Trouble Installing Optical Drive

[Daydreamer]

Okay, I'm going to need a little more instruction on what you want me to try in the 2-10-2007 post.

The only disk I have is the XP Home Upgrade disk. Will it have boot info on it?

If it does, what do you mean load up the SATA driver with the floppy. What floppy?
Do you mean the installation CD that came with the Rosewill card?

I am really lost, please be a little more specific.

[glc]

The XP Home Upgrade CD is bootable and that is what you need to use for the repair console.

The Rosewill CD should have a way to put the SATA driver onto a floppy disk. You may need that in order for XP's setup to see the hard drive.

Boot with the CD, watch the bottom of the screen, when it says to press F6 to install a 3rd party mass storage driver, press it and put the floppy in the drive and follow the prompts. When Setup gives you the choice of installing XP or perform a repair, perform a repair. It will find Windows and ask you which installation you want to log into - there should only be one so you press 1. It will then ask you for the administrator password, press enter. You will be at a C:\windows> prompt, then type fixboot c: as already indicated.

[Daydreamer]

Oaky, it's been a while but I'm ready to tackle this again. I have the XP Disk, and I found a Rosewill floppy. It has 7 files on it, one of them is SIISUPP.VXD virtual device driver. Is this the file you discussed earlier?
I still have both drives installed. The SATA attached to the Rosewill card and the EIDE attached to the Primary Bus and the ASUS Burner attached to the secondary bus.

Before I proceed do you want me to Disable the old EIDE drive or leave it and attempt the procedure in post #32.

I am ready to get this done if at all possible.

[glc]

Disconnect the old hard drive, put the burner on the secondary IDE as a master, disable the primary IDE in the bios, and set the bios to boot from CD first. Boot to the XP CD and when it prompts at the bottom of the screen to press F6 to install a 3rd party storage driver, press it and put the Rosewill floppy in. Follow the prompts and use the repair console as indicated.

[Daydreamer]

Okay, I did exactly as you said, and it's still the same. It gets to the screen that shows whats loading and freezes.
I undid everything so that I could get back on this site.

Before I booted up I went into the BIOS and Disabled both the Primary and Secondary IDE channels. It booted right up, and here I am.

Now what do we try?

[glc]

Okay, let's recap. The ONLY way it will complete a POST and boot to your SATA drive is if:

A. Both IDE channels are disabled -OR-
B. Your old IDE hard drive is connected.

It will not boot with either or both optical drives connected to IDE in any combination with both or either IDE controller enabled unless the old hard drive is also connected. Moving your 4 PCI cards around in the 5 slots has not made any difference.

Is this the issue in a nutshell?

Input from experienced technicians solicited.

[Daydreamer]

Yes, this is it in a nutshell with one exception. Someone had me purchase a an 80 wire cable. That also had no effect. If the 80 pin is only used on the optical drive and the optical drive is set as master does the Black connector on the cable go to the optical drive?

[HAL9000]

Blue connector to the motherboard, black to the master device, set the master device to Cable Select.

It's been a LONG time since I've dealt with an issue like this, but it sounds identical to an issue I had years ago with a proprietary SCSI card for a scanner and like a second machine I worked on using a ATA66 card. It wasn't an IRQ issue at all, but in both cases a memory addressing issue.

In the first issue with the SCSI card, it fortunately had about 9 different settings with a jumper... well, ONE setting worked and problem solved.

In the second situation, I had to monkey around with card positions. Putting card A in slot one and card B in slot 2 didn't give the same memory addressing as either reversing them, or using different slots.

I hate to be so vague as it has been such a long time, but you may want to try removing all other cards and seeing if it will boot. If so, add one at a time until you find out which is the trouble maker and see if there is a way around it. Keeping in mind, depending on order you put cards back, it may be more than one card that causes the issue. Also check the BIOS for memory addressing options.

Like I said, I hate to be so vague, but maybe the suggestion will trigger something with somebody who hasn't been out of the computer troubleshooting game for as long as I have.

[Daydreamer]

In my case, I don't have a master device. My HDD is on a Rosewill SATA (PCI) card. I am trying to get rid of the HDD thats currently hooked up to the Primary IDE controller on the MB. The Optical device is set up as a master on the secondary IDE as glc had previously suggested. So does it matter what connector, black or blue is attached to the optical device? The jumper is not set to Cable Select, it's set to Master.

I tried everything again. With this bios, the IDE's selections are Disable, Primary, Secondary, Both. When I select Secondary, (enable) the system hangs when booting. After displaying the PCI settings screen the last thing shown on the monitor is UPDATE ESCD SUCCESSFULLY.

[HAL9000]

Those 80 wire cables handle defining the device as a master or slave... the devices should be set to cable select... you put it on the black connector and it will be a master, if on the grey connector it will be a slave.. that's why it is imperitive that the blue connector be on the motherboard. If this is something that is not working, this is why I am suggesting pulling out unneccessary cards to see if it will boot... pull things such as the network adapter, sound card, etc... anything you don't need to make it boot and see if it comes up.

[Daydreamer]

Okay, I will remove the sound card, the modem, and the USB port. I don't have a network adapter.

Probably won't be able to test this until tomorrow or Sunday.

[Hpro]

Hello there,

1. What PCI Slot you inserted the SATA
2. On the used PCI slot what's the IRQ and is this Slot "IRQ Shared"?
3. What other PCI cards you have installed.
4. Are you using AGP Graphic?
If yes don't use the first PCI SLOT.! Just leave it free

I think you need to assign the USED IRQ directly to the NEW SATA - In Device Manager of Windows you can see what IRQ it's using.

You need to DISABLE NVRAM update - can be done over Deivce Manager or you can set the BOARD to NON-PLUG & PLAY * You can change this settings in the bios*

Also it would be helpfull if you can let us know what Brand that Sata controller is.
Last but not least what Bios Version you have on there?

Here have added a Website especially for this : Copy- paste this link into your Browser - If you need more info just ask for. http://www.hecco.ch/pc-mech/asbio.html

Regards Hpro

[Force Flow]

Branching off from a point made by Hal and Hpro...make sure you don't put the PCI card in the slot closest to the AGP slot. There are occasionally issues with utilizing that slot on some motherboards.

If you don't have the PCI card installed in that slot, it's doubtful that the slot itself (unless damaged) is the issue. You may want to try different slots in either case just as a process of elimination.

[glc]

Note that the card works and boots fine if the old IDE drive is in the system........

It's a Rosewill SATA card with, I believe, a Silicon Image controller chip.

[Hpro]

Originally Posted by Daydreamer Did you want me to try to boot with the modem removed and the DVD installed on the Primary or Secondary IDE channel? I forgot to mention that all of these changes of components in and out caused Windows XP to send a re-activation notice a few days ago. It said I had 3 days. Yesterday I tried to re-activate over the internet and I was denied. I had to call Microsoft to get re-activated. The guy I spoke with on the phone said that any time I make a lot of hardware changes I will need to re-activate. Is that normal?

Make a backup from WPA.DBL from the Running System - Before you Add or Remove any Components.

This file you can find in C:\Windows\System32

Then you can play around as long you like ... if it ask you to reactivate then all you need to do is booting into SAFE MODE and copy the file WPA.DBL back to its original location - Each Time windows is booting it will check this files.

If there are more than 5-Major components found changed at the same time then it will rename WPA.DBL and create a new one - which then will start MSOOBE "Microsoft Out Of the Box Eperience" and this will ask you to reactivate.

It's clear by itself that the hardware should be to 90% the same as it was the Day you made the Backup.

If you remove one Component at the time - Except the Motherboard - then it will not kill the WPA.DBL file

To gain 100% Error Detection you need to remove 1 component at the time as only that way you will be able to find the failing piece..

