BIOS Bootdrive reset with power out?

[Justas]

Hello all, I am not sure where this would belong...

But here is my problem. I have a system with a SATA (OS installed) and an IDE (Storage drive) HDD. I have the boot priority setup in the BIOS to have the SATA one boot first. However when the system loses power ONLY the HDD priority settings will be reset to default (IDE first, SATA second). This causes problems because the system needs to be up as much as possible. And if it goes to the IDE HDD first it will not boot into Windows until someone gets there to manually change it.

I am thinking maybe a new BIOS might help. But, if I have to, I can just move the OS to the IDE drive (But that defeats to purpose of even having the other SATA drive so it would be a last resort)

Any advice would be appreciated, and sorry if I posted this in thee wrong section.

[puntoMX]

Welcome to the MSFN forums, you are on the right place .

Update your BIOS first. When you don’t have luck with that then replace the battery.

[nmX.Memnoch]

What's the system used for that it has to be up all the time? It almost sounds like you're using it as an entry-level file server. I'm asking for a specific reason...

Edited September 13, 2007 by nmX.Memnoch

[Justas]

I build the systems, this one happens to be for a security company. They say they want it to work this way, so I need to make it happen. And yea, I will try the BIOS when I get a chance. Might not get to reply within next hour though. This is first time I have ever seen just 1 setting reset in the BIOS though. Seemed kind of odd, so hopefully a BIOS update/Battery can solve it.

[nmX.Memnoch]

I guess what I was getting at is...what's the reason for the two drives? Is the data on the IDE drive being constantly updated and the SATA drive is only used for the OS?

[Justas]

They only said they wanted the SATA HDD to have the OS and special partitions. And just to have the IDE as a separate drive for information. I assume they are using it to store data for their security devices. (The SATA HDD has an OS partition and others for different uses.)

[nmX.Memnoch]

See...I would've talked them out of that.

The OS drive doesn't need to be that fast if it's largely going to remain static. The IDE drive is probably plenty fast enough for it. If they're going to be storing dynamic data I would've talked them into using the SATA drive for that (or just put two SATA drives in the system and be done with the conversation).

[jaclaz]

But, though not actually the solution to your hardware problem:

What prevents you from putting a NTLDR+BOOT.INI+NTDETECT.COM+(NTBOOTDD.SYS) on the IDE drive, with an entry in BOOT.INI to load the OS on the SATA drive?

Also, if the data is valuable and expecially it is a security company we are talking about, a UPS is a MUST, as I see it.

jaclaz

[Justas]

Yea I agree they should put it on a UPS, and the single SATA/multiple SATA drives. However the IDE was cheaper so they only wanted the 1 SATA. And I am not sure why they didn't have a UPS on the system to begin with.

NTLDR+BOOT.INI+NTDETECT.COM+(NTBOOTDD.SYS)

Correct me if I am wrong, but you are just saying to add a path to the NTLDR and other files, of the OS drive, to the BOOT.ini on the IDE drive? I am new to this kind of thing, still lots to learn lol

[jaclaz]

Correct me if I am wrong, but you are just saying to add a path to the NTLDR and other files, of the OS drive, to the BOOT.ini on the IDE drive? I am new to this kind of thing, still lots to learn lol

Yes, as I see it there are TWO booting scenarios:

1) BIOS is "right" and SATA drive becomes bootdrive, i.e. \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0, IDE becomes \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1

2) BIOS is "wrong" and IDE becomes bootdrive, i.e. \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0, SATA becomes \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1

Now you have on the SATA drive FIRST ACTIVE PRIMARY PARTITION ROOT:

NTLDR

NTDETECT.COM

(NTBOOTDD.SYS)

BOOT.INI with contents similar to:

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

If you add to the IDE drive FIRST ACTIVE PRIMARY PARTITION ROOT a copy of:

NTLDR

NTDETECT.COM

(NTBOOTDD.SYS)

BOOT.INI with contents similar to:

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

When scenario 2) happens, machine will boot as well as before.

Drive lettering should NOT be affected as it is dependant on drive signatures, so any "normal" program will work as before.

If you have programs, batches or whatever that use the other available syntaxes for "low-level" access to the drives, like \\.\PHYSICALDRIVEx or the \device\Harddiskx\Partitiony or the \Device\HarddiskVolumez, those WILL change, and you need to provide some workarounds.

Read these to get an idea of what I am talking about:

http://www.msfn.org/board/Discovery_Unusua...ery_t33030.html

http://www.msfn.org/board/BOOTINI_hard_drive_t25365.html

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...=2425&st=19

jaclaz

[Justas]

Thanks for the info. But after updating BIOS to the new BETA it hasn't happened again. Whatever the problem was, it must have been a BIOS error after all. Still nice to know how to manually redirect drives.

[puntoMX]

If you did what I posted the customer would have got your there system 3 days earlier .

Good it´s fixed now...