NF7-S Reformat, XP, SATA HDD Problems

[Brad36809]

Had a problem with SP2 update several days ago and decided to do a clean XP install. Had 2 drives in SATA RAID 0 (see my specs), and 1 standard 80 gig on IDE. Didn't notice any issues with my machine b4 attempting this reformat. BIOS is d23 subzero.

I have heard conflicting storys on the benefit of RAID 0 for my uses (surfing, gaming), so I decided to run 3 seperate drives for added security and storage space.

On my first reformat, I forgot to remove the IDE drive and had probs rebooting after XP install (I have another post here asking about boot order). Removed the IDE drive and the SATA 2 and reformatted/XP install again.

I had SATA RAID, so I know about the drivers at install. Also know that only SATA 1 can be the boot drive. Not sure if boot order should be "Serial ATA" or "SCSI".

Now, in no particular order, the strange shite begins. I have reformatted at least 6 times now. Each time, I seem to get a good XP install, and reboot to verify. On half those installs it will boot back into windows fine, the other half it won't (and I am talking about a manual restart after the install is completly done).

When it does NOT reboot, I get nothing, and I mean NOTHING. No "beeb", no screen and no floppy activity. I DO get start-up lights on both CD drives, and a HDD light for a split second, but that is all. Power off is the only option.

On the installs when it HAS rebooted, I have managed to get the IDE drive online and get 1 or more successful reboots b4 problems start, and also get both the IDE and SATA 2 working b4 it fails to reboot. When it fails to reboot, regardless of how little or far into the process I am, the symptoms are the same as desrcibed above. Disconnecting the extra drives does not help reverse the problem.

Clearing CMOS has worked several times to let me get back into BIOS, but not back into windows because niether SATA or SCSI will now be in my boot sequence.

Am I missing something obvious? or is something just broke? Wrong BIOS? Corrupted? Bad SATA drivers?

 

[Uncle Bob]

Couple of thoughts (this may be stuff you've already tried but it's worth checking)

You were using SATA-Raid0 but you now want non-raid setup, have you 1. changed the controller mode in the BIOS to IDE mode (it's called that on my board even though it's SATA hard discs but whatever the non-raid mode is on your rig) and 2. there may be two versions of the driver (raid/non raid), check your motherboard CD

Before your reformat, was the IDE drive your boot drive?

If your IDE drive is bootable and you reinstall it in your machine after you've installed XP on the SATA drive, this will change the logical order of the drives (as XP sees it) and will cause problems booting XP

To select the boot drive (after clearing CMOS, or at anytime for that matter) you can press F8 to select the motheboard boot selection menu and you should be able to choose which drive to boot from.

hope this helps

 

[Brad36809]

My IDE was a back-up drive only.

And yes, I believe all my BIOS settings are correct. As far a F8 to BIOS, that won't help with no post.

You might have something with the SATA RAID vs non-RAID drivers...I wll check on that.

Still does not explain my no post problem. Starting to think bad PSU, CPU, video or ground in the sys.

 

[Uncle Bob]

yes, but you're getting failure to post following a soft reboot..............

I suspect a cold boot is always OK

 

[Brad36809]

System is water cooled. Cold weather caused minor condensation which corroded several contacts on my vid card. Cleaned, system boots fine now.

Now I can get back to the XP install...thx 4 the help.