Raid + IDE = Windows Wont Boot

[sirjinx1974]

I have the DFI AD77 Infinity MOBO with a built in raid Highpoint HPT371 controller on it. I have 2 WD 80GIG drives set in raid 1 and it seems to do a good job. Everything seems to load faster and the internet seems to be a lot faster;) Question? I want to add an IBM 60GIG drive to the system using the IDE channel, but when I hook up the IBM drive and boot my puter, My sysyem wont boot:( Windows says, " System disk not found" or something. When I disconect the drive from the IDE channel and boot my puter, the sytem boots into Windows and runs fine. Is there any settings I am missing that I need to change so I can get this drive to work??

Thank You
Jesse

[FireMogle]

I would guess your IDE is above your RAID/SCSI in boot order. Go into your bios and see if thats the problem.

Also:
Making your RAID/SCSI very first will speed boot up abit, skipping searching the floppy and CD.

[sirjinx1974]

1. Raid/SCSI boot enabled
2. Floppy
3. CDRom
4. HD-0

This is what I got in my boot order. It should work, but it does not.

[PAWO]

Maybe try making the IBM a slave drive, or put it on the second IDE channel, also as a slave. I have a raid setup (FastTrak100 Card) plus two other IDE drives, one of them is an 80gig seagate on IDE 1 as a slave, the second is a 8.5gig seagate as a slave on IDE 2 below the DVD drive which is IDE 2 master, has never given me any probs as long as I have the boot order in:

1. SCSI Device
2. CDROM
3. Floppy
4. IDE 0
Boot Other Device: Enabled

[penguinzrool]

the change in raid config is prob confusing the windows bootloader - i had this problem after changing my sata chip mode from standard to raid. check you're not changing any settings in the bios by adding the extra hdd, and install any drivers you need before putting in the drive.

[penguinzrool]

had another thought - in the boot.ini config which determines how the system boots, it decides where to boot from with a line like 'multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

now i dont know how the bios allocates it but it could be that adding the ide drive is bumping the raid array down to disk(1).

might be worth editing boot.ini before putting in the drive, MAKING A BACKUP FIRST, (and getting used to the recovery console :) ) then seeing how things go.

or i could just be completely wrong...

[Bassmankr]

I'm using a different motherboard than you (Abit NF7-S v2.0) but in my bios there is a separate bios entry to enable the SATA onboard chip controller in case it got turned off somehow. In other words you might have to just turn the SATA controller on. In my bios this switch is located in the PCI section of the menu. Maybe its something as simple as this (plugging the cord into the wall for the lamp to work lol). I would also force a hardware update with ESCD enable (or whatever its called lol). What about checking the IDE drive's jumper to make sure that you aren't running two masters or two slave on the same IDE channel? Good luck and it can't hurt to check every bios entry and device jumpers anyways. Lastly check the drive cables to make sure they are not plugged in the wrong way (pin 1 ='s red wire & blue connector of the 80 wire cable goes to the motherboard connector)