I replaced my Win2k's NTDETECT.COM and ntldr with XP Sp2 versions, and then used another harddrive(IDE - later removed) to pre-format the SATA drive into 64kb cluster size partitions.

It now boots from 64kb clusters using a Silicon Image SATA 3112 Raid Controller. Nothing to do with RAID, but the problem is obviously RAID related and not totally cluster size related, or it also involves some other files aswell since those two work fine on my system.

I replaced my Win2k's NTDETECT.COM and ntldr with XP Sp2 versions, and then used another harddrive(IDE - later removed) to pre-format the SATA drive into 64kb cluster size partitions.

It now boots from 64kb clusters using a Silicon Image SATA 3112 Raid Controller. Nothing to do with RAID, but the problem is obviously RAID related and not totally cluster size related, or it also involves some other files aswell since those two work fine on my system.

I have not tried to replace those specific files from Win2k, but I did try to use non-SP1 of Win2k3 to do this install thinking that SP1 was the culprit.....NO GO.......Same error on first boot.

I put it back to 4KB clusters and let Win2k3 build

I was the one who had posted the solution at ABIT forums.

http://forum.abit-usa.com/showpost.php?p=6...8&postcount=508

This might help you. If you have a dos hex editor or a dual boot system you might be able to edit the mbr on the raid partition.

....Just to let ya'll know - NTDETECT.COM and NTLDR has nothing to do at all over here.

Edited January 9, 200620 yr by big poppa pump

D*** I wish I had seen this thread before I tried to reuse my windows 2k disk system, now I have to reinstall 2k, then find somewhere to stuff hundreds of GBs of crap to start over with XP

The weird thing is, even though my OS partition was only ~50gb and I wiped that, apparently just because my 64k stripe data partition is on the same array, the MBR data is still a problem

What id*** decided to cap at 4k clusters with SP2...they suck for large files

Edited August 5, 200620 yr by Aluminum