SCSI Boot Drive

I recently replaced a failing 136GB (RAID 0, 2 drives) hard drive with a single 300GB hard drive after removing the Adaptec 2010S RAID 0 control board. My motherboard is a Tyan 2665S with onboard SCSI. Ultimately, I need to restore an Acronis backup with a Windows Vista OS.

I have the drive installed with ID 0. There is another hard drive and a tape drive on the same chain. When I boot, all three devices are recognized. I have also reformatted the new drive via the SCSI utility.

Last night, after the low level format, I booted up with the Acronis boot CD and restored the backup. The backup ran successfully after which I rebooted. After recognizing the devices, the system stalls with a blinking cursor.

Previously, I tried to boot from the Windows XP CD (I upgraded to Vista) but Windows does not recognize any of the SCSI hard drives and therefore cannot install.

I need help on what to do ... thank you.

 

At the F6 prompt in the windows setup you need to install the SCSI drivers.

 

I suspect that Acronis could see the drive or it wouldn't have attempted the restore which would suggest that the SCSI driver is loading. You didn't mention that you partitioned and formatted the drive. A low level format from the SCSI utility is not the same thing.

 

Acronis has SCSI drivers built in, XP doesn't and I am pretty sure Vista doesn't either. Therefore if the installation had drivers for the RAID card installed, and not the SCSI controller on the motherboard, the system will not boot as the OS cannot access the disk.

 

No disrespect intended Collinsl but it seems to me when he said "After recognizing the devices, the system stalls with a blinking cursor." that it's not even getting to the Windows boot loader which is before any Windows driver could possibly load.

Also when he was running the RAID, the SCSI driver would most likely have been loaded in the OS simply because the SCSI controller was present even if he was using a separate RAID Controller.

Also Windows XP does have native SCSI drivers built in for most common controllers.

 

The blinking cursor is probably the OS starting to boot and failing because the loader for the boot menu cannot access the drive as it is SCSI and it doesn't have the correct driver installed, as it has the driver for the removed RAID card and not the SCSI on the motherboard.

 

Not sure if this helps, but when I would have to reinstall/restore in the past, I would have to load the Adaptec SCSI drivers for the Adaptec RAID 0 2010S card that was installed in one of the slots on the motherboard. I did not have to install any other SCSI drivers. The Acronis backup was done at the time I was using the RAID 0 adapter. So, I restored the files but not the MBR.

As for the partitioning, I thought that when installing Windows XP it would give you the opportunity to format/partition before installing Windows. At this point, Windows does not see any hard drive on my system which is confusing to me. If it is the driver, what is the best way to install it?

Thanks again for your help on this ...

 

At the beginning of the setup, at the bottom of the screen, there will be a line saying "Press F6 to install SCSI/RAID driver" press F6 and with the driver on a floppy, insert it and windows should install it.

 

As Collins says-

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314859

 

All right ... I loaded the drivers for the onboard SCSI and am re-installing Windows XP (did not work with a Vista repair). I will then install Acronis and restore from the backup.

Another question ... I have reformatted and partitioned the 300GB drive; however, the backup is for a 136GB drive. When I restore, I intend to restore the files but not the MBR. Can I maintain a single 300GB partitioned drive OR will the Acronis restore convert the drive to the ortinal 136GB drive leaving me with an unpartitioned drive? How do I fully utilize the 300 GB capacity?

Thanks again for your help ...

 

Okay ... success. Acronis has an option to launch Windows so after the restore, I launched Windows via Acronis boot disk, installed the SCSI drivers via Device Manager, and rebooted back to my restored OS.

Thanks for all the help ...

 

I believe Acronis will restore the original partition in it's original size, but you can use Windows to expand the partition later. Here is a guide:
1. Right-click on "My Computer" and choose "manage"
2. On the left of the windows that opens there should be an item entitled "Disk Management". Click on this and wait for the service to load.
3. When the service has loaded, look through the list for the partition you are trying to expand. If this is your only physical hard drive then it will be the only hard drive in the list.
4. Look at the drive indicator. Partitioned and formatted space is blue, unpartitioned space is black. Verify that the figures shown are approximately correct.
5. Right-click on the partition you wish to extend and choose "extend partition".
6. Follow the steps in the wizard. If you leave the values as default the extension will use all available space, less 1 or 2 MB, which is a quirk of Microsoft's tool.
7. Once the wizard has finished, the drive will be automatically formatted. Wait for this (it will say in the drive indicator in Disk Management) and verify that the indicator shows the whole drive has been used (less 1 or 2 MB as said above).
8. Exit the disk management application and verify the correct drive size in My Computer.
9. If all is correct, then you are finished.

 

Thanks ... this worked as well ... I am a happy camper.

 

Glad we got it working for you.