Help! Hard Drive Problems

[JSealy00]

I have an Abit KR7A-RAID motherboard with two MAXTOR 7200 rpm 40 gig hard drives hooked up through the RAID. I had everything working fine when I initially built the computer. But recently, I bought rounded IDE cables, and when I took out the old cables and tried the new ones, I got a messege:

Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM:
Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM:
DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

So of course, I tried the old cables again, and I still get the same thing! The computer is not recognizing the hard drives at all! So, I hooked up one to the normal IDE slot, and it did recognize that a hard drive was there. But since these hard drives were initially used on the RAID, I still cannot boot up. I have made sure all of the connections are properly done (and I have had three or four other people look at it to make sure of this) and yet I still get the same error. These messeges appear before I have a chance to get into the RAID-Bios (ctrl-h) but I can still get in the BIOS. I have searched through the BIOS and read the manual with the ABIT motherboard several times and do not see anywhere that I would have to "activate" the RAID.


So what is the problem?

 

[JSealy00]

bump.

 

[Woody419]

Try inserting a system disk and boot from the A: drive. You should then be able get to the RAID BIOS screen. You will have to change the BIOS boot sequence to boot from the A: drive first instead of the CD-ROM.

There are 11 settings in the Advanced BIOS to set the boot sequence, the last one is ATA100RAID. Make sure it is selected as the first or second boot device.

 

[JSealy00]

The RAID is on all three boot devices....(in attempting to force it to recognize the drives..)

And what should I do if I do not have a system disk...?

 

[Woody419]

<< And what should I do if I do not have a system disk...? >>


Make one.

Download a startup file from bootdisk and copy it on a floppy.

 

[JSealy00]

I have a system disk technically (I suppose), which is the XP Professional installation CD. But even when I load the RAID drivers (by pressing F6...) the disk cannot detect the drives. Also..there is no way to get into the RAID BIOS from this CD or the boot disks....

 

[Insidious]

You can't do Cntrl-H while the machine is booting from a floppy? That doesn't sound right

 

[JSealy00]

Nope. No ctrl-h. It boots from the floppy before I get the chance to get into the RAID BIOS, and the messege occurs before the raid bois (if I don't have a system disk in) can come up as well.

I need this computer working very badly! Any other suggestions????

 

[killjoyIO]

Have you tired hooking up your HD with the new rounded cables to the "normal IDE slot" where you said the HD was recognized?

 

[JSealy00]

Yes, when I hooked up the hard drives to the "normal" ide slots....they were recognized, but the system could not boot up still. I think that this is because the hard drives have become "inter-twined" since they were used with the RAID for a while.

Is it possible that the RAID chip itself went bad? If so, what could have been the cause of it? (as in...could it have been my fault or bad hardware...)

 

[Insidious]

<< Nope. No ctrl-h. It boots from the floppy before I get the chance to get into the RAID BIOS >>



Hmmmm, I'll grant you I am on a KG7-Raid not the R, but your posting screens should be no different when booting from a floppy
or the HD itself. This is because the MB hasn't even looked for a boot source yet when it is posting.

I am suggesting you are answering Yes/No without trying the suggestions you are given... but wait, that wouldn't make any sense at all now would it....

So in applying the "benefit of the doubt"..... it would appear you have a hoz0red MoBo.

 

[JSealy00]

Ok then..perhaps I am doing it wrong....

When booting from the disk, when exactly to I get the opportunity to press ctrl-h to get into the RAID BIOS? I have not seen any indication that I can do that, and I have simply just tried constantly tapping ctrl-h.....and have gotten nowhere. The boot disk brings me to the normal thing that the Windows XP installation CD brings me to....perhaps I have the "wrong" boot disk?

I don't know...

 

[Insidious]

When it starts booting, you should first see the memory check, then the IDE devices are detected. (anything connected to the NON-Raid, IDE1 and IDE2 ribbons)

then you should see the screen show the HighPoint Technologies identification of the Raid Controller (HPT370/372) etc...

Right below that on the same screen, you should see the message:

Press <Ctrl><H> to run BIOS Setting Utility (This is when you hit the control key and the H key and hold them down)

if you miss this point, you will next see the device scan attempting to identify devices connected to the Raid Controller (IDE3 and IDE4)

note: Make sure you have not connected any ATAPI devices (CDROM, DVD, ect.) to these ribbons. (Hard drives only)

I put a VERY helpful link below:

Pauls KG7/KR7 FAQ

This site has helped me out so many times........ I think it will help you too!

