SATA wont boot...but is detected and accessible?!

[lady_lunar]

I just finished building my new PC, and got through Windows XP installation without any trouble...somewhere along the updates and such, my computer stopped booting, saying simply 'disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter'.

So I go in and switch my old IDE drive to the master, and reinstall windows so I can get to Newegg to do an RMA...installation finishes...and it asks me to select which OS install to use - I'm able to boot to my SATAs Windows install. It's detected by the POST and the OS, accessible and no other problems except it won't boot as a master. My MB is built to natively accept SATAs and I had no other problems during install (I think it may have failed to boot once, but a restart fixed it).

I've tried lots of things, disabling RAID, disabling floppy, roll back on controller drivers, etc etc, but nothing seems to save it. I'd like to avoid an RMA if I can...any suggestions?

Heres specs:

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice
WD 250GB SATA
Maxtor 80GB IDE
TT PurePower 430W

Thanks in advance!

[Gizmo]

Boot the SATA harddrive with the XP OS CD and in the repair console, run chkdsk /p to do a full check of the harddrive and then fixboot /mbr to fix the MBR of the bootsector. It's either because the MBR of the bootsector is damaged, or the SATA drive is actually failing. To check the harddrive's physical health, you'll get a better analisys from harddrive diagnostics software.

[ShannonLi]

In the beinging I had and IDE hard drive with an OS and I had a RAID with and OS it used to let me pick which OS to load.. I decied to use the IDE as storage so I erased everything and suddely I can not boot any more so basically I am having the same problem as him I can only boot the IDE hard drive so I put an OS on it and boot off it instead.. i did the chkdsk /p everything good until I got to the fixboot /mbr it said something like the disk was not found or something like that.. so what should I do now? or we?

Thanks

[Gizmo]

That's because there is now no bootsector on that drive. You've fomatted a fresh filing system onto it, but did not do an install of the OS, so now there's no bootsector.

[ShannonLi]

so to install a boot sector I would have to used the NTSF Normal Format instead of FAST? to make it have a boot sector?

[lady_lunar]

Long story short, still having the problem :S

I did chkdsk, fixboot and fixmbr (it wouldnt take fixboot /mbr? but it did the same thing). Chkdsk found a couple of errors but fixed them, and I rewrote the both the boot sector and the MBR.

So on to diagnostics - I've been running a SMART checker for a few days, and I ran both the short and long (bout an hour and a half -_-) versions of Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test. Both came up 100% clean. The SMART tests have been perfect except for an occasional jump in seek error rate.

Any suggestions on where to go next? I'm completely out of ideas...maybe I did something wrong? I've never had SATA before - but it did work fine for Windows install, etc...I'm using it now, through the 'select OS' screen.

** By the way, sorry if it takes me a few days to respond - I work and go to school so I dont have a lot of time to even work on this :)

[MaxRat]

what do you have the boot order set at in Bios?

1st should be floppy 2nd should be scsi (for sata) or sata 3rd cd-rom

If you have to select scsi then you will have to select sata as a "base" or "raid" in the next sections pertaining to the drive....

[tempus]

Long story short, still having the problem :S

I did chkdsk, fixboot and fixmbr (it wouldnt take fixboot /mbr? but it did the same thing). Chkdsk found a couple of errors but fixed them, and I rewrote the both the boot sector and the MBR.

So on to diagnostics - I've been running a SMART checker for a few days, and I ran both the short and long (bout an hour and a half -_-) versions of Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test. Both came up 100% clean. The SMART tests have been perfect except for an occasional jump in seek error rate.

Any suggestions on where to go next? I'm completely out of ideas...maybe I did something wrong? I've never had SATA before - but it did work fine for Windows install, etc...I'm using it now, through the 'select OS' screen.

** By the way, sorry if it takes me a few days to respond - I work and go to school so I dont have a lot of time to even work on this :)

Is your sata drive Hitachi? In your specs you don't mention it...only maxtor and WD. Why not get the diagnostic from Maxtor and WD and run them. Also is the Sata drive set as the boot drive..after the floppy and cdrom?

[lady_lunar]

My MB allows you to select boot device priority (cd rom, lan, hard disk, removable, etc) and then set the drive priority (as of now, IDE, then SATA). It has no problem detecting that it is a SATA and it all worked perfectly before.

The SATA is a Western Digital, I used the Hitachi one cause it was the first one to come up in google - I didnt think it mattered? And yes, the SATA is the boot drive, Ive tried it before floppy and cd, after, etc etc, still nothing unless my IDE gets boot priority.

I didnt even bother installing a floppy before til now, but yes I have tried it in pretty much all the orders.

[tempus]

My MB allows you to select boot device priority (cd rom, lan, hard disk, removable, etc) and then set the drive priority (as of now, IDE, then SATA). It has no problem detecting that it is a SATA and it all worked perfectly before.

The SATA is a Western Digital, I used the Hitachi one cause it was the first one to come up in google - I didnt think it mattered? And yes, the SATA is the boot drive, Ive tried it before floppy and cd, after, etc etc, still nothing unless my IDE gets boot priority.

I didnt even bother installing a floppy before til now, but yes I have tried it in pretty much all the orders.
Have you tried to removing ide drive and booting from the sata drive? It sounds like a setting in the bios. After removing the ide repair the mbr on the sata and see what happens. Aso could it be possible the bios needs updating to a later version to correct a potential boot problem?

