Why can't I boot from an SATA drive on P6N SLI-FI?

I have a P6N SLI-FI, running XP Pro 32bit. Two sata drives are configured as a striped array and I boot from an IDE drive. It is stable but not as fast as I'd like.
I'd like to install XP-Pro 64 bit on another sata drive. The CMOS setup utility sees the new drive, but it is not listed as a drive I can boot from.
Must I configure it as a single raided JBOD drive? If so, I am a little confused about what utilities to copy to a floppy drive for windows to use when installing the new OS. The manual says to copy the contents of :\\nVidia\System\C55+MCP51\RAID to a floppy. Neither the original CD nor the downloaded utilities have a RAID subdirectory to C55+MCP51. There are subdirectories called :\\nVidia\System\C55+MCP51\IDE with subdirectories Win2K and WinXP. Both have subdirectories called raidtools, sata_ide and sataraid. Do I want Win2k or WinXP for XP64? Which subsequent directory should I choose?
I have ver 2.4 of the BIOS.
Thanks
Steve

Quote from: Maesus on 07-December-07, 08:51:33
Try :\\nVidia\System\C55+MCP51\IDE one
Maesus: From the downloaded files (having specified WinXP 64 bit) I can see :\\nVidia\System\C55+MCP51\IDE\Win64. It is too big to fit on a floppy, containing subdirectories raidtool, sata_ide, and sataraid. I'm trying with the sata_ide and sataraid directories now. I will report on any success.
WinXP wants txtsetup.oem: it is within sataraid. I'll try putting the contents of that directory in the root of the floppy.
Did that, now WinXP reports that the driver .(..x64...) is corrupt. I'll try a fresh copy as soon as I can download from the internet.
It looks like the problem was bad floppy disks. I finally found one that was formated and could hold the files. WinXP64 is installing now. I wonder if Microsoft will ever realize that floppies are unreliable media that are ready to be tossed in the trash heap.
I have to say, life is much more convenient with a KVM switch between computers running WinXP and Ubuntu. This is a little frustrating, but it is much better being able to switch between the recalcitrant install and a working computer with a couple of keystrokes.
Quote from: MarkJohnson on 07-December-07, 15:20:54
I remember having a similar issue when SATA RAID chipsets first came out that you had to treat the single drive as a RAID and even load in RAID drivers. Maybe since the chipset is already in RAID mode it wants to be setup as a single drive RAID 0.
I also had this issue with my Intel chipset recently as it wouldn't work as a single drive RAID and I had to turn RAID on and off in the BIOS whenever I wanted to dual boot off my third hard drive. But I'm sure the nvidia supports the single drive RAID, at least the AMD chipset did.
also, one last thing is to make sure the drive is enable in the BIOS. It may not have enabled the drive properly.
Good Luck
-=Mark=-
Mark: I think that's the exact problem I have. Once you convert any sata drives to raid, they all have to convert to be seen.

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Why can't I boot from my hard drive internally but no problem externally?

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Hi Too_Talls,
I'm not quite sure I have totally understood you. Please correct me if I am wrong but this is how I've read your symptoms:
MacBook not booting
Plug in external hard drive, choose that as the startup volume. MacBook boots.
Remove internal hard drive and replace with hard drive that has OS installed. MacBook not booting.
Remove replaced hard drive, plug it in to usb port. MacBook starts up fine
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Message was edited by: myhighway

K9NGM2 wont boot from a SATA drive

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I was about to take a large sledge hammer to the board and then saw this one setting in the BIOS.
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Hi
I just bought new Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P and i've got a problem with installation an Windows 7 64x from a bootable stick.
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Go to Solution.

Hello and welcome,
Are you booting in UEFI or legacy mode?
IIRC if you want to boot and install in UEFI mode you need to format your USB stick FAT32 (which you did) and enable CSM support in BIOS.
You should also be using SP1 media. If pre-SP1 some additional file manipulation is required to get the installer to boot in UEFI mode.
Installing Windows 7 in native EFI mode from USB
If you're booting and installing in legacy mode (which I suspect you are if running FreeDOS - just a guess on my part) you need to format that USB flash drive NTFS.
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Z.
The large print: please read the Community Participation Rules before posting. Include as much information as possible: model, machine type, operating system, and a descriptive subject line. Do not include personal information: serial number, telephone number, email address, etc. The fine print: I do not work for, nor do I speak for Lenovo. Unsolicited private messages will be ignored. ... GeezBlog
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Why can't I boot from an external scsi drive?

In a previous post, I mentioned that my hard drive died. While trying to find ways to work around it, I dug out an old 4 GB SCSI drive I used to use with my old Mac, and hooked it up. When I booted from the OS 10.3 install disk, I was aboe to install the OS on the external drive, and choose it as the startup drive before rebooting. When I rebooted, however, the Mac could not see the SCSI drive as a startup drive. I tried it several times, changed the SCSI ID, erased the drive and reloaded the OS, repaired the directory with Disk Warrior, all with the same results.
What am I doing wrong?
Dave

What model SCSI card do you have installed? Some cards are driver-based, like the Adaptec 2906. Its driver is loaded from the boot drive, as the extensions are displayed across the screen during the startup process. As such, drives connected to that type of card can't be designated as the boot device. A newer SCSI card that's firmware-based, like the Adaptec 2930, can be used for booting the computer. If you have a card that's firmware-based, then you may need to update the firmware with a newer (Mac OS X) compatible version.

Can my iMac boot from an external drive?

