Windows 7 x64 doesn't boot if a drive from a NAS device is added to the system

[Corsari]

Hi to all of the forum users

I've a bad issue I can't find references on the forum.

I have downloaded last friday the windows 7 enterprise 64 bit from microsoft website (evaluation 90 days), I've fully updated it including SP1.

Everything runs fine.

Please note that what you read next, on the this same pc, I tried to do installing windows xp pro SP3 fully updated and what described below, doesn't happen, windows xp boots fine and the drives show fine, either 4 drives at once coming from a raid 5 NAS set: I would say this is not an hardware problem.​

Today I've plugged to my windows 7 pc one healthy drive coming from one NAS device, this because I must do some tests on it (please note that I have several NASses with different drives and drive brands and this issue repeats with all of them, tested all).

You know, NAS drives are partitioned by some kind of linux file system.

The issue is that windows 7 boot hangs with any NAS drive plugged.

When I turn on the pc, after the BIOS post, it does appear one "Loading Files" progress bar that repeats some progresses, finally the screen empties and you can see only one cursor blinking on top left corner.

At this point windows 7 boot hangs.

I Ctrl-Alt-Del and at the next boot I get the screen that prompts for
"Launch Startup Repair"
"Start Windows Normally"
this also mean that BIOS drives boot order is correct. Any of the two options doesn't work.

I did the counter proof, so I tested twelve different NAS drives and the result is still the same, while if I add any ntfs disk windows 7 boots fine.

The mainboard is a P8P67 Deluxe from asus with 8 onboard SATA ports, 2 are from a separated chipset (asus call them the blue ports): the issue happen on all of the ports, either on the Blue Ports that are intended for storage only.

Looks like that windows 7 tries to "mount" something from these drives (maybe the partitions? Something from the boot sectors?) and fails.

Do you have any idea/suggestion/tip about this?

I would like to switch to windows seven 64 bits, but if I can't work on this kind of drives... I must forget about windows 7 and switch back to XP.

Thank you for any suggestion either a work around to be able to boot windows and being able to work on those kind of drives.

As Next and last test I'll prepare a standard linux installation on another pc and I'll try to plug that pure linux drive and see what happen; I'm still thinking about those drives boot sectors' microcode.

Kind regards and thank you for any tip
Cor

 

[TempliNocturnus]

Does it boot with a drive that does not have any file system at all? If so, do you know the type of file system your NAS creates on the drives?

 

[mbentley]

i would definitely make sure that your windows hard drive is set to the primary boot device. it almost sounds like it is trying to boot from the drive from the NAS.

 

[Corsari]

Windows 7 x64 doesn't boot if a linux drive is plugged

Thank you guys for answering

The Ubuntu disk has been plugged (directly to main board with sata cable) as test.

My main goal is to plug disks from NASes, but since any of the NASes disk was allowing windows 7 to boot, I did a quick counter proof plugging my ubuntu pc's hard drive.

The BIOS drives boot order is correct, as matter of facts is windows 7 booting and because it hangs, when I reboot it it goes to prompt for
"Repair windows installation"
"Boot windows normally"

Definitely it is the windows 7 disk that boots the pc. So I un-plug the "linux" drive and I run a clean boot.
As soon I re-plug ANY linux partitioned drive, windows 7 boot hangs at the early first stage.

I say hangs because there is not BSOD (blue screen of death)

See attachments

After a Clean boot and shutdown, I plug any linux drive - progress bar repeats some progresses and last blank screen with a cursor (no BSOD no messages: hanged)
After the hang, I Ctrl-Alt-Del - the prompt with two option (which obviously none of them works)
This last screen I suppose may be due to the fact I reset during the boot stage.

What I can say is that either on NAS disks and on my linux drive there are both ext3 and XFS partitions (but I think this makes not much difference)

Do any of you have a windows 7 64 bit installed where to plug a linux drive ... ?

This would be an interesting comparison... Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bits I'm using is a 90 days evaluation downloaded original from MS website.
The mainboard is a recent Asus P8P67 Deluxe rev. 3.0 which I also updated the BIOS trying to fix this issue, with i5-2500K.

Thank you for any tip or test

Cor

 

[mbentley]

yeah, i have had a hard drive in my computer with linux on it for quite some time and i have never had a problem with it. that's very strange. i'm a bit dumbfounded.

 

[Corsari]

yeah, i have had a hard drive in my computer with linux ...

Hi, thank you for the answer...

... but, do you mean dual boot?

In that case it doesn't match my scenario.

In my case, the linux drive is added to access it with third party tools and interfaces, this mean that there is not some kind of boot manager, the drive will never boot the pc and windows 7 will never mount its partitions, no need for that.

To give you the exact idea: there is a windows 7 that "one day" finds a new drive attached to its system, which drive is linux partitioned and formatted which I need to read (i.e.) with an HEX editor.

Hope this gives you a better view on the issue, thank you if you clarify.

Cor

 

[mbentley]

the thing is that it shouldn't matter what you have on any secondary drive. you should be able to make up your own filesystem and put it on the drive and still be able to boot into windows just fine.

 

[Corsari]

...to boot into windows just fine.

it would be enough to clarify if it is really a windows issue or if for some "magic" reasons it is due to the Asus P8P67 Deluxe v3.0 mainboard.

Anyway I did the BIOS update and also I have downloaded any windows 7 driver update from the asus P8P67 Deluxe page.

But again, at the stage the boot hangs it is hard to think that this is a driver issue.

Cor

 

[aol]

I have the exact same issue.

it would be enough to clarify if it is really a windows issue or if for some "magic" reasons it is due to the Asus P8P67 Deluxe v3.0 mainboard.

Anyway I did the BIOS update and also I have downloaded any windows 7 driver update from the asus P8P67 Deluxe page.

But again, at the stage the boot hangs it is hard to think that this is a driver issue.

Cor

I have mapped a network drive to my less than a year old VAIO notebook running windows 7 PRO x64, it worked for a day. After that if I switch the NAS drive on while the notebook is running, it (notebook) BSOD and reboots. Now it hangs and freezes on boot, be it normal boot or safe mode (that is if the NAS is switched off, I have to try with the NAS switched on and see). The same NAS is mapped to a desktop running windows 7 Ultimate x64 and another VAIO VGN model running windows 7 Home premium x64 without any problems whatsoever. I will try to boot without the network cable and report. I believe the problem is from the extremely poor network interface on the VAIO VPC models. It may be that your network card is just as poor. I will report on the boot without network 1st and also with the NAS switched-on prior to boot, then maybe we can take it from there. Why don't you try as well?

AOL

 

[turbohans]

Is there a windows backup on that NAS? I say this because that is what it will look like trying to boot a backup. I would make sure it is booting to the right drive by selecting F8 at post (on most machines) and manually selecting the drive your operating system is on.

To prove this theory if in fact you do have a windows backup on that NAS you could un-hook your windows drive and see if you see the same screen with the NAS attached.