OS Unavailable at Startup

My apologies, couldn't think of another subject. The problem is not with the software or at least I don't think it is. I think the problem me be with a CMOS/BIOS setting. I have multiple drives IDE and SATA both of which have an OS installed the other day I crashed, oh due to a little to much speed, and totally lost the OS on my SATA drives. So I reinstall the OS and everything is working fine except I cannot access the OS on my IDE drives the drives or online, healthy and all files are accessible. Before the crash I was given the option of which OS to work from since the reinstall that option has become invisible I have went into the CMOS settings see if I could have switch more than my FSB after the fiasco but really do not see anything that might have been changed. Is there some guidance out there to help resolve this situation? rolleyes

 

The problem is probably with the boot loader. What OS is installed on which drive(s)?

 

XP Pro x64

 

So you have two installations of XP Pro?

I'm looking for an easy way of describing editing the boot.ini file but haven't come up with one. Basically, you have to add the IDE drive to the list of available operating systems.

To edit manually you have to know the drive and partition number. Exactly how many drives do you have connected? From Disk Management graphs what is the drive number and partition number of the IDE Xp partition? Drive number is on the left and the partitions just start at one for the left most partition and go up by one.

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If you want to let Windows build the boot.ini you have to do it from recovery console using the bootcfg /rebuild command. It will search all Hds and prompt to add each OS it finds.

 

C drive is raid 0+1, D is master, S is slave

 

I'm sorry I've never needed to bother setting up a RAID configuration. I hope someone who understands them can give you an answer. Do you have 3 physical HD or 2? I'm trying to understand if D: and S: are the same physical drive(they have the exact same size) but because you are using the Raid configuration it makes it appear as two drives.

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Manually editing the boot.ini is not difficult. Just open an Explorer window and choose Tools>Folder Options>View>Tick "Show hidden files" and untick "Hide system files". Then in the root of C: the boot.ini file will be visible. Open it in Notepad and you can add the two lines at the bottom of the quote box and save it. Does your Default and first line under Operating Systems look like the one below(with the the rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOWS for both lines)? If it does then adding the two lines should be OK. Leave the Default and first lines untouched. It will give you three choices on the boot menu but one of the two added lines won't work. Figure out which one doesn't work and delete it.

 

Sounds simple enough I am posting this before I try so I could be like a tumble weed later waiting for someone to pick me up. As for the drives, Drive (D) is the IDE master Drive (S) is the IDE slave with no RAID config and yes they are 2 identical drives. Drive (C) is a four drive config of RAID 0+1. I will now attempt to deliver some results. uhhm

 

Oh, so you can just add the one line multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP on IDE drive 0" /fastdetect

And you can put any description between the quotes "XP on IDE drive 0" could become "XP Drive D: (or anything else you like)"

Just be sure to leave the default and the first OS line untouched.

 

One last thought before you reboot after editing the file you can check the new boot path is good.

Start>Run>type in msconfig <enter> then the boot.ini tab and click the check boot paths button. It will verify that both paths are valid. Just a little insurance that you didn't mistakenly alter the default path.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showpost.php?p=1057828&postcount=4

 

I don't mean to crack the yoke on this one, but where is that file I have looked for 30 minutes and still going.

 

It should be on C:\boot.ini. You have to change the view settings to show hidden files.

Sometimes if you have extra drives attached when you install your OS the boot files go on a different drive. In your case they may actually be on D:. [If this is true it is unfortunate because if something happens to the D: drive your C: drive won't boot. But one thing at a time.]

An easy way to find it is to right-click My Computer and select Manage. Then on the Advanced tab under Startup and Recovery>Settings> Edit and it will open boot.ini in Notepad. You can add the line there.

 

You could say I've gone mad but I like the politeness of the configuration settings, well, all except the file will not open in notepad. I promise I will be punctual but this is driving me in sane. I tried opening notepad first but why.

 

I don't understand. If you use the My Computer>Manage route to get to the file it automatically opens in Notepad.

If you locate the file at C:\boot.ini or D:\boot.ini right-click it and you should have an option to Edit. Do you get an error?

 

The screen shot I sent with the previous post is what I get when I click manage there is no startup under any of the hierarchy. I was able to get to the ini files, well to an extent, using Folder Options>File Types>Details for Extensions>Advanced. It then give me the option to open but this is where I could not get it to open. I have used search companion to look for the file but it's could not find BOOT.INI on any drive is it possible that this may have changed with the addition of the third party RAID drivers? I know it is there I can see the tab in the system configuration utility.

 

You don't want to be in the File Types>Details for Extensions area.

Try Start > Control Panel > System > Advanced Tab > (under Startup and Recovery--I think it is the third section of the window) Settings button > Edit.

 

I don't understand how a man with my wealth of knowledge could be so misled by the least distracting things. You are to be welcomed and thanked. :cool