivers (which I am guessing are independent of the chipset) ? I thought booting in safe mode will do it, but unfortunately it didn't help and I got the same INVALID_BOOT_DEVICE error. >>

You know I use a SCSI Boot drive and an Adaptec Host Adapter on my bench with an OS Loaded on it so when I swap out Motherboards I don't have to worry about different IDE Controllers. After I boot into W2k or XP the OS loads (or I load) the drivers for the Particular Chipset I'm using and then ghost the OS from the SCSI Drive to the IDE Drive. With the Drivers for the IDE Controller loaded I haven't any problems with the OS finding the Controllers and my IDE Drive. Of course that's not a solution for most. In fact it was just a benefit of being a SCSI enthusiast that happened to work out well..