Can'r figure this one out

OSB · 26 Jan 2008 at 19:17

I'll give you the summary, ask for more detailed info where you need it.

There are two 200Gb HDDs on SATA cables in mirrored RAID.

Windows won't boot, in any mode. The recovery console won't see a C drive. The Bios won't see the HDDs, the RAID controller does see both the logical and physical drives. What on EArth is going wrong, and how do i fix it!!! I really am starting to dispair!!

Anyhelp would be amazing thanks!!

OSB

decto · 26 Jan 2008 at 22:44

My guess would be that you need to press f6 and install the RAID driver from a floppy when booting into the recover console otherwise it won't see the raid. Then you should be able to trouble shoot as per.

AD

OSB · 26 Jan 2008 at 23:05

Have tried this and it doesn't help. However some progress has been made.

It booted randomly into safe mode where-upon my dad created a boot disk so he can no boot to windows. However when he ran AVG virus scan nor viruses were found but it found a read error in the boot sector. So methinks boot sector needs o be repaired using the recovery console, however the recovery console, rather than saying which installation would you like to repair, then giving you the C:\WINDOWS promt, doesn't ask you which installation and just gives you C:\ promt, and no other commands work!!

What's goin on, massive error in the boot record?? How do i fix this without the recovery console?

Thanks for the assistance

Pulse · 26 Jan 2008 at 23:09

if you're trying to install Windows XP, go into the bios at start up (F10 or del) should tell you how to get into it when you start your pc and look for the option "Sata native" and set to disabled.

OSB · 26 Jan 2008 at 23:33

Pulse said:
if you're trying to install Windows XP, go into the bios at start up (F10 or del) should tell you how to get into it when you start your pc and look for the option "Sata native" and set to disabled.

What does that do?

Pulse · 27 Jan 2008 at 00:39

Vista needs it to detect the harddrives to install it, whereas XP cant use it so it messes the detection up and so the XP install cant find the harddrives. i dont know the technicals but i know thats how it works