But in your case it's the Motherboard where the problems are located..

hpro

[Hpro]

Originally Posted by Daydreamer In my case, I don't have a master device. My HDD is on a Rosewill SATA (PCI) card. I am trying to get rid of the HDD thats currently hooked up to the Primary IDE controller on the MB. The Optical device is set up as a master on the secondary IDE as glc had previously suggested. So does it matter what connector, black or blue is attached to the optical device? The jumper is not set to Cable Select, it's set to Master. I tried everything again. With this bios, the IDE's selections are Disable, Primary, Secondary, Both. When I select Secondary, (enable) the system hangs when booting. After displaying the PCI settings screen the last thing shown on the monitor is UPDATE ESCD SUCCESSFULLY.

Do you see a Blinking cursor?

Have you tried to boot off the WINXP CDROM ?

[Daydreamer]

First things first.
Slot 1 - Display Adapter on IRQ 11
Slot 2 - SATA Raid Controller IRQ 10
Slot 3 - USB Controller IRQ 11
Slot 4 - Sound Blaster IRQ 14
Slot 5 - Modem IRQ 14

What is AGP Graphic?

[Hpro]

AGP or Acclerated Graphics Port is the DARK slot which looks like a PCI but isnt' a PCI. Also the notches arent on the same place as the PCI..This is the first slot when start to count from the CPU http://www.hecco.ch/images/asusp2bf.jpg

But answer please my following questions = Does the cursor blinks after the last line you see?

When you added the SATA drive - What was on the PRIMARY IDE DRIVE installed - XP?

Did you a clean XP install to the SATA drive or did you use Ghost or Acronis

Can you place a copy of BOOT.INI you will find it in the Root.. the file is hidden so it not so easy to find.

Use this instead: START >>> RUN >>>>type MSCONFIG >>> press OK or enter >>> Select the Tab BOOT.INI

Write everything down what comes after the line Bootloader - and of couse place it here..

hpro

[Daydreamer]

Answers to your questions are as follow.

Yes, Cursor is blinking in th elower left hand corner
Yes, XP was installed on the Primary IDE Drive
Used a transfer program from Seagate.

Under the Bootloader line is

timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)partition(1)\Windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition"/noexecute=optin/fastdetect

I will wait for your reply.

[Hpro]

Hello Again

1.Please connect the Primary Drive as it was from start
2.Boot your computer off the SATA
3.On Windows desktop right click My computer and select MANAGE
4.In the opening Window Select -* Disk Management
5. Make a Printscreen and place it here - like this one.. if you dont have a place send me the pic to my email.

http://www.hecco.ch/images/diskman.jpg

Do you have another IDE drive where no Operating System is ON?
If you have one then we can find the culprit in a record time..

I almost believe that when you used the SEAGATE program to transfer Data that it didn't copy the MASTERBOOT/ Record - to boot the System the Primary Drive has to be there as otherwise XP cant find BOOT.INI or Bootloader..

This can be easy repaired but first we need to be sure..

Regards hpro

[Daydreamer]

I am not able to Paste the print Screen into this reply. I will attempt to enter what is shown in Disk Management.

Volume Layout Type File Sys Status Capacity Free Space % Free Faul Tol. Overhead
(E) Partition Basic FAT32 Healthy 7.85 GB 2.20 GB 27% No 0%
(Active)
(C) Partition Basic NFTS Healthy 232.88 GB 226.48 GB 97% No 0%
(System)

Disk 0 (E)
Basic 7.87 GB FAT32
7.87 GB Healthy (Active) 6 MB Unallocated
Online

Disk 1 SCSI0_VOL1 (C)
Basic 232.88 GB
232.88 GB Healthy (System)
Online

CD-ROM 0
DVD (D)
No Media
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hope this helps you. I appreciate all you are doing to try and help me.

I don't have a spare drive laying around.

[Hpro]

Hello

If I understand right you use XP-Home. Do followings:

1.Open EXPLORER filemenu TOOLS >>>> Folder Options >>> VIEW tab
2.Choose - Show HIDDEN FILES AND FOLDERS and also remove the HOOK( Disable ) HIDE PROTECTED OPERATING SYSTEM FILES
3.Go to Root = C:\
4.On both drives following Boot files have to be found - NTLDR NTDETECT BOOT.INI PAGEFILE.SYS -- Compare the DATES of the files

If those Match then you may need to Fix the Boot - without the installed Primary IDE drive..

