installing OS to drive on SATA port #2

[bobmiers]

I’m in need of some information and help.

The following hardware:

ECS GF7100PVT-M3 v1 motherboard 2g RAM – According to the manual this MB uses MCP73PV as the chip set.

(This MB supports 1 Floppy, 2 IDE drives, 4 SATA drives, + the normal VGA, Audio, USB etc.)

The board uses the nVidia chip set (LAN card etc).

I have 1 SATA drive connected to SATA #1-1000gig, plus 3 IDE drives with IDE to SATA adaptors connected to SATA #2-120gig,3-200gig,4-200gig; 1 IDE CD/DVD writer and 1 IDE 250gig disk drive connected to the IDE port.

I have XpProSP2 installed on SATA #1 and VistaU installed on the IDE 250gig with multi OS booting.

I wanted to SlipStream sp3 into my XPproSp2, so I got nLite and successfully integrated SP3. I also put the nVidia MCP73 driver set into the CD via nLite. I wanted to test on the SATA#2-120gig drive. So booted my modified SP3 disk and selected the SATA#2 drive to install. Everything went OK until after the 1st reboot – BSOD.

After much testing, I find that I can only get the install to work only if I move the 120gig drive to the SATA #1 position. When I did this and started the OS, I then checked the drivers for the various nVidia components. The Network seems to be set to the nVidia drivers, however, the disk drivers still seem to be Micorsoft’s.

I have tried various setting for the MB BIOS (selecting different drives to boot from) without success.

I’ll be happy to post the nLite file, but that may not be necessary. Did I do something wrong or is it just not possible to install to a drive connected to SATA #2, 3, or 4.

Thanks for your time,

Bob Miers

PS, I’ve loaded the image into WMware – but that doesn’t show me the disk drivers – I may not know how to look beyond the WMware. I've also spent a lot of time reading this forum, but I didn't find this problem - did I miss it?

[johnhc]

bobmiers, we do need to see your nLite file. You will not see or test your drivers on VM, because VM has its own virtual drives and drivers. NLite places the driver files in the Windows directory in folder NLDRV. You can find both the text mode and the normal drivers there. They will not have been installed since no real HW was detected. We also would like to see your BSOD code - perhaps a 07B. And perhaps you have not included the text mode drivers. So, please attach (not paste) your Last Session.ini. Make sure to always start with a fresh copy of your CD files/folders, do all your work in one nLite session and integrate only one SP. Please report when you have a solution, so others can benefit. Enjoy, John.

[bobmiers]

Hopefully I'll get the attachement correct.

The stuff about nVidia is near the end of the file.

How do I get the BSOD code?

Thanks for your help.

Bob Miers

Last_Session__2009.07.16_14.10.21_.ini

[bobmiers]

Some more info: On the correct install (when the drive was moved to SATA #1) there is a NLDVR subdirectory with 7 subdirectorys. Each has files.

I will do another install with the drive on SATA #2 and look to see if there is a NLDVR directory. It will take about an hour for me to do that.

Bob Miers

[bobmiers]

After another failed attempt. I examined the Windows subdirectory, there is a NLDVR subdirectory, however, this time there is only one subdirectory - 003 with 7 files.

Yes, I have been starting with a fresh copy of SP2 each time I make an ISO.

FYI, it is quite a process to get back to a functioning OS after these attempts.... the failed attempt sets the time delay to 1 second, and I'm not quite fast enough to get to another drive before it attempts to boot back to the failed install. If I don't change the boot.ini file it simply goes back to the BSOD. (I have let the machine set there for over an hour, so it doesn't appear to be a slowed up process. Is there some place that I can change that time delay?

