[fuzzylogik]

Howdy all. I was hoping someone -- ANYONE -- could help me with what has become the bane of my existence!

Long story short, my first SATA drive, a Maxtor 6B250S0 died a few months after I got it, and was covered under warranty. Upon receiving the new drive, I wanted to GHOST (v10) the old EIDE ATA Drive onto the new SATA drive. The operation succeeded except I could not make the new SATA drive the system drive. I eventually gave up and decided to rebuild the system. I mention this only because I was able to successfully move all the contents of the old drive onto the new one (and I could access and manipulate the files, I just couldn't boot from the disk) -- the consistent problem was that after navigating the BIOS on boot up, I would receive "Error loading Operating System" when the OS should have taken over.

Now to my existing problem. Actually, the same problem. I have killed the existing partition and low-level reformatted the drive. After copying all of the XP files onto the hard drive, I'm getting the same error -- "Error loading operating system". Here is what I have tried in no particular order:

1. Fixboot
2. FixMBR
3. Tried using Maxtors MAXBLAST to establish the a full 250 GB partition (running original XP disks; not SP1 or SP2)
4. Tried utilizing standard 137 GB partition via XP
5. Removed all EIDE cables except those utilized for CD-ROM/DVD access
6. Diag'ed the disk using Maxtor's Powermax (it's fine according to the diag)

I'm tapped. No matter what I've tried, it does not appear to want to be anything other than a slave drive, EVEN THOUGH THE BIOS LISTS IT AS A MASTER DISK (and it is installed on SATA 1 on the MB; ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe). It currently is the ONLY HD that is installed on this computer. The kicker to all of this is that the original SATA HD that eventually failed never gave me any of these installation problems, so I don't believe that it is related to SATA problems on the MB.

Any ideas/suggestions on what God I can sacrifice to in order to get this thing bootable??? Thank you in advance.

Fuzzylogik

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you installed the special drivers using f6 at boot up?

[gerryf]

you installed the special drivers using f6 at boot up?

[fuzzylogik]

Yes, at the F6 prompt when windows setup is loading the bootup OS and drivers.

Fuzzylogik

[gerryf]

does it then inform you that you loaded the driver properly

Did you set the SATA drive as the first boot device in bios?

[fuzzylogik]

Yes, after I load the driver for the SATA 150, I receive a notice that the driver was successful.

I'm not sure that I can prioritize Boot Drives in my BIOS. I have two IDE controllers (listed first) and two two SATA controllers. I have a Phoenix-Award BIOS -- always hated Phoenix and likedAward BIOS. Looks like when they merged that Phoenix got the lions share because their minimalist BIOS connections show here. I updated the BIOS a few days ago, BTW, when I was attempting to troubleshoot the original Ghosting problem.

The boot priority is not much help -- only allows you to differentiate between removable, HD, CD/DVD.

On someone else's suggestion, I DL and tweaked nLite which, among other things, allowed me to slipstream SP2 onto my XP (which was neither SP1 or SP2). The thought was that SATA was not supported until SP1. Needless to say, it was no help.

Any other suggestions -- or know of any ways to prioritize the controllers/disks for booting?

Fuzzylogik

[gerryf]

OK, first...are you certain you connected this drive to the nvidia, rather than silicon image sata controllers...the former are for the sata drive in single mode, the latter for raid.

In bios, under advanced, Serial ports 1 , 2,3 4 are ENABLED (these are your nvidia sata controllers

In fact, it looks like you do not need drivers at all if you are going for simple sata setup...and the install of the silicon image drivers might be causing more trouble then good...in fact, perhaps disabling the sata raid controllers would be a good idea.

[fuzzylogik]

Yes, I am configured to NVIDIA SATA 1 (I have not tried 2-4 yet). In the BIOS I have turned NVRAID on and off and I have turned the Silicon Image Drivers off as well (althought I have played with both in different configurations, they are both OFF right now).

Under the IDE Function Setup under the Advanced menu, everything is currently on (Onchip IDE Channell 0 & , IDE DMA Transfer access, Sata Port 1,2 ; SATA DMA transfer, Sata Port 3, 4; Sata2 DMA transfer, and IDE Prefetch Mode. Under the NVRAID Configuration menu, I have everything disabled -- it appears that everything on this submenu controls RAID configurations only. And the Silicon SATA controller under the Advanced menu has been turned off. The only Serial ports within the entire BIOS refers exclusively to the old 9-pin Serial (vs. Parallel) and are setup like every other Serial port I've ever had (3F8/IRQ4). I believe that the Serial ports that you are referring to are under the previously mentioned IDE Function Setup (Sata Port 1,2 & SATA Port 3,4).

Fuzzylogik

[fuzzylogik]

Problem figured out! The problem -- believe it or not -- is that the HD wanted to defined as LARGE versus AUTO. I cannot take credit for this, so here is the reference where I found the solution:

http://whocares.de/archive/000682.php

Thanks to all who tried to help brainstorm.

Best regards,
Fuzzylogik

[gerryf]

Thank you for the update...that is odd. Never run into that before. I wonder if it is motherboard specific issue. That link has the guy blaming Microsoft, but I have installed a dozen or so sata drives--bother 150 and 300 and not encountered that.

[fuzzylogik]

Yeah, the source seemed a little off-center/paranoid but the solution worked -- the why bugs me, but after spending entirely too many hours (at least 24) trying to figure it out, I'm getting over it. I don't know if you scanned through the rest of the user inputs, but there were a host of Motherboard and HD manufacturers listed, so the problem does not seem isolated. Having said that, the first time I set up my HD, I can assure you that I did not make this configuration change. The perceived inconsistency bothers me the most.

Fuzzylogik

[you_silly_mortals]

I'm having an "Error loading operating system" problem as well.
Except I'm trying to do a fresh install of Windows XP Pro.
This problem has been driving me up the wall for two months now. (I don't have much time for this problem cuz I'm a full time student)
I RMAd my motherboard (an Asus A8N-Sli Premium) and put it all together last night. Still got that error.

I'm looking forward to trying this out!

*EDIT* it didnt work

Edited by you_silly_mortals, 08 December 2006 - 08:14 PM.

[Savageme]

Hello im new to this game and having a "Error Loading Operating System" any ideas , my system will not boot my XP disk either.

Hoping on a fast reply,

Regards Savageme.

[rshaffer61]

Direct to: Savageme

Please start your own topic
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