How to Get Back to Boot Menu w/o Re-booting? (& Promise RAID Detection Delays)

How to Get Back to Boot Menu w/o Re-booting? (& Promise RAID Detection Delays)

Howdy!

I have 3 different Installs of XP-Pro on my PC (PC#1 in my sig). I also have a Raptor RAID-0 Array on the ICH5R (OS drive, 3 partitions), and a RAID-0 SATA Array on the Promise Controller (2 Page File partitions, and a DATA partition). I swap between OS installs at least a few times a day for various reasons.

Anytine I need to boot a different OS install, I have to "Restart" the PC, so of course, the BIOS and RAID controllers take LITERALLY 25 seconds before the Boot Menu even comes up! This is longer than it takes to boot the OS!

My Q: Is there a way to get back to the Boot Menu (boot.ini) w/o Re-starting, OR is there a way to make the Promise Controller recognize the RAID-0 array more quickly (The Promise is ALWAYS the Slow-Poke, the ICH5R only takes 2-3 seconds to recognize the array).

I also noticed the Promise controller seems to be looking for PATA drives, and NOT having a PATA drive connected makes it take 2x-3x as long to recognize the SATA HD's. I recently had a PATA HD and a SATA HD on the promise (in IDE mode), and the initial detection times were lots faster - Then I removed the PATA drive on the promise, and it takes forever to recognize the SATA HD (IDE mode OR RAID mode - both take longer to initialize W/O a PATA HD connected )! I have noticed this with numerous HD's on the promise, not just my current selection of HD's. No PATA on Promise = S-L-O-W SATA Detection

Any time saving tips? (besides to only use 1 OS install - I have my reasons)...

Thanks

you'd need to reboot to boot into another OS.

does your promise card have the latest raid BIOS? my Promise controller did the same long delay until i updated the bios for it.

Do note that flashing the bios on the card may mean rebuilding your array's. I am not 100% sure so you may want to ask around first.

Hey Know Nuttin, thanks for the reply.

The Promise Controller is the Fast-Track 378 built into my Asus P4C800 E-Dlx, and I do have the current MoBo BIOS (1023.001, and I think the Promise BIOS is like 1.37.xxx or something which is integrated into the MoBo's BIOS). I timed it earlier, and the Promise Controller takes 13-15 seconds to recognize the SATA HD's and to initialize the array before the Boot Menu comes up. The ICH5R "Intel IAAR" RAID only takes 2-3 seconds MAXIMUM! (Intel detection time is over 5x faster than the Promise at boot-up!!! )

I wish there was a way to disable the PATA port on the Promise controller (so it doesn't delay while it is searching for PATA HD's), or a way to update the Promise Firmware/BIOS as you mentioned. I don't think you can update JUST the Promise Firmware - it HAS to be a part of the MoBo's BIOS IIRC.

I wish there was a way to revert back to the Boot.ini file w/o having to re-boot and go through POST and the RAID detection delays. The MoBo and RAID arrays are not changing one bit, so re-POST-ing the MoBo and re-initializing the RAID arrays seems totally silly just to boot a different OS Install.

I guess I'm stuck unless I add a PATA to my Promise controller. Maybe I'll do RAID 0+1 by adding my 2x 300Gig PATA HD's to the array? What a pain (not to mention I really don't want 6 HD's in my PC if possible 4 internal HD's is more than enough)...

I'll just suck it up.

You could try resetting the ESCD to yes.The bios keeps a configuration file of your hardware so that if something is missing it might take longer to boot searching for the missing hardware.

Where is "ESCD" in the Asus BIOS? I don't recall seeing it - or is it labeled as something different in the BIOS?

I know a 12-15 second detection delay doesn't seem like that long, but when you are messing with your system often (as I do), it adds up VERY quickly, and becomes VERY annoying! Like my BIOS update last night probably took 5 minutes longer than it should have JUST due to that detection delay (I forgot about DOS's 8-Charachter file-name limit, so it took me like 8 tries/reboots to flash my BIOS correctly until I realized I had made my BIOS file name too long)...

I believe I've seen ESCD in the Asus bios, and it can be turned off.

it stands for Extended System Configuration Data.

Are you sure you can't turn the promise controller to SATA only? I know on my PC-DL it had options for.. IDE Raid, IDE + SATA , ENHANCED , SATA ONLY or something like that...

I looked all through the BIOS (3 times), and the only setting I found was under Boot Settings, labeled "AddON ROM Display Mode" with options of "Force BIOS" or "Keep Current". I tried "Keep Current", and the Promise still took ~12 seconds to initialize. No trace of "ESCD" anywhere in my BIOS...

perfectturmoil - The P4C800-E Dlx BIOS only has Promise options for "Enable/Disable", and "RAID or IDE", that's it...

I guess I'm stuck? Like I mentionmed, I do have 2 more PATA 300Gig HD's, so I could (in theroy) set-up a RAID 0+1 array, and that might alleviate the detection delay (adding PATA drives seems to do the trick). The issue is, I really don't have room in my case, AND I prefer to have my 300 GIG PATA's in their removeable caddies as off-line backups (and I keep one drive off site, too)...

Any other suggestions?

Thanks

I also checked the manual an no ESCD.I am not sure it would help anyway as the Promise controller has it's own bios.You might check the promise website faq's to see if there are any fixes for the long delay.

I'll check it out when I find some time.

Thanks for the info!

I can't find any info for the on-board Promise controllers at the Promise FAQ (at least not the "20378 FastTrack") . I'll keep poking around to a fix for this annoying waste of time