Boot-Up Problems

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Denise_M

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Hi,

I just finished building a pc. The case has 12 bays.

I have Windows XP Pro x64 and a Gigabyte GA-EP45-DQ6 motherboard. I have several Seagate SATA 750G 32Mb buffer 1.5Gb/s hdds that I took out of their external enclosures and installed in the case, and 7 new WD SATA Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 32Mb buffer 3.0Gb/s hdds. I don't have a RAID Array setup. I installed all the drives under the IDE format.

I first installed Drive C, a new WD 1T hdd, and it was labelled as Disk 0 in Disk Management. I then installed Windows, drivers, updated drivers and some programs. I then added the remaining 11 hdds and, for some reason, Drive C was reallocated as Disk 4 in Disk Management.

Is this okay?

I'm having boot problems. . . it usually takes between 2 to 5 resets to get it to boot up, but once it boots up, it works great until I have to reboot again, every 2 days. I'm wondering if I'm having the problem because Drive C was reallocated to Disk 4.

I had no problems with the build . . . everything went smoothly. I tried reseating everything to see if it would correct the problem but it didn't help. I've updated drivers where updates were available.

I don't know if this info is needed, but when my pc boots up, it lists this info:
IDE Channel 0 Master - WDC hdd
IDE Channel 1 Master - Pioneer DVD drive
IDE Channel 1 Slave - Seagate hdd
IDE Channel 2 Master - WD hdd
IDE Channel 3 Master - Seagate hdd
IDE Channel 4 Maser - none
IDE Channel 4 Slave - none
IDE Channel 5 Master - none
IDE Channel 5 Slave - none

I know that SATA requires a fdd and I have one installed and it works, but it's not listed as a Master or Slave.

DVD/CD drive is first in boot order sequence.

Other components:
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield cpu
- mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel RAM
- CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W
- ASUS EAH4650-DI-512MD2 Graphics Card
- HighPoint RocketRAID 2300 PCI Express SATA II 8-Port Controller Card

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
 
Hm weird problem... I'd try physicaly swaping the IDE Channel 2 Master - WD hdd with the IDE Channel 0 Master - WDC hdd on the motherboard. I don't know if that'll help or not... Also check your BIOS for a boot order.

Check the BIOS first though before swaping HDs on your Mobo.
 
Hi Patiszerg . . . thanks for responding.

"I'd try physicaly swaping the IDE Channel 2 Master - WD hdd with the IDE Channel 0 Master - WDC hdd on the motherboard"

I thought about doing exactly as you recommended but I can't do it the easy way. I have 7 WD hdds and they're all labelled the same, just the WD model number. I've opened the case and disconneced all of the drives except for Drive C and rebooted. Drive C was then Disk 0. I then re-connected the other drives and rebooted and Drive C became Disk 4 again.

I'll be opening the tower again soon to change the cables. The ones that came with the controller card are way too long so I bundled each cable and put a rubber band around the bundle but it's cluttered in there because of it. I bought shorter cables to replace the longer ones. I'll disconnect all the drives except for Drive C, reboot and go into BIOS, and see if I there's a way to make it IDE Channel 0 Master. That's a good idea, thanks :)

I believe that my boot order is 1. CD/DVD drive, 2. hard drive, 3. fdd, but I haven't been in BIOS in a couple of months so I'm not sure about 2 and 3. They may be the other way around . . . 2. fdd, 3. hdd.

But you gave me something to work with and I appreciate it . . . thanks :)
 
Hi Patiszerg . . . thanks for responding.

"I'd try physicaly swaping the IDE Channel 2 Master - WD hdd with the IDE Channel 0 Master - WDC hdd on the motherboard"

I thought about doing exactly as you recommended but I can't do it the easy way. I have 7 WD hdds and they're all labelled the same, just the WD model number. I've opened the case and disconneced all of the drives except for Drive C and rebooted. Drive C was then Disk 0. I then re-connected the other drives and rebooted and Drive C became Disk 4 again.

I'll be opening the tower again soon to change the cables. The ones that came with the controller card are way too long so I bundled each cable and put a rubber band around the bundle but it's cluttered in there because of it. I bought shorter cables to replace the longer ones. I'll disconnect all the drives except for Drive C, reboot and go into BIOS, and see if I there's a way to make it IDE Channel 0 Master. That's a good idea, thanks :)

I believe that my boot order is 1. CD/DVD drive, 2. hard drive, 3. fdd, but I haven't been in BIOS in a couple of months so I'm not sure about 2 and 3. They may be the other way around . . . 2. fdd, 3. hdd.

But you gave me something to work with and I appreciate it . . . thanks :)

Sure you're welcome. In my BIOS there is an option for boot device order (cd/dvd, hard drive, floppy and so on) but there is also a separate option for 'hard drive boot order'. Looks for the hard drive boot order and see what you can do there.
 
Also if you have a few bucks you could get pattition magic and that will allow you to change the order of the drives.
 
Thanks for the idea. I might do that if I can't do it manually myself. The computer weighs about 50 lbs and I can't move it myself in order to get the side panel off and get at things inside. One day this week, someone will be here to move it for me.
 
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