Can't load Windows...HDD problems?? Or motherboard?? Or Microsoft???

[mtx]

All was well for one month and a half until 2 days ago. I turned on my computer, came back 5 minutes later, and I see that my HDD is busy doing something (I don't know what it was doing). It appeared that my system was completely frozen (couldnt do anything) so I did a hard reset...that's where everything went bad, and then worse...Windows refused to load, saying that I was missing a file called "pci.sys"..it worked 1/20 resets but after that it stopped working and kept giving me the same error message..I go to recovery console to try to fixboot, chdksk, and almost everything else possible, but it could not read the drive Windows was on (Windows was installed on my RAID-0 with 2 Raptors)..

 

This is what Norton Ghost 9.0 said about one of the Raptors when I loaded the Ghost bootup CD and TRIED running some diagnostics tests:

 

Error #119: partition ends after end of disk

ucEndCylinder (18078) must be less than 9039.

Disk Geometry error(s) detected on this drive. (POPUP)

 

it seems that the partition tables on one of the Raptors in the RAID-0 config screwed up THUS screwing up everything..SO i take off the RAID-0 config, format each drive, and reinstall Windows XP on the Raptor that had the aformentioned error above. It installed fine, but on my next reboot, after it says "VERIFYING BLAH BLAH", it gives me an unreadable error message in weird symbols. This leads me to believe that the Raptor is partically dead and dying...but I can't be sure until I run some SMART/HDD tests...

 

SOOOO I install Windows XP on my other Raptor, but now I get these error messages RANDOMLY in no selected order:

 

A reading error has occurred.

Please press CTRL ALT DEL to restart.

 

NTLDR is missing.

Please press CTRL ALT DEL to restart.

 

The frequency of experiencing these errors are VERY HIGH if I have 2 or more HDDs (I have 4) connected to my motherboard. If I just run the 1 HDD that contains Windows, it almost loads into Windows (except for when I had the error with weird symbols)..So what is the problem? Why is this motherboard so random with HDDs? 1.5 months ago, I had the same errors AFTER installing my RAID-0 setup, but suddenly started working when I had 4 HDDs plugged in. Now I can barely load Windows with 2 plugged in. I doubt any of the HDDs have problems (except for that Raptor I mentioned), they pass the POST SMART test, and they certainly worked 100% fine in my old NF3 setup. I'm also running a heavily OCed system, but I doubt that has any effect on the HDDs. All 4 HDDs are on SATA ports 1-4 which AFAIK are locked. I even ran @ optimized defaults and the same problems came.....

 

Can anyone help me?

 

I want to be able to run and load up 4 HDDs at once without unplugging and plugging, which doesnt work sometimes since Windows is dumb and doesn't always display a hotplugged HDD...

[prjkitch]

All was well for one month and a half until 2 days ago. I turned on my computer, came back 5 minutes later, and I see that my HDD is busy doing something (I don't know what it was doing). It appeared that my system was completely frozen (couldnt do anything) so I did a hard reset...that's where everything went bad, and then worse...Windows refused to load, saying that I was missing a file called "pci.sys"..it worked 1/20 resets but after that it stopped working and kept giving me the same error message..I go to recovery console to try to fixboot, chdksk, and almost everything else possible, but it could not read the drive Windows was on (Windows was installed on my RAID-0 with 2 Raptors)..

 

This is what Norton Ghost 9.0 said about one of the Raptors when I loaded the Ghost bootup CD and TRIED running some diagnostics tests:

 

Error #119: partition ends after end of disk

ucEndCylinder (18078) must be less than 9039.

Disk Geometry error(s) detected on this drive. (POPUP)

 

it seems that the partition tables on one of the Raptors in the RAID-0 config screwed up THUS screwing up everything..SO i take off the RAID-0 config, format each drive, and reinstall Windows XP on the Raptor that had the aformentioned error above. It installed fine, but on my next reboot, after it says "VERIFYING BLAH BLAH", it gives me an unreadable error message in weird symbols. This leads me to believe that the Raptor is partically dead and dying...but I can't be sure until I run some SMART/HDD tests...

 

SOOOO I install Windows XP on my other Raptor, but now I get these error messages RANDOMLY in no selected order:

 

A reading error has occurred.

Please press CTRL ALT DEL to restart.

 

NTLDR is missing.

Please press CTRL ALT DEL to restart.