What I do is: boot to my Vista CD and do the repair to the start up. That then lets me boot Vista and I can change the boot.ini file on the 1000gig drive to a saved copy.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Bob Miers

[johnhc]

bobmiers, this is a tough one. I have never done a multiple OS install, much less on a SATA attached PATA drive. I see no problem with your Last Session and I would expect you to see 8 folders in the NLDRV directory. I do not understand why you only see one. We really need to see the BSOD. I guess your machine reboots quickly, so try hitting F8 and see if you can get into Safe Mode. If you can, go to the Properties of My Computer and disable Automatically Restart (Advanced Tab-Startup and Recovery-Settings) and then reboot. If possible, please consider a virtual system (VMware Server, Virtual PC and Virtual Box are free - I use the first but it is huge compared to the others). Please post a link to the drivers you are using so we can take a look. Do you get any errors during install? The NLDRV folder is in your I386 folder after running nLite. Please take a look and see if it is OK there. Enjoy, John.

[bobmiers]

John,

First, let me thank you for your efforts.

I looked at the \windows\nldrv subdirectory on my working drive. It contains 8 subdirectories. (This was setup using the normal *.EXE update after Windows was installed. The directories are: 015; 016; 017; 018; 019; 020; 021. They all have files; some of them have lots of files.

I then looked at the \windows\nldrv subdirectory of the failing install. There is only 1 subdirectory, 003.

003 contains these files: idecoi.dll; nvgts.sys; nvide.nvu; nvraid.cat; nvraidco.dll; nvrd32.inf; nvrd32.sys

I am using the drivers from: Fernando – a link that I found on this forum.

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=51140

I downloaded all of the sets he refers to. I then chose the: 32bit nForce SATARAID drivers v10.1.0.28 WHQL for nForce 630-620i-610i=MCP73 because my board uses the MCP73 chip set.

I get no errors during the CD build. The last couple of builds I’ve made I do get an error about not being able to find: clock.avi. This is something that nLite had in itself when I installed nLite. Why it is just now giving me the error is a mystery. I simply press ESC to skip the file and went on with the install.

As I stated before, I have run the ISO into VMware workstation. I also am now getting the clock.avi error there as well.

I will give the F8 key a try.

FYI and to make it clear. I burn the ISO to a CD (slower than the max speed) and boot the CD. I progress to the point of selecting my 120gig drive. I then delete the partition, create it anew – using the full drive. I normally do a Quick format, but one time I did the full format – no difference. Once the format is done, the install tests the drive and does the copy of files. At this point, I get the “reboot in 15 seconds” message. I normally press Enter to bypass the wait. The machine does a reboot – going through the normal BIOS check. When I get the “Press Any Key to boot from the CD”, I wait. After the wait time, the machine shows me my default multi OS boot menu with a new entry at the top for 1 second. At this point the machine attempts to go into the next stage of the install. This is where I get the BSOD. Nothing I do at this point, short of CTRL-ALT-Delete does anything.

To get back up, I have to do the Vista thing.

There is one other item that I have discovered. I went back to my SP2 disk and tried to install it. It does the same thing. Installs OK if the drive is on SATA#1 and fails if the drive is on SATA#2.

I’ll conduct another test. Remove the IDE drive (the one with Vista) and also remove all of the SATA drives but the 120gig – I’ll put it on SATA#2 or 3 and see if I can install. Will let you know the results.

Bob Miers

[johnhc]

bobmiers, I am going to PM Fernando 1 and see if he will take a look since you are using his drivers. I don't understand what you mean by

This was setup using the normal *.EXE update after Windows was installed.

I also don't understand why the folders are numbered 015-021 (only 7, BTW) either. I think what nLite does is, using the .inf file you point to, copies all the referenced files so that when the .inf is executed by Windows, the files will be available. For me, I would like to see the link to the driver DL site of the main board you are using. I would also like to see the information on SATA to PATA adapter you are using and the link to the driver DL site, if there is one. NLite has the clock.avi in the [Delete Box] of the Advanced-Components Task. I do not know why it is there but it has never given me a problem but some seem to need it. You need to remove the clock.avi from the [Delete Box]. Are you sure you can install an OS on the SATA attached PATA drives? Enjoy, John.

[Guest]

Everything went OK until after the 1st reboot – BSOD

This has probably been fixed in nLite but if all else fails can you try what I'm going to suggest and and see if it works?

