Windows won't boot

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

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Joined
17 Oct 2002
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Hi guys,

Background: Had trouble getting my SSD Cache drive to work. Details in following thread. Eventually fixed it last night and everything worked brilliantly last night including several reboots:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18394300

This morning I switched the monitor on to find a bunch of application exception errors for all the background programs on my PC (Origin etc). Cleared these, entered my password, hit enter on the lock screen and it BSOD'd.

Windows now refuses to start. Startup repair fails to fix it.

Where to start, any ideas? :) Running Windows 7.

Thanks!
 
When you say windows refuses to start, what screen are you getting stuck on, if any?

Did you try the automated startup repair or manually tried to repair your boot record? It does sound like the MBR may have corrupted and the automatic start-up repair has never fixed that for me.
 
It comes up with a screen telling me windows failed to start and offering startup repair.

It nearly booted once but bsod'd at starting Windows.
 
Try unplugging all other hard drives and see if it will boot with just the ssd. If it will then the Problem could be old MBR still on previous hard drives.

Then you would need to remove all wanted data from those drives and reformat them.
Hope you get it sorted.
 
This is the problems with running Raid with software raid controllers, great if you never need to change anything but a world of pain when things go wrong :)
If it boots into Safe Mode, your looking at driver issues, if not then there's corruption somewhere.
Running "sfc /scannow" in a command prompt might help fix it. (providing it does boot to safe mode) I'd also run a "chkdsk /r /f" failing that your at the mercy of system restore or repair reinstall.

As a side question
Does using a SSD as a cache drive give any improvements over using it normally? Outside of server usage i've never thought of using one for home use.
 
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It wont boot from the SSD as Windows isn't installed on the SSD. I use the SSD with the Intel SmartReponse system, as a cache. It works brilliantly (Well, when its functioning!) giving me about 80-90% of the performance of a dedicated SSD with the flexibility of a standard HDD.

Until this issue is fixed, however, the SSD is out of the picture anyway.
 
Do you have any full system images saved?

Does safemode work? tap F8 whilst booting to initiate it
 
I'd take the SSD out of the equation, and any other drives aside from the boot. Unplug it, check the bootable mech drive is still being picked up correctly in the BIOS. Does a mech drive using ISRT have to be on RAID?

Try a boot, try to enter the windows repair prompt and utilise the MBR repair functions from there rather than the automated service.

A word of warning, the command prompt fixmbr options etc are much less lenient. So if you can make a backup beforehand I'd do so.
 
Cross posting my reply from storage so you see it:

What happens when you boot? BSOD (7b?), nothing at all?

If it's a 7B BSOD (INACCESIBLE BOOT DEVICE) I would boot your system in a bootable environment...BartPE for example.

You then want to load YOUR systems registry hive for editing.

Open a Registry Editor in the bootable environment. If it's the windows one you need to select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE so it is highlighted and do File > Load Hive...

Browse to your local C: drive (Not the bootable environment) Windows\System32\Config\

Select the file named SYSTEM and load it.

Assuming it loaded you will get a new expandable section in the tree view on the left for your systems registry hive.

Browse to the following 3 locations and change the 'Start' parameter value to 0 for each

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\msahci
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\iAStor
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\iAStorv
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\pciide

Left click your newly added SYSTEM hive in the tree view and do File > Unload Hive. If it asks if you want to commit any cyhanges or words to that effect say yes.

Exit Bootable Environment, try to boot.

Basically this tells Windows to load drivers for RAID, AHCI and IDE. It might get you in.
 
Speaking of which - What is your Intel Controller set to in the BIOS?

From what I understand you rolled back your RST drivers, they may be incapable of reading your RAID-0 data :(
 
gord said:
Does a mech drive using ISRT have to be on RAID?
Click to expand...

Nope. Most common configs are a single HDD being accelerated by an SSD. The Intel controller does need to be in RAID but I am almost sure the drives are treated as JBOD. Whether you accelerate a RAIDed volume is optional.

The fact the OS is installed onto a RAID-0 stripe only adds to the problems as it is now intrinsically linked to the RAID controller working. Cannot just chuck it into AHCI/IDE mode and read the data. :(

If it was RAID-1 you would at least be able to split the mirror and access at least one of the disks.
 
Right.

Got home, ran auto repair again. This time it spent AGES fiddling with discs and eventually booted Windows. I'm now back in. But it's a bit odd, AVG is disabled (and when I run a scan it insta-cancels it) and I cannot get into Programs and Features. First thought was a virus of some sort but Google reveals that system restore can cause issues sometimes.

I can't search either - if I search for a file on the Start Menu it says 'Windows cannot find search:query=whatever'.

Tempted to just format :p
 
I would. If you're sensible (geeky) enough to have all you're data nicely partitioned or backed up then formatting isn't a biggy, and from the screwed up state of your OS I think it's easily worth it.
 
Yea, everything is partitioned off. Now in a nice clean Windows install.

I've foolishly enabled the SSD Caching again, so we'll see if it lasts the night this time :p
 
[TW]Fox;21750789 said:
Yea, everything is partitioned off. Now in a nice clean Windows install.

I've foolishly enabled the SSD Caching again, so we'll see if it lasts the night this time :p
Click to expand...

Did you download the latest ISRT drivers for your board from your manufacturer?
 
bledd. said:
Personally, I'd just install Windows on the SSD and not bother with the caching feature
Click to expand...

Agreed.

I run the near exact same setup he uses now in reverse.

SSD as OS/Steam/Main games/Apps/Pagefile
RAID-0 HDDs as high performance storage

GameSaveManager to move off Steam games into HDD Storage that I do not want on the SSD. You can install the game from steam, let it prep files, pause the download IMMEDIATELY after it starts. Close Steam, move data with GameSaveManager, re-open Steam, Resume download to HDD location transparently. It's not like you even need to commit the entire game size to the SSD with this method. Just get the base structure made to move in the first instance THEN bring the bulk of the data down.

Heavy footprint User Data redirected to HDD Storage (My Pictures/Music/Documents etc)

TEMP/TMP redirected to HDD Storage at Env Variable level

As long as you are prepared to invest a LITTLE time for the initial setup you retain 99% of the flexibility IRST provides with none of the downsides and all of the performance benefits of dedicated SSD usage.
 
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