[lady_lunar]

Have you tried to removing ide drive and booting from the sata drive? It sounds like a setting in the bios. After removing the ide repair the mbr on the sata and see what happens. Aso could it be possible the bios needs updating to a later version to correct a potential boot problem?

Just tried the first thing, no go. I'll look into the bios thing tonight after work or tomorrow sometime...messin with that stuff makes me nervous though :P

Thanks to everyone whos tried to help so far =)

[MaxRat]

Look thoughrouly thru the bios...

When you set the boot order you may have to set another setting on another screen...

In my Bios in the 2nd list of options I set the boot order but...I have to set the Base or raid setting in the 3rd list down of settings...

You may be overlooking something....

I have done this when I first went to sata...

Go thru EVERY bios screen and SLOWLY look at every option just to make sure you haven't overlooked something simple...

On my pc's you can load windows to the sata fine....but...If you don't have all the options just right it will not boot....It will error out....blue screen or just re-start....

[tempus]

Just tried the first thing, no go. I'll look into the bios thing tonight after work or tomorrow sometime...messin with that stuff makes me nervous though :P

Thanks to everyone whos tried to help so far =)
Id be willing to bet that you have missed a setting in the bios in the boot section. look in the hard drive section of the boot order

[lady_lunar]

Ive looked, tweaked, gone through and tried the settings, still no go :(

Just flashed a new BIOS version, updated chipset drivers, nothing :(

Heres some pictures of what I actually have in my BIOS, if it helps any?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/RaptureX/01010122.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/RaptureX/01010121.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/RaptureX/01010119.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/RaptureX/01010118.jpg

Should I just bite the bullet and RMA? It really doesnt seem broken to me but I'm not a true expert...and I dont know what else to do. My other option is wipe windows off both drives, put xp on the SATA and mandrake on the ide (i was planning on it anyway) and let it boot as master instead of secondary like id planned.

Its not a real huge deal to me, Windows would be on drive D, but I dont want to keep a dying drive - this still shouldnt be a problem? And if I let my IDE be the master, would it affect speed or performance somewhere? I'm out of ideas here :(

On a side note, cool as Asus stuff is, I dont think I'll be going with them again - theyre website and support is pretty bad, and its rather troubling that, for what they charge for parts, they couldnt hire a proper translator :P

** Oh yeah, and I did check the hard drive part of the boot menu, I thought i got that on cam too but apparently not :) Ive messed with that every which way, and setting the IDE as master is the only way I can boot to either drive :)

[MaxRat]

can you post pictures of every sub-menu(s) under the boot tab?

I still think there is a setting not right....Although sata is native to that board is there a drive on the mother board cd that you need to load...although that shouldn't stop it from booting...Not sure as I haven't used a board with native sata support....

[lady_lunar]

can you post pictures of every sub-menu(s) under the boot tab?


Sure thing, here they are, along with the onboard devices menu:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/RaptureX/8.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/RaptureX/7.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/RaptureX/6.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/RaptureX/5.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/RaptureX/4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/RaptureX/3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/RaptureX/2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/RaptureX/1.jpg

Some notes:

- Yes, I am aware that the hard drives are in the wrong order on the menu. Its the only way I can boot to either.

- Yes, I have tried putting floppy first, CD first, etc etc. I have disconnected my floppy, disconnected the other HD.

- The only things on my (driver) disk for HDs are for RAIDS. I dont have one. My board apparently has a NV version and then a Silicon Image.

- My bios has a SATA controller (the Silicon image thing) that appears to only control RAIDS, but I left it on anyway. Yes, I have tried disabling it.

- I have tried enabling RAID even though, no, the drive is not plugged into a RAID slot. Understandably, windows got upset,

- I have tweaked settings such as the pci plug n play, quick boot, etc. No go.

The only other unusual thing I can even think of mentioning about the PC in general is that my PSU has only a 20pin connector while my MB has a 24 pin EATX. I have read up on this and its supposedly fine as long as your not subjecting the system to heavy strain such as SLI. I doubt that it has anything to do with it...but I dont know anything about PSUs. Worth mentioning. SMART tests still show both drives in apparently perfect health, and the system is perfectly stable. Windows overwrote some original drivers a while ago with generics but I did roll them back.

One more thing,
whenever I would go to do fixmbr, it did say something about an unusual or unrecognized mbr or something like that.

[Panama Red]

Sounds like you've tried this but the correct method would be to set the CD drive as first boot device, change the hard drive order so the SATA is before the Maxtor and make the Hard Drive the second boot device. Then put your XP disk in the cd drive and boot to it and do a repair/install on the SATA. You should be able to remove the Maxtor also during this process. You might even try removing the Maxtor and connect the CD rom to the Primary IDE.
Disable the RAID option and you can also Disable the Case open alarm. Any testing you do on the hard drives should be done with the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic software. WD will require that step before issuing an RMA. Good luck.

[tempus]

One more thing,
whenever I would go to do fixmbr, it did say something about an unusual or unrecognized mbr or something like that.
I don't think anything is wrong with the sata drive you have. the smart test ran perfectly and you originally loaded windows with no problem. What i would try next is to format the sata drive completely, wipe out windows, disconnect the ide drive from the motherboard, reinstall windows on the sata and when prompted you may need to hit F6 to load drivers for the sata chip. It should work like that.

[lady_lunar]

All seems well (so far) after a format/OS reinstall as you suggested, tempus. Maybe I installed something that I shouldnt have :S I dont know

Thanks for everyone here for all their help! I'm sure Ill be back if I have more problems ;)