Vista boot problems

Ok so here is my problem. I did look all over google and didnt find any answer related to this. First of all i upgraded to the beta of windows 7 on one of my machines. A lot of software i run doesnt work with it. Ok no problems decided to put vista back on. Installed vista ultimate w/ proper raid drivers. Also updated my bios on my INTEL DQ45CB board. After the first reboot windows does i get a screen that nothing else happens afterwards and even if i reload it again same issue. The screen says as follows:

Booting GRLDR...
Resting the boot drive... Success.
Turning on gate A20... Success.
hard drives: 1 int13: F0006D78, int15: E8000144
get_diskinfo(80), int13/42(80), version AA300001, int13/48(80),err=0, C/H/S=60801/255/63, Sector Count/Size=976783360/0, int13/08(80Z), version=0,C/H/S=1023/
256/63, int13/02(80),err=0, LBA C/H/S=60801/255/63, Sector Count/Size=976783360/512
boot_drive=80, int13/4B01(80),err=1, drive=80, Not CD
get_cdinfo(EF), int13/4B01(EF),er=0,drive=EF,cdrom_drive ==EF.
Starting cmain() ... Open /default ... int13/41(80), version=AA300001, int13/48(80),err=0, C/H/S-60801/255/63, Sector Count/Size=976783360/0, int13/08,version=0, C/H/S=1023/255/63, int13/02(80),err=0,

Now i've searched everywhere for two days on this. I even tried taking my drive out of raid doing a full format, recreating the raid, installing vista and no matter what i do this keeps coming up. But if i put windows 7 back on everything works fine. Never had a problem until i put windows 7 on. I hope to get this rig back up and running since i just finally got time to purchase far cry 2 and fear 2. Hopefully someone can help me since i've exhausted my resources. thank you in advance.

Don't have direct answer, but may have a work-around. Boot into BIOS and delete the raid array. Use the Vista install DVD to do a *full* format of each drive (will take awhile). Recreate raid array and install.

Well what i did was pull the drives out of raid then physically pulled the drive out of the machine and put them in a enclosure and did a full format on each. Put the drives back in and rebuilt the array. 2 WD 250gb sata in raid 0. No matter what i do this screen comes up. Im thinking it may have something to do with the recent bios update. Im thinking about putting the old bios version back on and seeing what happens. I have a feeling that the bios and the raid drivers aren't playing nice anymore. So ill try the bios downgrade when i get home and see what happens. Otherwise if anyone else has any other ideas please share lol.

ok so i tried to downgrade the bios and it failed doing it and nothing i did works any idea?

Are you saying you think those messages are coming from the BIOS? After the failed BIOS downgrade, are you saying you can no longer boot into BIOS?

I don't think you *really* did a *full* format. A full format would have wiped the MBR clean, and I *think* that might be where the messages are coming from. A full format on a 250GB drive is going to take at least 5 mins ....

EDIT: full format a single drive and try to install on just it, no raid ... let us know how it goes.

what i did originally was put each drive in an enclosure and did a full format from another machine. Each one took about half hour. I put the drives back in my machine and recreated the array and then went to install vista and after the install and the automatic reboot it does the first time that message comes up. So the MBR has been cleared. Also when i tried doing the downgrade of the bios one of the objects failed. I believe it was the Intel ME. I just know the last things that were done before i went to go back to vista was upgrade the bios and had windows 7 on it. Now i use vista ultimate. Dumb question cuz i've never saw an option for it, but how do you do a full format from the vista install? I see the options for the drive and select the drive and select format and it appears to do a quick format. No option for a full format. But i will also try to load it to a single drive and see what happens. I just have a feeling that the new bios doesnt play well with the raid drivers.

ok so i was able to setup vista on one drive configured the sata to ide and vista went on fine. i have a feeling the raid controler is shot. Im going to call intel and see what they think.

Ok i found the problem. Catch this one. Windows 7 totally messed up the MBR and Boot Sector so i had to fix them and as soon as i fixed it the damn thing started right up. Five minute fix that had me messed up for days. Thank you microsoft! Im glad i dont pay for any of your products.

Hey, deeds4life.
I'm having the exact same problem. Could you tell me exactly how you fixed this "MBR and Boot Sector"?
I would really appreciate it.

Hi,

Quote:

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I'm having the exact same problem.

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Are you sure about that? like you have installed Windows 7 and now want to go back to Vista?

First thing I would do is get Darik's Boot & Nuke and overwrite the drives with 0s. Sure, Vista is supposed to do that with a full format, but I never trust MS OSes to work that well on top of another install ;)............particularly with a RAID array!

http://www.dban.org/

Then just install Vista in the regular way.

I mean, I'm getting the same "error". I've always been using vista. This happened overnight, yesterday I tried to turn on the computer and I couldn't, I've been getting this error since then.

Quote:

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I mean, I'm getting the same "error". I've always been using vista. This happened overnight, yesterday I tried to turn on the computer and I couldn't, I've been getting this error since then.

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Have you tried dual booting on this system. If you haven't then you don't have the same problem.

You might take a look at this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392

or from a bootable disk:

http://www.planetmy.com/blog/how-to-...bootable-disk/

I did the fix from the repair and it fixed it until i installed SP1. I contacted intel thinking it was something going on with my raid because it installs fine on a single drive. They were of no help. Windows 7 installs fine. I wrote 0's to the disk and everything. Nothing fixes this. I heard installing grub will make it work. Haven't tried it yet but ill give anything a shot at this point because i havent been able to play far cry 2 and fear 2 that i bought in the begining of the month. Its weird vista installs fine then after the first reboot the issue comes back up.

Hi,

I know it's a long shot but have you tried slipstreaming the SP1 and then trying the repair?

Here is one tool I know of for that:

http://www.vlite.net/

Also, what tool did you use to overwrite the drive?

I have found Darik's Boot & Nuke to be useful for problem re-installations. Either slave the drive or boot it from a CD/USB drive............it even runs off a floppy :D

http://www.dban.org/

I had to use it to get Windows 7 to load on my test rig.............. didn't like the fact that I had Win 2000 on it :eek:

I used Active Eraser and Tried doing a repair off a slipstreamed SP1 disk and it work for a little while and never wants to activate my copy. Never had this issue before. I heard that windows 7 does something crazy to the boot sector and mbr. Like they use a different file system or something. Cuz what i think is happening is that windows 7 left files in the mbr and boot sector and when vista loads its reading the old windows 7 mbr and bootsector and its pointing it to the wrong direction.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by deeds4life

Ok i found the problem. Catch this one. Windows 7 totally messed up the MBR and Boot Sector so i had to fix them and as soon as i fixed it the damn thing started right up. Five minute fix that had me messed up for days. Thank you microsoft! Im glad i dont pay for any of your products.

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LOL, it's your illegitimate copy of Vista 64 that caused your headache: the Paradox release uses a Linux bootloader which was not uninstalled by your early efforts. Nothing to do with Windows 7... You would have had no trouble with the store-bought version. :p Bad boy!!!

turtleman

who said it wasn't legit? :) Maybe my workplace is part of MSDN and i use their copy? :D or maybe I'm BS'n you. The world may never know.

There is good reason that I recognize the cause of your boot problem: you and I are equally legitimate ;)

t-man