ok - I built the nLite CD and it works great... it finds the raid installs and works ok. It goes thru the complete install and then when I take the CD out and reboot it gives me the error cannot find bootable drive. If I leave the Cd in it goes to the hit any key to start and then it times out and then boots the XP install on the Raid.

Any suggestions??

Have you changed your bios to boot from the raid as the first device?

yes I have and no luck

Under Logical Disk Management, is you raid set as active?

Also not knowing what raid chip you are using, can you go into the raid configuration screen / bios and check that it is set to first boot device / active in there.

If these are set correctly then I can only think that the Master Boot Record is corrupt on the raid and needs replacing.

First check the boot paths by

Edit your c:\boot.ini file. The easiest way is usually with msconfig.

Start/Run/msconfig <enter>. Click on the Boot.ini tab. Click on Check all

boot paths.

should look something like

[boot loader]
timeout=5
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" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

may be slightly different due to the raid but there should be no mention of a cd drive

or

Boot you pc to the recovery console and at the command prompt type FIXMBR and hit return and reboot without the CD.

or

Use an old Win98 boot disk at the command promp type fdisk /mbr to replace the mbr, then type fdisk /status which will show you you the current status of your disks and whether they are bootable and active.

Hope this helps.

Edited October 10, 200619 yr by Littlebr00k