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Windows 2000 on Highpoint 370 RAID controller

By blerg ·
Ok, here's the problem I created today...

I am working on a system with an Epox 8K5A2+ motherboard with the Highpoint 370 RAID controller. This box is not currently using RAID, and contains 3 IDE drives. One is set up as the Primary Master on the first RAID controller, the second drive is Secondary Master on the RAID controller, and the third drive is Primary Master on the standard IDE controller. The OS is Windows 2000 Professional.

Norton Disk Doctor today asked if I wanted to correct a problem with a non-bootable partition, and without thinking much I clicked Yes. (doh!) The box then rebooted and couldn't find a boot drive. After much screwing around, I booted off a DOS disk and checked with Fdisk. Both the original boot disk on the first Highpoint RAID slot and the disk on the primary IDE slot have their partitions marked Active. Apparently the box can't decide which disk to use and when it reaches the point of polling the drives to search for a boot record, it just stops and sits there.

If I disconnect the IDE drive, the system boots fine off the drive on the first Highpoint slot. Reconnect the IDE drive, boot hangs forever.

I have gone into the HPT370 BIOS to make sure the first drive is identified as the Boot drive.

Lil help? Any relevant input is appreciated.

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Some ideas

by TheChas In reply to Windows 2000 on Highpoint ...

First off, technical questions should be posted in the Technical Q&A section.
Usually, you will get a faster response from there.
Also, you get email notification when an answer is posted to your question.

I suspect that the 3rd IDE drive was set as not active, and did not have system files on it.
Norton just assumed that you wanted to use that as the boot drive.

The simplest fix should be in BIOS settings. (The motherboard BIOS, not the HighPoint)
Under boot device / boot order, you need to make the High Point controller the first boot device, or at least before the standard IDE controller.

Alternately, you need to remove the system files from the drive connected to Primary Master.

If the drive is formatted as a FAT32 volume, run fdisk and mark the partition as not active.
Then, from DOS look at the root of the drive.
Delete at least command.com

With only 3 IDE drives, why is one connected to the standard IDE controller?
I use this type of system setup regularly.
I connect all hard drives to the Highpoint controller as most of the time, this controller has a faster data transfer rate than the standard IDE controller.
I have also found that it works best if NO drive is connected as Primary Master.

Chas

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