Hard drive and operating system not playing nice?

[triumphrider-1]

All you need for your motherboard can be found here:

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=M2NPV-VM

Although I don't see anything in the specs for the BIOS updates that talks about drive size it wouldn't hurt to install the latest one anyway. From what I understand you should be able to dump the update to it using a flash drive and there should be something in the manual about how to do it. All of your drivers for it and even RAID support for XP64 can also be found on that site if you needed it.

I just got done looking through the same site. Hopefully this works cause the partition did not change anything.

 

[Mark_88]

If the partition didn't help...and you've tried this CD on another computer (I think) and got the same error...I'd say the CD could be the problem...

While in the BIOS, check the boot sequence to make sure that it is looking at the new drive and not the CD or the old drive...I recently got the exact same error on a lab project and it turned out that that bios was set to boot from a drive that was empty...so I was able to fix it in about five minutes...

 

[triumphrider-1]

If the partition didn't help...and you've tried this CD on another computer (I think) and got the same error...I'd say the CD could be the problem...

While in the BIOS, check the boot sequence to make sure that it is looking at the new drive and not the CD or the old drive...I recently got the exact same error on a lab project and it turned out that that bios was set to boot from a drive that was empty...so I was able to fix it in about five minutes...

I have not tried this cd on a different computer, but I did try another O.S. cd on the computer/hard drive in question and got the same results.

Yeah, I've had the boot sequence get me on other computers I've put together, so far I have remebered to changed it over when needed on this build.

 

[Mark_88]

Good stuff...one never knows the level of understanding...sorry about misreading your post...you're probably as or more experienced than me at this though...but I'll suggest one more thing and hopefully you'll figure it out or get help from someone who might know the board better...the error is obviously about not seeing the boot partition (can't find NTLDR)...and I guess you didn't get a chance to make a recovery disk yet...

Your specs listed the following:

4 x S-ATA 3Gb/s hard disk drives supporting Raid 0, Raid 0+1, Raid 5, and JBOD config

Of the 4 slots for your SATA drives, have you tried swapping it out to a different connector or are they disabled unless you're using RAID? Does the bios indicate it is using RAID or JBOD? I'd imagine you have single master or some other similar options...

Otherwise...I'm curious now...hope you find it soon...frustrating things that they are...

 

[almostclueless]

WD blows donkey balls anyway. Yes, I'm sure there are plenty of folks that have had no problems, but WD is one of those companies that in my opinion has had a long history of wierd and needless compatibility gotchas.

 

[superdave1984]

This may be a reach, but have you tested your RAM? Download Memtest86 http://www.memtest.org/#downiso and run it for several passes on each stick individually. Burn it to a CD and boot to it.

 

[triumphrider-1]

Problem solved! It was the BIOS, updated to the newest version and booted right up no problems (as far as loading/installing Windows).

Good stuff...one never knows the level of understanding...sorry about misreading your post...you're probably as or more experienced than me at this though...but I'll suggest one more thing and hopefully you'll figure it out or get help from someone who might know the board better...the error is obviously about not seeing the boot partition (can't find NTLDR)...and I guess you didn't get a chance to make a recovery disk yet...

Your specs listed the following:

4 x S-ATA 3Gb/s hard disk drives supporting Raid 0, Raid 0+1, Raid 5, and JBOD config

Of the 4 slots for your SATA drives, have you tried swapping it out to a different connector or are they disabled unless you're using RAID? Does the bios indicate it is using RAID or JBOD? I'd imagine you have single master or some other similar options...

Otherwise...I'm curious now...hope you find it soon...frustrating things that they are...

Yeah, I swapped it from the #4 slot to the #2 (wasn't thinking that something was wrong with the slot, just did not like seeing it boot in #4 slot...anal, I know...just the way I am).

WD blows donkey balls anyway. Yes, I'm sure there are plenty of folks that have had no problems, but WD is one of those companies that in my opinion has had a long history of wierd and needless compatibility gotchas.

I am one of the folks that has no problems with WD. This is my fourth one from them and hopefully the best too.

This may be a reach, but have you tested your RAM? Download Memtest86 http://www.memtest.org/#downiso and run it for several passes on each stick individually. Burn it to a CD and boot to it.

The ram should be good, haven't had issues with it to date; but I think I will download that for a just in case event.


The only issue now is that windows will not install the audio driver (if its not one thing its something else).

 

[Ranger Dave (B25)]

Last two HDs I've had fail without warning were...Western Digital. I'll never buy another one.

 

[Mark_88]

Problem solved! It was the BIOS, updated to the newest version and booted right up no problems (as far as loading/installing Windows).

Excellent! Always a good place to start, after the obvious stuff has been eliminated though...

Yeah, I swapped it from the #4 slot to the #2 (wasn't thinking that something was wrong with the slot, just did not like seeing it boot in #4 slot...anal, I know...just the way I am).

Oh, I can relate to the anal thing when it comes to computers...or tools...or furniture...I've spent a year and a half in my current apartment and have been living in turmoil because I couldn't fit all the furniture in the space (it's L shaped and difficult to furnish)...constant changes because something just didn't "feel right"...lol!

I am one of the folks that has no problems with WD. This is my fourth one from them and hopefully the best too.

I've had a few of them and they've always been good drives...noisy, but good...

Whew! I'm exhausted...lol!

 

[rboyer]

The BIOS is usually the first thing to check in a situation like that because even though the board may be a newer one you never know what it will support from the factory. As for Western Digital drives the only ones i've seen fail drastically these days are the refurbs. And I know for sure that the older pre-1gb IDE and MFM drives were solid as a rock.

 

[triumphrider-1]

A big thanks for your help guys!

Enjoy a beverage as though I bought it for ya! or depending on your preference.

Now I just need to get the LAN working and I'll be set.

One more question now that I think about it. I would like to keep my other hard drives system (32bit XP home) hooked up and have the option to run either (32bit XP home or 64bit Pro) when I start up my computer whats the trick to do this?

THANKS again!

 

[Mark_88]

I was wondering the same thing and considered doing this for my system...but my preference would be to simply install the second drive but not hook it up...when I wanted to boot to the other drive if the other one failed it would be there ready to go with very little involved...just open the case, connect the cable, and select the drive as the boot drive in the bios...

Other than that, you could make it a secondary drive (slave) and use any available free space if the drive is partitioned...but you'd have to go into the bios and select that drive as the main boot drive...not sure really how it would fair but it should, hypothetically, work that way...

 

[triumphrider-1]

I changed the boot priorty for the hard drives (a new feature with my updated bios) so that the old hard drive (running 32bit XP Home) ran, then the new hard drive (running 64bit XP Pro); if I selected the new hard drive as my primary then I was not given the option. This shows me the option of running either system (looks like I press F8, but do not actually push it), but only shows it for maybe 2 seconds. Does anybody know how I could lengthen the amount of time its displayed?

Thanks again.

 

[Mark_88]

That's easy...go into the System properties...click the Advanced tab and choose Startup and Recovery...it should be listed right at the top with a selector for how many seconds you want it to display...

 

[triumphrider-1]

Thanks!

I have to say I like the 64bit over the 32bit, its working alot faster (but it is a 64bit computer, so that might affect the performance a bit).