Totally fed up with the "Disk read error" message! Damn Maxt

[Barkuti]

Ok guys, after 2 days of spending sweat & blood, I'm about to take a 30 pound pipe wrench and... ok, nevermind.

 

So I'm a complete idiot, I had a 6B200M0 (Maxtor DiamondMax 10 200 GB 8 MB cache) I bought back in february or so; got one more for my new setup 2 or 3 weeks ago, and finally added a 3rd drive a couple days ago. Shot me for buying all that crap, I deserve it.

 

My initial instalation seemed to work; it worked fine but, as pointed out by the information I was reading here in the forums, my array settings weren't optimal.

 

Initially, I tried good old Partition Magic 8 to resize the drive array clusters... Then, after reboot, I got a "Disk read error" & "Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to reboot" message... "Damn, this thing has screwed up my Win$hit installation!", I thought. And the fact is, after spending two days of little sleeping, endless reinstalls, repair consoles and using another hard drive to make a XP installation, just for the purpose of setting up the RAID partitioning & clustering, I can't stand it anymore. Someone deserves to be punished, I am utterly pissed off with this $$$$$$$hit. I feel like a total butt for having bought more of these drives... the first time I readed about the problems with the DiamondMax 10 series in the forums, I should have taken the 2 bricks I already had (wtf? Now I have 3!) and sent them back to the store! AAAARGH!

I don't know what the hell's going on, but everytime after the first batch of file copying to the array (the initial text based screen part of the installation) & subsequent reboot, the array won't boot and I get always the same friggin' error.

 

I know I should have contacted Maxtor but I didn't wanted to go through the hassle, I asked for the updated DM10 firmwares here: [Resolved] resolution for disappearing Maxtor drives? (post #12). Also PM'ed AthlonAlien. Haven't got a response from him, and the thread got buried.

 

I would also go on describing how poor and crappy Windows is in some aspects, it treats you like if you were a kindergarten boy. F***ing thing won't let me do $hit in the recovery console, won't let you use DISKPART & FORMAT during the first phase of the installation (that way you would be able to set partitions/clusters/etc. properly from the first go), won't let me copy the damned Windows root folder of the running OS onto another partition/drive (WHY NOT!), won't let me... AAAARGH!!! I'M THE ADMIN!!! I WANT TO SCREW UP MY SYSTEM SO SHUT UP AND LET ME DO IT!!! Micro$oft deserves to DIE!!!

 

Sorry for all this piece of post garbage, I'm just too irritated now. I'm trying to relieve some stress. :sad:

 

I need some help guys. Maybe I need a psychoanalist. :eek:

 

Ugh

[Sharp]

Hello,

 

Are you using the nvidia IDE drivers?

[Barkuti]

Ok. I'll explain the procedure in order to get this straight off:

 

1. AUX PATA HDD with Windows XP installation plugged; both boot & system partitions on this drive.

2. RAID set up & marked as "boot", 64 KB stripe (doesn't matters).

3. System boots from "mule" XP install on PATA HDD.

4. From disk administrator I create a system partition on the array, 16 KB cluster (or whatever); partition marked as "active".

5. I shutdown system & unplug auxiliary PATA HDD.

6. I start system again, Windows XP installation CD on DVD drive present; diskette drive ready with latest nVdidia SATA & RAID driver on it.

7. Windows XP installation starts, I press F6 & get both drivers loaded.

8. Once I'm in the partitioning screen, I select my system partition from the array; nothing else is there, just the unpartitioned space on it. I leave filesystem as is (otherwise I would lose the cluster configuration!).

9. Windows goes on and installs the required files. System reboots.

10. System tries to boot (from the array, not the floppy or DVD drive you know).

11. "A disk read error ocurred" or something like that is displayed, plus "Press CTRL+ALT+DEL." :dog:

12. I think of Maxtor & Microsoft's engineers heads in front of me with a crowbar in my hands...

 

Sigh...

[red930]

When you restart after the initial configuration, are you going into BIOS to tell the system to boot from the RAID array? Additionally, are you entering the RAID BIOS to set the array as BOOT=YES?

[Barkuti]

When you restart after the initial configuration, are you going into BIOS to tell the system to boot from the RAID array? Additionally, are you entering the RAID BIOS to set the array as BOOT=YES?

 

The RAID array is always in the list of bootable devices; I wouldn't get the freakin' "Disk Read Error" message if it wasn't trying to boot from it. Obviously RAID is set to "boot".

 

 

Ok, I have some fresh and interesting info. I have been able to get a no issue installation, for the 2nd time. This has been done again through formatting of the partition during the installation process... This leads me to believe that:

 

1) Windows does something "different" in the creation of the partition during the installation process, that makes it work. I doubt this is the prob. My first succesful install was done this way, but got screwed as soon as I changed its partition's cluster size with PM8; I now have some evidence that PM8 may not have been responsible for that, because...

 

2) Windows XP (SP2) has some kind of bug with the NTFS filesystem and may dislike anything different than 4 KB clusters for the boot partition (at least). "Googling" the issue a bit: "A Disk Read Error Occured. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart" @ Hardware Analysis. Davy Dane was pinpointing this same theory there.

 

 

As I do want to set my array partitions as 16x64 cluster/stripe configuration, it's obvious we need to avoid setting up the boot one with a different than 4 KB cluster, or make it FAT32 (or both ). The best solution that comes to my mind, is to create a very small first partition (just a couple GB) for it to be used as swapfile space (UNIX style), with NTFS filesystem & default 4 KB cluster, or with FAT32 & whatever cluster I choose; this should work because Windoze puts the boot loaders in this very first partition. Then my system partition and my games/files partition @ whatever cluster size I choose (16 KB). Any tips on what should I choose for this swap file partition? Filesystem? Cluster size?

 

 

Sometimes I think whatever thing doesn't happens to me, doesn't happens to anyone. :tooth:

 

 

Cheers

[red930]

There is a known issue with installing XP on a partition with anything other than the default cluster size.

 

There is a thread in the forum discussing the issue with resolutions.

 

BTW You get the same error you encountered if the RAID BIOS isn't set to BOOT=YES even if the array is marked as the boot drive in the BIOS.

[Barkuti]

Been out for a while guys.

 

There is a known issue with installing XP on a partition with anything other than the default cluster size.

 

There is a thread in the forum discussing the issue with resolutions.

 

Thanks for the tip ExRoadie, you're always a lifesaver. :angel:

 

Found that Abit forums' thread (A disk read error has occurred press ctrl-alt-delete to restart) and got the issue resolved. It's all Micro$hit's fault (how unusual... ). I'm in a much better mood now. :cat:

 

I'm pretty sure the bugged file is either the disk manager, "dmadmin.exe", or that dll, "untfs.dll"; I'll bet a dollar if anyone wants to try . Got it running with those two and two more (don't remember now tough). It doesn't matters now. I'm a happy man.

 

Thanks & cheers