Aaargh I'm a complete cretin!!!! help

beast

beast

beast

Associate
Joined
10 Apr 2004
Posts
909
In the top ten list of things NOT to do, I think I'm firmly at the top spot :rolleyes:

Was looking to rid my quick launch tray of some icons to make startup faster. One of them was the gigabyte RAID configurer. I am running RAID 0, but didn't think this actually did anything other than allow you to play about with the settings. I assumed, as I'd told the OS about RAID using a floppy disk during installation, that this icon doesn't actually do anything. I then uninstalled it. :o

I can now longer boot into Windows. :( I can't even boot in safe mode. I've lost everything haven't I? I'm such a d**k. I tried to put the motherboard disc in but that just starts xpress recovery 2, that says there is no OS on the hard drive.

Is there anything I can do? Spent weeks getting all that software on there too :mad:
 
That's interesting, sounds like uninstalling the RAID tool has uninstalled the drivers too. If that is the case it's heck of a dangerous and I'm surprised that it's the first time I've heard of it - it's the sort of thing I would do too :eek:

I think the only way round this is going to be to try and repair the windows install with the original XP CD.
 
Yeah that's my thoughts. But I know that when I stick the repair CD in, it's gonna say "no OS detected" just like the motherboard disc. I can't believe there was no warning when I uninstalled it :mad:
 
The XP CD is bootable, the motherboard one isn't. You'll need to boot off the XP CD, press F6 to give it the SATA drivers and go through a repair process to try and reinstall the SATA drivers into your existing install.
 
rpstewart said:
The XP CD is bootable, the motherboard one isn't. You'll need to boot off the XP CD, press F6 to give it the SATA drivers and go through a repair process to try and reinstall the SATA drivers into your existing install.
Click to expand...

Ehhh? My asus cd boots into some kind of DOS when its in...
EDIT nvm ,i just saw gigabyte and can't comment on boot on them...

As rp suggested boot with xp cd and try a repair install and dont forget to install raid drivers with F6 at start...
 
Last edited:
I find it hard to believe that the tray tool would uninstall the drivers, that makes no sense... I'm wondering if there's not some horrible coincidence at work here...

Does your BIOS see the array? What chipset is it? (My Via tray tool does no such thing, it's completely seperate from the drivers which are used by the controller device in the hardware manager)
 
Right, I doubt repair/installing the drivers will make any difference, here's why:

The BIOS sees the two drives as RAID 0, I get the screen saying so on bootup. Without the floppy driver, that would not happen. The windows Icon flashes up but that's as far as I get each and every time.

I doubt it's coincidence, Because I uninstalled the Gigabyte BIOS configurer, restarted, and it hasn't worked since!

I think I'm up poo creek without a paddle. Really infuriating to think that there's just one little driver between me and all my games/pics/documents that I didn't back up :rolleyes:
 
beast said:
Really infuriating to think that there's just one little driver between me and all my games/pics/documents that I didn't back up :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I've screwed a RAID0 array before now when changing mobos but managed to save 90% of my emails/pics/docs by creating a new array, doing a quick format then using a spare drive to install windows and using data recovery software to look at the array.

Try the drivers first, if windows has got all the drivers etc to hand it could fix it (who knows).
 
beast said:
The BIOS sees the two drives as RAID 0, I get the screen saying so on bootup. Without the floppy driver, that would not happen. The windows Icon flashes up but that's as far as I get each and every time.
Click to expand...
OK, so the array is still intact, that's good because it means there's still a chance of getting the data back. The driver has nothing to do with the config yet.

The fact that the Windows logo flashes up really does suggest that the driver is screwed, it's probably running through the initial real mode access to the disk (boot.ini ntldr and all that jazz) then as soon as it tries to load the driver, bang! nothing to load. Have you tried safe mode? Can you even get the F8 boot menu?


beast said:
I think I'm up poo creek without a paddle. Really infuriating to think that there's just one little driver between me and all my games/pics/documents that I didn't back up :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Nothing personal beast but I think this is a lesson we all need to take on board - running RAID0 with no backup strategy is a bad idea.
 
if the worst comes to the worst - install xp on an ide drive or non raided sata. once in windows, your data will be there if the array is still ok (after installing drivers etc)
 
Hello - I'm typing away on my PC now :D Took 2 hours for a complete re-install, then installing office XP, Lan drivers, chipset drivers, intel Tat, Audigy 2 you name it I've just installed it :D

The stupid thing is, that Gigabyte RAID configurer is not even there on startup, you can run the PC just fine without it. Yet if you install then un-install it, you fubar the PC.


Gigabyte - You suck!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom