I probably ask more PC questions on here than VW questions. Stands to reason I guess, I use my PC for several hours per day and only smile at my oval on my way in and out. Sometimes say hello and stick my head in to get a good whiff of old car smell, but I digress.





I have a PC with 2 hard drives. A SATA drive and an IDE drive. I have a version of Windows XP on both and dual boot. 2 weeks ago it froze while shutting down off the SATA version. I did all sorts of things trying to get it to boot up again, including flashing BIOS, mucking about with BIOS settings, playing around with boot.ini, detect and repair windows. pulling all the cables out and booting from one drive only. It would get to the OS choice window but when I made a choice it would start the POST again.

Not sure which combination of these stabs in the dark (semi) fixed it, but I can boot up to the IDE if the SATA is not connected, and I can boot up to the SATA when it is connected. However, with both drives plugged in I can only boot up to the SATA no matter which option I pick at the OS selection screen. I know I am in the boot.ini on the SATA because The descriptions are different in the IDE boot.ini.

I can see the IDE drive in My Computer once the SATA OS has booted. I'm almost certain that the first time I plugged the SATA back in I booted to the IDE and could see the SATA. But now I cant boot to IDE anymore.

My IDE drive is on channel 1 Slave. I have a DVD drive which is on channel 0 master. I havent changed any jumpers on the drives, I assume its always been this way.

Is it just a boot.ini tweak required? My 2 boot.ini are below. First one is the SATA , second is the IDE. Please help!!!

Chris

[Boot Loader]
Timeout=60
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS="For Everyday Use" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)WINDOWS="For Chris Only" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

[Boot Loader]
Timeout=60
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS="Everyday Use" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)WINDOWS="Chris Only" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Have you tried adjusting the mixture screw??

The IDE is no good. What you need are a pair of 40mm IDFs for good streetable power. If you want your computer to run really fast though, go for some 48mm IDAs instead.

On a serious note, this is a pretty technical computer question to ask on a VW forum.

yeah but VW people know stuff cos in their spare time the do other non vw stuff. They've never let me down before.

Yeah, I'm thinking it's going to be to do with your flashing the BIOS Chris. The boot.ini looks fine to me... essentially cross referencing, which from the description is I think what you want.

You have an on-board SATA controller... right ???

Usually in the BIOS you set the boot sequence, as well as whether the PATA (IDE) or SATA controller is considered primary or master.

I don't know what settings you need to have, but that's where I'd be starting my search.

Oh - and the select an OS, then immediately back to POST sounds like a BSOD (Blue Screen) to me.... some versions of Windows they just reboot rather than taking the memory dump, and can actually do it so quick you don't even see the blue.

Unfortunately you may get your boot sequence sorted, and then still have the BSOD going on in whatever OS it was that died.

yeah, thats a weird thing with the bios. Before I used to be able to choose HDD1, HDD2 etc. But now it says "Hard Drive" but no options for 1, 2. Gigabyte gives me 4 versions to choose from. I used the latest, that didnt fix the original problem, now on the second most recent, but that didnt give me the option either. I could revert back to the original BIOS but scared to now that I have a working PC. Not something that I'm comfortable doing. Esp now school has gone back. Dont want to share my lappy with the kid. The IDE is only 13Gig, sata is only 80. Both are pretty full. I probably should get a bigger one and start over plus a USB for putting the docs/music/photos on. Too much of a tightarse.

move out of the dark and come the the light - get an apple

can you install the os cd and reboot and do a fix/repair from there, might need it

go linux if all else fails. = fast and simple. ubuntu

13 GB IDE? Blimey mate. Spend a few dollars and get yourself a 1TB or bigger SATA drive, then transfer both on to it and do a clean install of windows. Problem solved! Although if your computer is old enough to have originally had a 13 gig hard drive then it may just be worth getting a new one!

On the subject of gigabyte motherboards and their bios updates/reflashing, I had no end of trouble with mine. My gigabyte mobo gave trouble for about three years and then blew up, taking my graphics card with it.

have you selected the boot priority in the bios to IDE drive first?

The 80GB SATA drive was the original drive. If it wasnt for iTunes and my daughter it would be more than enough room for me forever. However it only has 12GB free now. And the 13GB IDE is plenty for what I use it for. I will never fill it. It only holds the OS, Filezilla, Mozilla, Textpad, paint.net, broadcast. Has no other software at all. Used wholly and solely for my web development.

Cant select IDE at the boot sequence. Just CD, floppy, USB, Hard Drive. Its set to CD first, then Hard Drive.

Havent had a chance to try anything since I posted this.

I've given up. Whenever I boot from the windows CD, the following time I boot up it goes from the IDE drive, but then all subsequent boots go from SATA.

I installed EasyBCD boot manager (cos its prettier) but couldnt get that set up at all. So uninstalled it. Then went to GAG. Couldnt get it to see the SATA hard drive. The first time I boot up after modifying GAG it boots from IDE, then SATA all the time! So bugger it, I'll just boot up from the floppy when I want the IDE drive.

Quote:

Originally posted by h move out of the dark and come the the light - get an apple

yawn, thats gettign a little tired. You nancy boys can put your testes in your handbags and kiss each other goodnight if you want but I'll be staying PC for a little while longer.

yeah macs aren't great like people say they are.

they suffer all kinds of hardware failure just like a PC can. And I have seen this happen many times
with owners putting the mac in the bin after parts being unavailable.

And they are the most non versatile , non compatible computers ever made.

Nothing fits in them.

no descent GPU upgrades (woohoo 6600gt, omg! an 8800gt wow thats like so 2005!)
Specific mac ram.
less that 0.01 % of PCI and PCIe cards will work in them.
No PSU updrages

sure the OS is pretty stable, but you might as well go to Linux for the same reason.

EDIT
arrhh double post again.

why is this site so dam slow most of the time. it just hangs
"waiting for aussieveedubbers.com" for up to 10min at a time
and sometime just loads with a blank white page.

its the only site on the net that does this.

Yeah! What's with that? Thought it was just me. Looks like a topic for a new post.

yeah I get it at least 2 time a day on AVD every day I go on. I thought the new server would fix that but its just as bad as when I first joined the forum.

Its annoying as its a waste of a 10.5Mbit connection. You have fast internet but it always bottlenecked at the other end.

change your IDE to master and unhook the CD.