Dual Boot System Refuses to Boot into RAID Array

[rozel]

Hi

I am asking for some expert help and just hope I am posting in the correct Forum - Mods - if not please place it correctly for me please.

My setup is as as per my signature and having solved an initial problem with my Dual-Booting system, I have enjoyed over 15 months of perfect computing On my RAID 1 Array I have Windows XP Pro 32-bit installed (this was the first OS to be installed) - and Vista Ultimate 64-bit.

I have Easy BCD Edit installed on both OS's and Acronis Boot Manager on the XP Partition.

The following thread explains the recent (last week) installation of a replacement Graphics card - god knows why I did it - the overall base score of my PC dropped from 5.5 to 4.8 afterwards and was about to reinstall my previous one.

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/f10/as...-s-115069.html

However I have been experiencing "Freezes" necessitating a reset, which in turn automatically runs the Intel Matrix Manager software to "Verify" my arrays. This is time consuming but know this is important. I am not sure what it does but something similar to CHKDSK i think - yes?

Anyways after another freeze caused by trying to stream a website video I reset as usual but now the PC goes through POST fine including the RAID screens and even starts to run my OS and then it starts running the Matrix Manager during the usual black screen with the Microsoft Logo at the bottom centre of the screen and the green running staus bar. Usually after this it boots into my Password log on screen (VISTA OR XP - depending on which one I selected - the default is VISTA) but now it terminates after a minute or so and reboots - this continues in never-ending loop.

I am unable to boot into either OS. It tries and the fact that the system recognises the Boot Managers (Acronis and Easy BCD) means, I think that the boot loading files are secure.

The problem is with the verification of my Boot RAID Array - until it is verified and errors corrected it is unbootable.

I cannot go into "safe-Mode" in either OS and am at a loss as to what to do.

If Intel's Verification and Microsoft's CHKDSK systems are similar then I need to run one to repair the Array so it can boot once more. Both Arrays appear in the RAID screen during initial boot that they need "Verifying". I did get a Blue Screen recently - 0x0000003b which indicates a hardware problem - I suspect the new Graphics Card and/or it's Nvidia Drivers.

Reinstalling either OS at this stage is not an option - although I do want to delete the XP OS at some time but as this was the first OS I do not know how to do this.

Once I can get back in to my Vista OS, I will delete the drivers etc for the new card, replace the card with my former one and install the previous drivers.

I just hope someone can help me now as to what I should do to get my system to boot up correctly

Please please help me - I'm desparate

TIA

roz

[ctal]

Hi Rozel,

I found this information on what the verify and repair cycle does, for RAID 1:

If you have a RAID 1, then these are the functions that the software is trying to do.

Bad blocks are reassigned. If the data on the mirror drive does not match the data on the source drive, the data on the mirror is overwritten with the data on the source.

I don't have any particular insight into the symptoms you have described, but my first instinct would be to remove the new graphics card and reinstall the original one. If the original drivers are no longer present, Windows will use its generic drivers, and if you can then successfully boot you can straighten out the driver situation subsequently. I'm thinking that your array might not actually be corrupted, but that the new and problematic graphics card + driver combination might be somehow causing a crash that doesn't allow the verify cycle to complete.

If that doesn't help, I'm wondering if you could try to boot with one of the two drives disconnected. Since the matrix storage manager is looking for inconsistencies between the source and mirror drives, perhaps you could get past the point where it encounters a problem and reboots, if one of the drives were not present. Although I'm not sure if things will work at all that way, or if that would simply result in a complaint that a drive is missing. In which case perhaps you could substitute a blank drive for the one you remove.

Hope that helps,

-- Al

[Sir Skully]

Disconnect one set of raid, and try booting with only one array.
If it doesn't boot, try the other, but only one at a time.

[rozel]

Thanks guys - some ideas there - Sir Skully, I'm not sure what you mean - I have one RAID (RAID 1) with my OS's on and a RAID 10 which is purely for data storage. Disconnecting RAID 1 therefore will not allow the system to boot whatsoever - can you explain a little more please? I work nights - I posted this thread just before I went to bed this am (I'm in the UK) - I will leave for work in 90 mins and be back 06.30am tomorrow am - I will pick up any replies then. Thank you for the interest you are taking. ctal - it seems therefore that "Verification" is more/different than running CHKDSK yes? I too feel sure that my data is not corrupted - something is stopping the Verification process - wish there were some way to stop it before it boots into Windows. Hope to hear some more.

TAIA

roz

[ctal]

Roz,

I'm sure that Skully will be responding before long, but I suspect that he meant to suggest booting with only one of the two drives that are in the array connected (as I also suggested).

Chkdsk basically checks the file system for consistency, and (optionally) scans for physically bad sectors on the hard drive. It sounds like the RAID verification may also check for bad sectors, but more significantly it checks for consistency between what is on the two drives (including the file system and everything else).

So I think that my two suggestions stand as originally stated.

Best of luck!