First some background so that you know why it may possibly. I long time ago I found a bug in nLite that had to do with SCSI/RAID drivers. If I am remembering correctly, it was a blue screen when GUI setup ran due to lack of raid drivers availability during that portion. I had to use a floppy with my raid drivers for things to work. I never got around to testing if it was fixed so ever since then I have integrated my raid drivers twice. Once as textmode and once as PNP. So...

Make 2 folders with the SCSI/RAID drivers (you have to make 2 or nlite will say the driver has already been added). Integrate them both but once as PNP and once as textmode.

Another thing...

Something I do when setting up Windows is unplug all the drives that don't contain the OS. This is because I have a mismatch of RAID array IDE and regular IDE. Windows wants to set the first IDE drive as drive 0 and you get all kinds of drive letters mixups. This isn't a problem for me because I always install OSs on my first drive. I understand you want it non first drive. I have a feeling it may be looking on the wrong drive for the drivers.

[Fernando 1]

@ bobmiers:

Since johnhc has sent me a PM and asked me to have a look into this thread, I will try to help.

At first step I need some further informations:

I am using the drivers from: Fernando – a link that I found on this forum.

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=51140

I downloaded all of the sets he refers to. I then chose the: 32bit nForce SATARAID drivers v10.1.0.28 WHQL for nForce 630-620i-610i=MCP73 because my board uses the MCP73 chip set.

Why did you integrate the SATARAID folder, which is only suitable for RAID users? Do you have enabled RAID within the BIOS?

I progress to the point of selecting my 120gig drive. I then delete the partition, create it anew – using the full drive.

Why did you delete the partition and created a new one? If you want to reuse an already existing partition, you should just format it.

The machine does a reboot – going through the normal BIOS check. When I get the “Press Any Key to boot from the CD”, I wait. After the wait time, the machine shows me my default multi OS boot menu with a new entry at the top for 1 second. At this point the machine attempts to go into the next stage of the install. This is where I get the BSOD.

Have you seen any error message? If yes, which error code did you get?

The error message and the code may lead us to the reason for the BSOD. You will get the complete error message, when you hit F8 while rebooting and choose the "Don't reboot at system failure" option.

There is one other item that I have discovered. I went back to my SP2 disk and tried to install it. It does the same thing. Installs OK if the drive is on SATA#1 and fails if the drive is on SATA#2.

Now we are at the most important point: The "HARD DISK BOOT PRIORITY" BIOS settings. Only the hdd, which is in the first place, will be the active one with a boot sector and the MBR.

Each time, when you have changed the SATA cables or the hdd's, but before you are going to boot into an OS or off a CD/DVD/USB, you have to enter the BIOS and check the "HARD DISK BOOT PRIORITY" settings. Otherwise you may not be able to boot any OS.

Notice: The HARD DISK BOOT PRIORITY has nothing to do with the order of the usual boot devices (1. CD/DVD, 2. HDD etc.).

Edited July 17, 2009 by Fernando 1

[bobmiers]

bobmiers, I am going to PM Fernando 1 and see if he will take a look since you are using his drivers. I don't understand what you mean by

This was setup using the normal *.EXE update after Windows was installed.

I also don't understand why the folders are numbered 015-021 (only 7, BTW) either. I think what nLite does is, using the .inf file you point to, copies all the referenced files so that when the .inf is executed by Windows, the files will be available. For me, I would like to see the link to the driver DL site of the main board you are using. I would also like to see the information on SATA to PATA adapter you are using and the link to the driver DL site, if there is one. NLite has the clock.avi in the [Delete Box] of the Advanced-Components Task. I do not know why it is there but it has never given me a problem but some seem to need it. You need to remove the clock.avi from the [Delete Box]. Are you sure you can install an OS on the SATA attached PATA drives? Enjoy, John.

What I ment by *.EXE is that after the OS is installed, I then run the nVidia install EXE's to make the NIC card and audio work.