 

The frequency of experiencing these errors are VERY HIGH if I have 2 or more HDDs (I have 4) connected to my motherboard. If I just run the 1 HDD that contains Windows, it almost loads into Windows (except for when I had the error with weird symbols)..So what is the problem? Why is this motherboard so random with HDDs? 1.5 months ago, I had the same errors AFTER installing my RAID-0 setup, but suddenly started working when I had 4 HDDs plugged in. Now I can barely load Windows with 2 plugged in. I doubt any of the HDDs have problems (except for that Raptor I mentioned), they pass the POST SMART test, and they certainly worked 100% fine in my old NF3 setup. I'm also running a heavily OCed system, but I doubt that has any effect on the HDDs. All 4 HDDs are on SATA ports 1-4 which AFAIK are locked. I even ran @ optimized defaults and the same problems came.....

 

Can anyone help me?

 

I want to be able to run and load up 4 HDDs at once without unplugging and plugging, which doesnt work sometimes since Windows is dumb and doesn't always display a hotplugged HDD...

 

hi dont know if you have the same problem i had but for some strange reason the BIOS switches the boot order of the HDD if you press either F4 or F2 (i think!!! look at the boot up screen) it will take you into the boot device menu select the hdd that has your os and voila it boots up fine then alter it in your bios this could be tricky if you have 2 or more drives of the same type but say you have 4 drives try each on in turn hopr this helps:)

[mtx]

hi dont know if you have the same problem i had but for some strange reason the BIOS switches the boot order of the HDD if you press either F4 or F2 (i think!!! look at the boot up screen) it will take you into the boot device menu select the hdd that has your os and voila it boots up fine then alter it in your bios this could be tricky if you have 2 or more drives of the same type but say you have 4 drives try each on in turn hopr this helps:)

 

Yeah, sometimes it says "BOOT DEVICES HAS BEEN CHANGED, PRESS F1 bla hblah" but I ignore it because I HAVENT TOUCHED anything.......Why would it change itself?? :

[EdLSmith]

Any time an out of the normal error occurs, the first thing to do is clear cmos. Then make sure your system is stable before continuing. You automatically assumed the worst and that is where you are now.

 

Start now with a Clear Cmos and treat it just like a new build until it is stable or you found the defect. Usually there is no defect, your system just became unstable for some reason and with the knee jerk reaction, it may be somewhat worse now.

[prjkitch]

dunno but this has happend to me on three diffrent builds myown my friends (both dfi lanparty sli-dr experts) and on an athalon 2500 xp running a generic mobo!!

[mtx]

Any time an out of the normal error occurs, the first thing to do is clear cmos. Then make sure your system is stable before continuing. You automatically assumed the worst and that is where you are now.

 

Start now with a Clear Cmos and treat it just like a new build until it is stable or you found the defect. Usually there is no defect, your system just became unstable for some reason and with the knee jerk reaction, it may be somewhat worse now.

 

Will a clearing of the CMOS delete all the BIOS settings I saved in CMOS reloaded?

[EdLSmith]

Are you following Build Sticky? Build Sticky.

[EdLSmith]

Will a clearing of the CMOS delete all the BIOS settings I saved in CMOS reloaded?

It's supposed to. But if bios is corrupt, then you want it to.

[mtx]

Are you following Build Sticky? Build Sticky.

 

Yes, I followed those steps similarly around 2 months ago when I first got the board.....

[EdLSmith]

You need to do that anytime you start getting indications of instability, such as those warning of select F1 or Delete, that is a clue that you have something not well tweaked in Bios. I assume you have read the Definitive guide to Overclocking the A64. If you haven't, then you were probably running auto settings and some of those will cause instability, and finally corrupt the bios and also the OS.

 

This is a great board but it needs lots of attention.

[mtx]

You need to do that anytime you start getting indications of instability, such as those warning of select F1 or Delete, that is a clue that you have something not well tweaked in Bios. I assume you have read the Definitive guide to Overclocking the A64. If you haven't, then you were probably running auto settings and some of those will cause instability, and finally corrupt the bios and also the OS.

 

This is a great board but it needs lots of attention.

 

You mean I need to take out and rebuild my computer everytime I have an issue??? Wow...

 

I probably did read the guide, but I can't remember. I know I read at least 10 guides when OCing my A64. Most of the settings in GENIE BIOS have been changed.

[KimTjik]

Will a clearing of the CMOS delete all the BIOS settings I saved in CMOS reloaded?

A good procedure is to load optimized default and then save it to all banks. In that way you make sure that the whole bios is clean, which will lessen the chance of mistakes.