-- Al

[rozel]

Thanks ctal - have had another read now I'm more awake lol! and I think he meant disconnect the Storage Array - I'll try that first although when the problems happened the storage array did not need verification but continued resetting has resulted in verification now being necessary on that array too. I will try that first - presumably by disconnecting the pair of SATA cables ? If that doesn't work I will try to swap the cards as you suggest and hope that it boots up then, but experience suggests that once verification is stated as being necessary, which it is, then it has to complete - but maybe this will allow it to continue unhindered. Please could you tell me in a little more detail how disconnecting 1 drive of the RAID 1 (bootable) pair of drives would help - not sure about this and need to know that it will not corrupt the files etc especially when it is put back later.

I just was hoping that there might be some way to boot from a CD/DVD or something and then with some software undertake the Verification then reboot normally?

Thanks again - please keep your ideas coming

roz

[Sir Skully]

I'm sorry I thought you had two Raid's setup to the motherboard. I have two Raid-0 array's running on my
motherboard and I thought you did likewise. Ok I'll get this straight yet, I just ment for you to disconnect
one of your RAID set up from the motherboard. This would alleviate some stress from the mobo RAID controller.
Swap the the RAID array's around for each OS, just using one at a time. To see if ya can't get into windows
on one or the other OS.

[Sir Skully]

Whatever RAID array you disconnect. First shut down the PC. Then disconnect which ever array you want. Just be sure to use the same exact SATA ports, when replugging them. I have unplugged my Raptor array a few times with no ill effect. But still if you do this, do it at your own risk. I don't want to be responsible for any data corruption or any such....

[ctal]

Yes, I would think it certainly does make sense to disconnect the storage array (by disconnecting the sata cables, with power off), to simplify things as much as possible.

Skully -- I'm not sure it was clear to you that in this case he has (if I understand correctly) both os's installed on separate partitions within the SAME raid 1 array. The other array is just for storage, and is non-bootable.

It seems to me that disconnecting the sata cable for one of the two hard drives in the os array (disconnecting while power is off, and then powering on) wouldn't do any harm, given that the purpose of raid 1 is to protect against hard drive failure. The system would presumably sense the disconnected drive no differently than it would sense a failed drive. (Same disclaimer as Skully offered, though. I don't have enough relevant experience to absolutely guarantee this).

The reasoning behind that suggestion is simply that since the verify/repair cycle is unable to complete, and the verify/repair process is basically checking for consistency between what is on the two drives, disconnecting one of those drives MIGHT allow you to get past whatever is causing the restarts during that step and at least boot up.

I have no knowledge of programs that could run from bootable cd's or other media and perform the array verification/repair. A little Googling might be in order. But accomplishing that would only be helpful if the problem is indeed a corrupted array, which is by no means certain. Which is why I suggest trying to go back to the other video card.

Regards,
-- Al

[Sir Skully]

Yeah I had a problem of deciphering, your advice sounds good to me ctal.
I've never encountered this type of problem before. The video card does
sound like the culprit. If it was me I'd sure try replacing the video card with
the former one.

[rozel]

Originally Posted by ctal

my first instinct would be to remove the new graphics card and reinstall the original one. If the original drivers are no longer present, Windows will use its generic drivers, and if you can then successfully boot you can straighten out the driver situation subsequently.

You nailed it Sir

Originally pondering this as you described would certainly not have been my initial step but yes it worked superbly and as I write this, my system is Verifying both my Arrays and Windows is using Generic Drivers to display Intel's Matrix Manager doing it's thing.

Yes I will reload my original Graphics Card Drivers later once verification has finished although I am not sure which ones I finally ended up with before and am reluctant to "restore" to 10 days ago before I changed Graphics Cards.

If you read my Graphics Card Thread - Link in my first post above - then you will see that I changed my Monitor at the same time. I wouldn't mind recommendations for a replacement Card for my present one - signature now changed to reflect the change back just now. I won't go into my requirements as these are as described in my other thread, but I would appreciate some expert opinion such as yours and Sir Skully's please.

I'm amazed a newer card such as the EN9500GT 1Gb does not represent an improvement over the older EN8600GTS Silent but obviously lower memory (256Mb) DDR3 works better than 1Gb of DDR2! lol!

The older card did have a separate PCI-E 12V 6-pin power connector - the newer card did not and so I wonder if the lack of such a connector on the newer card could be a reason for problems such as those I've experienced?

Thank you again and would appreciate yours and/or anybody's further thoughts and recommendations

Cheers

roz

[ctal]

Glad it appears to be working out ok, and that I was able to help!

Regarding choosing a different card, video cards are not one of my particular areas of expertise, but what I would suggest is that you go to the relevant page at NewEgg, Newegg.com - Video Cards, NVIDIA Video Card, ATI Video Cards, AGP Video Cards, GeForce Video Card, Radeon Video Card, use their guided search feature at the left to narrow down the range of choices, and then look at the user comments which have been posted for the cards you are considering.

I realize that you are in the UK, and so you would not be ordering from them, but I think you will find that their wide selection, guided search feature, and user comments will be very helpful in making your choice.

Regards,
-- Al