The IDE to SATA is a hardware device that has no software (that I know about). I suspect that there is a parallel to serial converter inside. The EXE is from the ECS site and has the name: GF7100PVT-M3 as the main title... then the MCP73 part for XP and Vista. I downloaded this file on 06/10/2009 but it carrys a date of 12/13/2008 inside.

To remove any possible confusion that I may have caused. The 1000gig working OS was NOT installed from a nLite generated CD. It was installed from my SP2 CD and then upgraded by the MS stand alone EXE file. This is the drive that has the 017-021 subdirectories.

re: clock.avi as I said, only the last two times that I attempted a slipstream did I have the error.

I haven't had time this afternoon to perform the other tests that I spoke about. And now you fellows have given me more testing to do - not that I mind.

I'll have to shut the machine down to do the checking in the BIOS. But, yes, I do make sure that the correct drives are in the booting order - both places in the BIOS setup. There is a three postion order - I have this set for: 1) CD/DVD rom, 2) Hard disk; 3) floppy - yeah I know that it probably won't get to the floppy, but that is OK for most of the time for me.

The other area lists all of the hard drives and you choose the order that you want the drives to be checked - you can also disable any of the 5 positions. I change that to reflect the drive that I'm going to attempt to install the OS on. I have left the others along, but I think that I will set all of the rest to 'disabled' - at least for a test.

-X-

What you said about the GUI is exactly what I'm experiencing.

If one of you will suggest the set of drivers that I should use, I'll give it a try.

I'll try to determine the answers to any of the questions that I have not answered here and report back later.

Thanks everyone.

Bob Miers

[johnhc]

bobmiers, I think I have been working on the wrong problem. It now sounds like you have an AFTER install problem not an install problem. Your text mode drivers must be working fine. You get the BSOD after you reboot after you install normal drivers by executing the .exe driver file you DLed from ECS. We really need to see the BSOD code now. The next time you get Windows to install, before you do anything else, please use the procedure above to disable automatically restart. So, are you telling us you have a running installed Windows until you install the drivers? Here is the ECS Driver DL page. I would suggest you DL the NVIDIA MCP73 IDE Driver dated 2007/11/08, extract them and point nLite to the .inf files. I am DLing them now to take a look - Europe seems to be the fastest, although it is verrrrrrry slow! I'll edit my post if I discover anything new. Enjoy, John.

[bobmiers]

Well fellows: I got it to work. Turned the hard drive boot sequence to "disabled" for all drives except the 120gig drive. I then put the my orginal SP2 disk in and it went completely through the process.... there was no NLDVR subdirectory - which I expected.

Then rebooted with the nLite CD in the drive and it also went all the way through and there was a NLDVR subdirectory with 7 subdirectories.

The CD that I used may not be the one that I sent the *.ini for.... this one had the NIC drivers and some of the network setup on it.... all worked.

Then I rebooted once more and re-activated and changed the order of the hard disk booting sequence back to my normal sequency and it appears that everything works. I get back to my 1000gig drive and see the selection for the Vista install.

Anyway, I think that we've solved the problem. Thanks a bunch

I would still like to know the suggested driver for my board. And by the way -- no clock.avi errors

Bob Miers

[johnhc]

bobmiers, great, I am glad you got it working! I recommend you use the drivers I pointed to in my last reply. I finished DLing the driver and extracted it (7-Zip) and it has 10 .inf files but one is a RAID tool I suspect you do not need and it is inside a .cab file. Did you remove the clock.avi from the Components [DeleteBox]? Enjoy, John.

[Fernando 1]

@ bobmiers:

Congratulation, that you got your problem solved at least.

Thanks for your report about how you got the issue fixed, but you didn't exactly write, what was going wrong before.

It would be interesting for us, who tried to help you, but especially for other users, if you would give a short statement about how users can avoid the problem you ran into.

I would still like to know the suggested driver for my board.

Which sort of driver for which hardware do you mean?

By the way: You didn't answer my previous question regarding the SATARAID drivers. Are you running RAID? why didn't you mention it before?