Good Luck

 

[Insidious]

I just had another thought.

If you are not seeing the Highpoint screen on POST, it may be that you do not have the Raid Controller enabled in your (regular) BIOS!

That selection is in the "Integrated Peripherals" page. (check your manual, it should be something like "ATA100(133)RAID Controller"

 

[JSealy00]

Ok, I never get to the "Highpoint screen on POST", and I did think that perhaps the RAID was not enabled in the BIOS...so I read the motherboard manual....and found the option to "ENABLE the RAID" under Integrated Peripherals, like you said. But when I went to my own BIOS, this option just plain old does not exist! So, I got the most up-to-date version of the BIOS, and installed it-only to find that that option is not there as well! This really confuses me, because it shows the option in the manual.....


Arg...this is so frusterating...

 

[KyleMac]

"DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER"

I saw this about 2 days ago. I started up my computer downstairs and got it. My initial thoughts were that my dad had formatted it so I went to install Windows. I go to select the drive I want to install to and it says "drive something but not accessible". So I guess maybe it's not plugged in properly and I go into the bios. Everything's fine in the bios. My dad said that in the morning he had run scandisk on the drive from windows installation and everything had checked out. After some fidling with the IDE cables and no success I take the drive upstairs to my computer. The drive appears at boot and in the bios, but not in windows. Since the drive was almost 4 years old (Maxtor 6.4gb) I decided to sh*tcan it.

NOTE: The mobo is an old AOpen Ax59PRO Rev. 2 which is ATA33.

 

[swifty3]

I have the exact same setup as you, but haven't had any problems yet...crossing fingers, praying to god...anyways, my advice is to unplug everything except your cd rom and h/d's, flip your CMOS jumper so your bios clears, and re-install the operating system. (remember so set your cdrom as the first boot device). starting over sucks, but if that doesn't work, then you will know either your mobo is trash or your cdrom or h/d. at least u might be able to narrow down the problem. hope this helps, sound like a bum deal.

 

[Insidious]

<< I got the most up-to-date version of the BIOS, and installed it-only to find that that option is not there as well! >>



This sounds like bad news! Your MotherBoard is not recognizing the Raid controller. (What you describe is what you would
find if you had the non-raid version of the KR7.)

I really think there is a problem with the MotherBoard.

IMO, it's time to think about taking it back where you got it for an exchange (I assume it is still under warranty since KR7 is fairly new)

 

[JSealy00]

Any last suggestions before I attempt to get essencompu.com to take this motherboard back? (I'd rather not have them replace it, and test it and see that it is actually ok...)

I cannot enable the RAID from the BIOS, as there is no option to do so, and I can't get into the RAID BIOS, and I cannot even reinstall everything, because even the windows xp installation cd doesnt recognize the RAID (even when I do install the appropriate drivers.. by pressing F6...)

Last call....

 

[KyleMac]

Since I have got this error myself due to what I'm sure is a screwed HDD, I believe that I have some evidence to suggest that it is one (or both) of the HDDs that are screwed. Can you try both on normal IDE on a different motherboard? While you're at it you might as well try different HDDs on your own mobo just to check.

 

[billyjak]

Disable boot from CD Rom as your 2 or 3rd choice in bios.
Choose boot to Raid

 

[billyjak]

Sorry I didn't see the previous post, I would suggest not to use the Rounded cables on this board, Mine did the same thing when I put the rounded cables in.
Did you try resetting the bios with the jumper pin, I did that and it worked again.

 

[JSealy00]

Hey, thanks for all that gave suggestions, but I think I found the problem....

Upon taking the motherboard out and examining it, it appears that the RAID chip itself is fried! How this happened, I have no idea. That is the next question: Is this my fault?

I am going to try to return it to www.essencompu.com, but I am kinda curious if they will say "oh, YOU fried it" and then ship it back to me. If it was my fault...what could I have done to do this?? It seems kinda strange....

 

[Woody419]

<< I am going to try to return it to www.essencompu.com, but I am kinda curious if they will say "oh, YOU fried it" and then ship it back to me. >>


Don't mention the rounded cable experiment and you should be fine.

Abit also has a good RMA policy. A board returned to Abit with a receipt is replaced for free. Once again don't mention the rounded cable experiment, it was probably just a coincidence the the new cables burned out the chip anyway.

Can you return the cables too? They are like brand new and hardly used.