Re: Won't boot from SATA drives

Anna wrote:
"Tony MS" <news@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:uK%23sDHlOIHA.4476@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
My system has an Asus A7N8X motherboard with 2 SATA HDs, by Hitachi and Seagate. Runs XP SP2. After several years' good service, it has developed a fault that it will not boot from these drives, nor recognise them if I boot from a floppy. However, I can boot from an old IDE HD, or from a CD, in which case the system recognises and manages the SATA drives perfectly.

Seagate and Hitachi diagnostics, run from a floppy, disclose no problems
with the disks.

I've changed the power supply, which was my first suspect.

If I zero out either disk, then try a clean XP install, it fails starting the second phase where it should boot from the HD.

I'd be grateful for any suggestions where to look or what tests to run next.

Regards

Tony MS


Anna wrote:
Tony MS:
I'm not sure that this is some timing or CMOS battery problem (as has been suggested by some responders to your query) that's causing the problem you describe.

This may very well be a SATA controller driver issue since the ASUS A7NX8 series of motherboards does not contain a chipset that has "built-in" SATA controller driver support.

But that's not entirely clear from your description of your problem. You say that you have "zero(ed) out" your two SATA HDDs. That being so, you've attempted to make a fresh install of the XP OS on both the Hitachi & Seagate SATA HDDs, right?

Assuming that's the case - one or two questions...

When you boot to the XP OS installation CD, are you indicating that the system initially detects whichever SATA HDD you're using to install the OS? In other words you're able to at least begin the installation of the XP OS, but the installation (as you put it) "fails starting the second phase where it should boot from the HD."? (I'm assuming in all this that *no* other HDDs are connected to the system when you attempt to install the XP OS onto one or the other of your SATA HDDs).

If that be the case, i.e., the system *initially* detects the SATA HDD immediately, i.e., you receive no error message that the system has failed to detect a hard drive, following your boot to the XP installation CD to begin the installation of the OS, then this would *not* suggest a SATA controller driver as I suggested.
Anna


"Tony MS" <news@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:uAfI$YxOIHA.3400@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Anna

All your suppositions are correct. The SATA drive has been zeroed, it's the only one connected during attempted XP installation, XP happily recognises the disk and allocates partitions, but fails when it tries to reboot.

I understand you to be saying then that the problem is probably not the SATA controller

Thanks

Tony MS


Tony:
Yes, it would seem that this would *not* be a SATA controller driver issue as I earlier suggested since you indicate that when you boot to these unpartitioned/unformatted SATA HDDs (*both* the Hitachi & the Seagate at different times) with the XP OS installation CD, in an attempt to fresh install the OS, the system encounters *no* initial problem in detecting the existence of the SATA HDD. And that's what you're indicating, right? And for *both* SATA HDDs, right?

And you're saying that you're able to create partitions and format same using the XP OS installation CD, right? But that the installation of the OS "fails" at some point "when it tries to reboot". What do you mean by that? You're able to complete some portion of the OS installation process but midway through the process it "fails"?

Could you be more precise about this? How does it "fail"? At precisely what point? How far do you get with the installation process? I assume you've tried it a number of times. Is it always at the same point it "fails"? What exactly happens? A black screen? Any error message? Does the system simply reboot to the opening screen of the XP OS installation CD?

Please be as precise & as detailed as you can in *exactly* describing the problem.
Anna


If I leave the XP CD in, it simply restarts the XP installation process afresh. If I take it out, the system hangs after "Verifying DMI pool data". Yes, tried many times with both SATA HDs

Also, if I try a floppy boot disk, with the correct SATA driver renamed as NTBOOTDD.SYS, and modified BOOT.INI, it displays that it cannot recognise the HD.

Regards

Tony MS

.

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