But this we look up later . You will need a WinXP Cdrom - NOT RESTORE CD. OR you need a Image of WinXP with which you can create a bootable XP CDROM - or you can download the Floppy version from http://www.bootdisk.com.

Try to get a XP - PRO version because you have more tools to Fix the problems than with home.

I'm sure that in your case the boot of the SATA doesnt work proper and either command

FIXBOOT or FDISK /MBR ( on XP FIXMBR) may take care of it.


The most important thing is that you Shut DOWN - DISABLE the first PRIMARY Drive - in the bios - Look at the picture in my First Post. The P2b-F board let's you shut down each of IDE controllers - set them in the Detection window to NONE. This will force the bios to believe that your SATA Drive is the Primary Harddrive and so it will not try to emulate the SATA drive as Drive C:\ This in return should, when using FIXBOOT or FIXMBR create the Proper Boot Sequence on the SATA DRIVE and on the next restart you should be able to boot without any problems from the SATA DRIVE - neverthless if the PRIMARY is a HD or a CDROM or not there at all.

I'm Online here 24 hours a day so you can call in anytime. Checking the forums every 2 - 4 hours.

Regards
hpro

NOTE: Before you change ANYTHING ON THE DRIVE - Make sure you Created a BACKUP .! Since your whole System is only using about 5 Giga Space it should be possible to burn it on a DVD prior to eventually changes which will be made.

[Daydreamer]

Okay, here is what I found.

NTLDR - Date Created 1-5-07 Date Modified 2-28-06 - same dates on both drives.
NTDETECT - Date Created - 1-5-07 Date Modified - 2-28-06 - same dates on both drives

Boot.ini - No file in C:\ There is a Boot.ini in a directory C:\pss which is a Backup modified 7/29/07.
Pagefile.sys - No file in C:\

There is a file in C:\ called boot - Created 1-5-07 Modified 7-29-07
There is a file in E:\ called boot - Created 1-5-07 Modified 7-29-07

There is a file in C:\ called PAGEFILE - Created 1-5-07 Modified 7-29-07
There is a file in E:\ called PAGEFILE - Created 1-5-07 Modified 1-5-07

I can't get XP PRO unless I purchase it. I'm not going to purchase Pro just to be able to have the tools to remove a HDD.

This was in an earlier post Hpro sent. I haven't done this yet.
"You need to DISABLE NVRAM update - can be done over Deivce Manager or you can set the BOARD to NON-PLUG & PLAY * You can change this settings in the bios*

Do I still need to do this?? If yes, how do I do it in Device Manager?? I will look in the bios to see if I can set the board to non-PNP.

I do know how to set the IDE Primary and Secondary to "disabled". And I know it will boot like that. I am not sure what you want me to do with FIXBOOT or FIXMBR. I don't know how or what to do.

I also don't know how to burn a backup. I haven't used the ASUS optical drive yet. It's obvious that I would need to burn the backup before I disable the IDE's since the burner is set as a Master on the Secondary channel.

When you want me to do things please list them in the order in which you want me to do them.

Again, thanks for all of your help.

[Daydreamer]

I am reviewing your earlier post #42

"Here have added a Website especially for this : Copy- paste this link into your Browser - If you need more info just ask for. http://www.hecco.ch/pc-mech/asbio.html"

I am not sure what to do in the PNP and PCI Bios Setup. Do you want me to look at all the slots in Device Manager and assign IRQ's for the items in every slot or do you want me to just assign IRQ to HDD or what ???

[Hpro]

Hello Again

What you need to do now..Only this beneath - nothing more nothing LESS

1. Copy Boot.ini, NTLDR, NTDETECT, PAGEFILE.SYS to C:\ IF the SYSTEM TELLS you that the file already EXIST then there is no NEED TO COPY IT.