Once upon a time, I used Disk Utility, running from the DVD to make a copy of my iMac's internal drive. I also tried using Carbon Copy Cloner to do the same thing. But, I have never been able to get the iMac to recognize the external drive as a boot drive. I just wanted to have a backup that would launch when the internal drive tanks... as it will, one day.

Yes. If you did it right then to boot from the clone:
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
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3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the clone's disk icon.
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To make the clone:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
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Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
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Why can't I boot from external HD?

I made a bootable clone with Carbon Copy Cloner onto an external FW HD. I went into System prefs and changed the startup disk, and when I restart, I get a flashing "?" and then the Mac boots into the internal HD...
I've cloned internal disks a million times (OK, like 5 times) and it has always worked INTERNALLY...
Could it possibly be the FW enclosure? IT was a cheapie...
Any other explanations? Tips? Tricks? Hints?
Thanks

Bohemian
The term "My Book" is not sufficiently definitive. The link I gave, and the link that jsd2 gives, do not make a +"blanket statement"+ about all "My Book" drives; they list those "My Book" models that are unable to boot a PPC Mac. Either your model is not in that list or WD have got it wrong.
It is merely that WD does not 'support' the process, how could they with so many different types of chips out here...
The reply is in the link I gave:
WD then attribute the cause of the problem to Apple, but without explaining how it is that the problem does not affect other makes of drive.
Anyone interested should see the comment at the foot of that link for an explanation by "baltwo" as to the reason why those certain models will not boot a PPPC Mac.
=-=-=-=-
jsd2 is the "jd2" mentioned in the link I gave. Thanks (again), jsd2.
Andreas

Why can't I boot from disk to re-install Lion?

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Did you purchase this computer used?
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Alt/Option Boot code is all in ROM. It shows an Icon for each potentially-bootable Volume.
Your Windows install DVD is not directly bootable, and so it does not show an Icon. (An OS 9 Installer CD would not show an Icon either.)
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Booting from a SATA controller not recognized by BIOS.

I have an USB install of Arch Linux and it works pretty well for me, I can access the files on the SATA drive, browse the intarwebs and code, but I can't really paint on it and that forces me to have a Windows installation on the hard drive.
But the problem is that the BIOS doesn't see the disk and since it isn't a Linux kernel I can't refer to it through UID and I'm not entirely sure GRUB can see non-BIOS disks either, which doing ls from GRUB commandline seems to confirm, as it only lists the USB stick and it's partitions. Is there any GRUB 2 module or other way to have it recognize the disk plugged into the controller, so I can chainload into Windows?
The Windows bootloader seems to be capable of booting from a disk not recognized by BIOS so as long as I chainload into it I guess it'll be all right.
I heard there is some way to stuff the Windows bootloader onto a pendrive or even force the controller BIOS into motherboard BIOS, but I'd rather avoid this and stick with GRUB if possible.
If it's any help here's what the lspci has to say about the controller:
01:08.0 RAID bus controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6421 IDE RAID Controller (rev 50)
Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6421 IDE RAID Controller
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 16
I/O ports at a000 [size=16]
I/O ports at a400 [size=16]
I/O ports at a800 [size=16]
I/O ports at ac00 [size=16]
I/O ports at b000 [size=32]
I/O ports at b400 [size=256]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at 20000000 [disabled] [size=64K]
Capabilities: [e0] Power Management version 2
Kernel driver in use: sata_via
Kernel modules: sata_via
Thanks in advance.

No it doesn't and the mobo doesn't have such a setting.
In the end I searched for the controller BIOS on the intarwebs and ended up modyfing the motherboard BIOS to include it with cbrom, though I had to sacrifice the netboot module for it to fit; I didn't use anyway, so no big loss. By chance I didn't screw up anything during flashing and now there is a controller RAID prompt after the usual BIOS screen and I can boot from"SCSI" which is the SATA disk. I can now install Windows no problem and GRUB2 recognizes the disk on it's own too.
But I don't really like this modyfing BIOS stuff, is there seriously no way to do it, save maybe writing my own GRUB2 module by gleaning the code of sata_via kernel module?
Also at some point I think I made ntldr see the disk with unmodified mobo BIOS, but I don't remeber how exactly I did it and anyway the USB with bootloader became 0-th drive, so the Windows of course wouldn't boot (why doesn't it have drivemap, duh). It would be best if I somehow made GRUB2 see this disk with unmodified BIOS and then drivemap and fire the ntldr, but if that can't be done, then oh well.

Why can't I upgrade from 10.5.8 to 10.6? My MPB spits out the disc before it ever appears on the desktop.

Why can't I upgrade from 10.5.8 to 10.6.3? My MPB spits out the disk before it ever appears on the desktop. The Snow Leopard disk is brand new, was still in shrink wrap until I opened it. I do have the hard drive partitioned, running Win XP with Boot Camp, if that might be the issue.

Hey vlntrg,
I have a 2002 model Powerbook that will sometimes (most of the time) refuse to mount a CD or DVD. It just grunts for a while and then spits it back out. When this happens, I will slap the bottom of the machine several times with an open hand, not too hard and not too soft. I read this somewhere online (I forget where), and I was hesitant to try it, but it was cheaper than replacing the SuperDrive.
This will often allow me to insert and use the CD or DVD. I have also noticed that I have less trouble when the machine is cold than when it's warm.
I've not had this trouble with my MacBook Pro.
Another thought. Would it be possible to boot your machine in target disk mode and update your software using a friend's Mac? I'm sure there are others here who can better answer that question.
Hope this helps.
Andy

Why can't I boot from an SATA drive on P6N SLI-FI?

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