Member Avatar for Hunter__90

Hi!

My computer went just fine two days ago, it was normal. Yesterday I have tryied evrything I know to fix the problem. I started my computer yeterday and it had changed primary and slave in the BIOS. So it started good but afterwards it came up:

"Press Ctrl + S to ENTER setup menu or ESC to skip waiting
1st Primary: ST3200822AS 186 gb (my HDD with the XP installed)
2nd Primarey: (sata device not found)"

And this was with the default setup in the BIOS.
Then it came up " Reboot and select a proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Bootdevice and press a key"

I have tried with XP-cd and when i want to reinstall XP then it doesn't find the hard drive with the operating XP installation. This is when in BIOS in MAIN On "Chip SATA" is on "RAID MODE" but when I change it to "NATIVE MODE" then XP loads about 2 sec. and then the computer reboots. But I can find the HDD when i want to reinsall XP.

A few minutes ago I started my computer succesfully, but I did this through pushing "F8" and bringing up the "BBS Popup" and from there I choose the HDD with the XP installation and it worked.

In the BIOS in MAIN:
Pimary Master: Maxtor 6B200P0 200gb
Secondary Master: _Ned DVD_RW ND-350 My DVD writer

And this is in RAID MODE, my HDD with the XP installation isn't there!:sad:

In BIOS, BOOT, HARD DISK DRIVES it reconizes my HDD:
1st Drive Maxtor
2nd Drive 3M-ST320.... (<-----My XP installation!)

So I dont know what to do, why did this happen, I have checked my cables in the computer too.

Please help, Sorry about all the writing.:lol:

  • 2 Contributors
  • 2 Replies
  • 140 Views
  • 5 Days Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by Hunter__90

Dani AI

Generated

Short summary and next steps based on the thread and 's RAID suggestion: the behaviour described most often comes from a storage-controller mode or metadata mismatch (the motherboard presenting disks differently than when Windows was installed), intermittent hardware (cables, power, or the controller), or a degraded RAID/array. Any of those can make the installer not "see" the OS disk or make Windows stop early in boot. Do not rush to initialize, format, or rebuild arrays if the data is important.

Practical checklist (in order):

  • If you can get Windows to start (even via the boot menu), immediately copy your important files to another drive or network share. Back up first—repair attempts can make recovery harder.
  • Verify hardware: power down, reseat the SATA/data and power cables, try a different port and power connector, and test the suspect drive alone (disconnect other disks) so the board only has the OS disk connected.
  • Check the motherboard storage-mode/RAID utility at boot. That utility will show array health (online, degraded, foreign). If an array is degraded or a member is missing, that explains the behaviour; if the array is RAID‑0 and a member failed, data reconstruction is not possible without a backup.
  • Match BIOS mode to what Windows expects. If Windows was installed with the controller in “array/AHCI” mode but the board was switched to a different mode, Windows will fail to boot. If reinstalling is planned, supply the correct SATA/RAID drivers to the XP setup (F6 floppy or a slipstreamed CD) so the installer can detect the drive.
  • If you cannot reliably boot and the data matters, stop experimenting. Remove the disk and connect it to another machine or use a USB dock/disk enclosure and run a read-only image or run manufacturer diagnostics (do not initialize the disk). Consider professional recovery if unsure.

Specific to : a failed member in a striped array (RAID‑0) will cause total data loss, but there are other causes that look similar; check the RAID/BIOS status and SMART before assuming worst.

Recommended Answers

All 2 Replies

Member Avatar for BinaryMayhem

was your drives raided to begin with?

if they were and the bios is only detecting 1 out of 2 drives. the other drived died and this is why you can not boot your computer. (assuming your using raid 0). Raid 0 works by writing half the information to one drive and half to the other. Both drives are bound together and act as one drive.

changing it to native mode will just allow you to use each drive seperatly. Since it was raided previously, the computer can not make sence of the jibberish on the drive. so you will need to format and reinstall.

think of raid 0 this way.
you have 2 pages of notebook paper side by side. you are told to write a sentence. every letter you write you alternate on each peice of paper. now take one paper away. you have gobbly gook. put both together and you can read your message again.

example: "hello world"
paper 1:"hlowrd"
paper 2:"el ol"

so in short, if one drive is dead, you lost all your information. you should beable to verify the status of your raid array by opening your raid manager on boot.

btw, what kinda computer is this?

Member Avatar for Hunter__90

Hi!

My drivers worked fine last week (see my first post) and I havn't even touched the BIOS. I have not changed anything, I didn't know what RAID was untill then.

Anyway, NATIVE MODE is the only way I can enter Windows XP. Its a bit complicated but I can do it fast and easy but it's bugging me. My drives are not dead, my computer has switched primaries and it put my HDD without Windows as my Primary and My DVD writer/reader as Secondary. I have tried to change this and pulled out the powercable for the DVD and the MAXTOR HDD but it didnt work.

I hope there is another way of solving this and not format and reinstall.

My computer is a Intel Pentium 4 HT technology
4.2 MHz prossecor (new because the last one got struck by lightning)
Asus Motherboard card (also new because of same reason as obove)
2 HDD
DVD writer/reader

There is more thing but if you want to know just ask :)

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.