Windows Won't Boot With Two SATA Drives

[cbhaysom]

Hey,

 

First time poster. I'm having some trouble with my nice new rig and I was hoping someone can help me.

 

I'm having trouble getting Windows to boot with two SATA HD's plugged into the MB. I know about the issues surrounding the X-Fi and this problem I'm referring to has nothing to do with it because the card is currently out of my system.

 

The installation seems to go fine with Windows, but at the second boot (the one when after it you get the little "?") Windows doesn't boot, the computer just goes into a "restart loop". I'm not having trouble getting Windows to recognize the stripped array of drives during installation (I have the latest drivers from nVidia).

 

I'm plugging the drives into SATA 1 & 2. Is that my problem?

 

Thanks in advance for all your help.

 

Colin

[lowboy]

Did you test memory with memtest before installing a OS.

[Guest SuppA-SnipA]

try installing/ configuring the sata raid, you should get a SATA RAID floppy with your motherboard

[Contrariedad]

Are you trying to utilize your two hard drives as a RAID 0 array? If so, you're running into the same *exact* issue I did, and I may be able to help you through it. Let me know whether you're attempting the RAID 0 array or not.

[cbhaysom]

Yeah I'm trying to run a RAID 0. Yes I did a MemTest and passed. The floppy disk with the MB won't work because they're old. I've tried. I had to get the updated ones from nVidia.

[lowboy]

Try putting a 2sec. delay on the array from bios ,mine would hang till the delay.

[cbhaysom]

Adding a delay fixed the fact that Windows wouldn't boot? Strange.

[cbhaysom]

Oh, one other thing. In the nVidia RAID tool I set the "Boot" setting for my RAID to "Yes" instead of the default "No". Could that cause problems?

[lowboy]

Sure did and has for many others. Its like it starts receiving imformation before mobo is ready delay give it time .

[cbhaysom]

All right. I'll try that out then. Thanks.

[hmf]

Your problem is typical when using the wrong raid drivers. Either slipstream the drivers onto xp install disk or use the drivers from the dfi cd.

[cbhaysom]

Nope. Setting a delay didn't work. They can't be the wrong drivers at least I think they can't, for two reasons:

 

1. They're nVidia's RAID drivers for nForce4 boards, which is what I have and;

2. Windows detects the RAID array instead of showing me two drives, which would indicate to me that the used drivers worked.

 

Edit: The drivers I recieved with DFI will NOT work with Windows. They are not WQHL certified and so Windows overwrites them during install.