Re: Boot problems with RAID

Ok... developments. FIXMBR didn't do anything because I of course needed to
press F6 during the WinXP setup CD boot to install the correct RAID driver.
Once installed I could then see the windows installation on the new 750 raid
drives. (I had also disconnected the old 320GB XP installation drive by now).
I ran FIXMBR (rightly or wrongly again) and rebooted to the 750 raid. I was
then told that "<windowsroot>\system32\hal.dll" file is corrupt or missing.
My suspicion at this point was not that the file was missing or corrupt but
rather that the boot process couldn't find it as maybe it didn't know where
the <windowsroot> folder is. Rebooting to the recovery console to check, I
could see the hal.dll folder in the correct folder.
Running "bootcfg /scan" found the c:\windows folder ok.
Running "bootcfg /add", which in hindsight I shouldn't have done really as
the scan option showed all looked well, allowed me to add a new boot option
for the c:\windows install.
A fresh boot and selecting this new boot option tells me that windows could
not start because the "system32\drivers\pci.sys" file is missing or corrupt..
The curious thing here, and this might be a red herring, is that it says just
"system32" and not c:\windows\system32 or windowsroot\system32 etc.... maybe
that's normal though?
Of course the pci.sys file is there OK and I have no reason to suspect it is
corrupt.
At this point I think I tried the bootcfg /rebuild option. When I boot now I
am told that "windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware
configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot
path and disk hardware...". This further makes me think that the boot process
doesn't know where the install folder is even thought bootcfg /scan shows it
correctly.

The contents of my boot.ini file now contain a few installs!!:
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=signature(d8e8b42e)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
signature(d8e8b42e)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP PRO bootcfg
rebuild"
signature(d8e8b42e)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Win XP Pro on C
Drive" /SOS
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

I'm not sure why the first 2 xp installs have the signature field whereas
the original 750 raid boot option "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" use the
normal "multi(0)..." option. Is this because the system needs the intel raid
driver for bootup and the first two boot options are actually correct?

Help!?!?
Thanks.

"John John (MVP)" wrote:

sh2811 wrote:

[snip]

When I went to boot back to the new system I altered the BIOS boot order
back to the RAID 750s but now the system just reboots in a continuous loop.
It gets past the BIOS boot to where it should start the windows load and
flashes a VERY quick message that I can't pause in time to read properly.

Press the F8 key when the computer boots and change the option to have
the computer restart on system failure and see if you can obtain
information from the stop error message.

John


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