All other files should show up under

C:\ like in the following link to the picture =

http://www.hecco.ch/pc-mech/root.html

with C:\ I'mean the ROOT DIRECTORY of your SATA DRIVE

Restart your computer enter the bios Disable the Primary MASTER DRIVE in the Bios..

There is no NEED to Open the COVER of your computer.. just look at the pic below

http://www.hecco.ch/pc-mech/asbio.html

All other Settings leave as they are .

There is no more NEED to CHANGE ANYTHING what havent been done till now from earlier POSTs.

Reboot and look after the outcome.

Regards

Hpro

NOTE: This what you do now is NOT DANGEROUS TO LOOSE DATA so there is no need to make a BACKUP right now. - At most the computer will Stall while Booting up. So Enabling the Primary Master drive will reverse it to the same STATE AS YOU ARE NOW

[Hpro]

Originally Posted by Daydreamer First things first. Slot 1 - Display Adapter on IRQ 11 Slot 2 - SATA Raid Controller IRQ 10 Slot 3 - USB Controller IRQ 11 Slot 4 - Sound Blaster IRQ 14 Slot 5 - Modem IRQ 14 What is AGP Graphic?

Where did you got those? Bios? Or Device manager?

IRQ 14 can't be used if this is in the BIOS then this is the PRIMARY IDE CHANNEL for PRIMARY / SECONDARY MASTER DRIVES IRQ!

Same IRQ 15 also can't be used as it is the SECONDARY IDE CHANNEL

Move them Manually to IRQ 5 for the Soundblaster and 9 for the Modem in the Bios.

hpro

[glc]

There is a file in C:\ called boot - Created 1-5-07 Modified 7-29-07 There is a file in E:\ called boot - Created 1-5-07 Modified 7-29-07 There is a file in C:\ called PAGEFILE - Created 1-5-07 Modified 7-29-07 There is a file in E:\ called PAGEFILE - Created 1-5-07 Modified 1-5-07

In your folder options, you need to UNcheck the box for hide extensions for known file types.

[Daydreamer]

Where am I supposed to copy the files from???? They are on C: already as I have shown in post #53.

Are you saying to only disable the IDE HDD on the Primary through the bios and leave the Secondary with the Optical Drive enabled?

[Hpro]

Originally Posted by Daydreamer Okay, here is what I found. NTLDR - Date Created 1-5-07 Date Modified 2-28-06 - same dates on both drives. NTDETECT - Date Created - 1-5-07 Date Modified - 2-28-06 - same dates on both drives Boot.ini - No file in C:\ There is a Boot.ini in a directory C:\pss which is a Backup modified 7/29/07. Pagefile.sys - No file in C:\There is a file in C:\ called boot - Created 1-5-07 Modified 7-29-07 There is a file in E:\ called boot - Created 1-5-07 Modified 7-29-07 There is a file in C:\ called PAGEFILE - Created 1-5-07 Modified 7-29-07 There is a file in E:\ called PAGEFILE - Created 1-5-07 Modified 1-5-07 I can't get XP PRO unless I purchase it. I'm not going to purchase Pro just to be able to have the tools to remove a HDD. This was in an earlier post Hpro sent. I haven't done this yet. "You need to DISABLE NVRAM update - can be done over Deivce Manager or you can set the BOARD to NON-PLUG & PLAY * You can change this settings in the bios* Do I still need to do this?? If yes, how do I do it in Device Manager?? I will look in the bios to see if I can set the board to non-PNP. I do know how to set the IDE Primary and Secondary to "disabled". And I know it will boot like that. I am not sure what you want me to do with FIXBOOT or FIXMBR. I don't know how or what to do. I also don't know how to burn a backup. I haven't used the ASUS optical drive yet. It's obvious that I would need to burn the backup before I disable the IDE's since the burner is set as a Master on the Secondary channel. When you want me to do things please list them in the order in which you want me to do them. Again, thanks for all of your help.

What about that?

[Daydreamer]

There is a file called boot. It does not the the .ini extensdion on it. Yours screen print is the same! There is a file called pagefile. Again, it does not have the .sys on it. It's the same as your screen print.