Re: Boot problems with RAID

The signature syntax in the boot.ini file is not unusual:

Windows May Use Signature() Syntax in the Boot.ini File
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/227704

Your mirror may have been broken. See if you can boot the installation with a boot floppy.

John

sh2811 wrote:

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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