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Invalid Raid Drive

I just tried booting my PC today and got an invalid raid drive error.

If I let the PC try to continue to boot, it will get to the PCI device listing and then give the message

NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart

I'm hoping I might be able to fix this instead of having to completely re-install windows.

If anyone can help provide some guidance, it would be immensely appreciated.

I'm using Windows XP Professional and I have two SATA western digital hard-drives setup in a Raid 1 configuration.

Please let me know what additional information I can provide to help troubleshoot.

Thanks in advance for any help.

mgob

NTLDR is a common issue with windows, it sounds like one of your drives went band and the one that went bad had the boot loader on the MBR and that's why this isn't working now. That's just off the cuff but I think that's what happened.

What kind of raid controller are you using? can you check and see if the it is degraded?

sullivanr6

I would first try rebuild your NTLDR, you need to boot a windows disk and enter into "recovery console". Is your RAID integrated to your mobo, or do you have a controller? Depending on your config, you may need to press F6, and install the RAID drivers in order for windows to detect your hardware correctly.

...once you get into your recovery console, you need to do a rebuild or copy your NTLDR files back to your windows partition.

in recovery console;
c:\copy d:\i386\ntldr
c:\exit
..then for good measure i would also do a "fix boot", and "fix mbr"

-J

-Dman100-

ASKER

Hi thanks for replying to my post.

I went into the recovery console and copied over ntldr to the c: drive. and did a fixboot.

Now, when the PC starts to boot normally, but then shows the following:

Press <ctrl-s> or f4 to enter raid utility
No valide device! Press any key to continue

If I don't do anything, the PC just restarts and does the same thing. It is in an endless re-boot cycle?

How can I check what type of raid controller I have?

Not sure what to do now? I just turned off my PC until I hear back.

sullivanr6

your using hardware RAID, as opposed to software RAID... Which is a good thing :)

You need to rebuild your array, press control-s and enter into the RAID config utility and see if you have any options to "rebuild" your degraded array. don't do anything that requires you to format your existing config, the options you see in this menu are also used to setup a new RAID, which you don't want ...atleast at this point.

are you using a controller, (a PCI, or PCI-X card installed in your systems bus), or are your harddisks directly connected to the mobo?

J

-Dman100-

ASKER

Hi sullivanr6,

When I go into the Raid Configuration Utility by pressing <ctrl-s> or f4, I have the following options.

Main Menu:
Create RAID set
Delete RAID set
Rebuild RAID1 set
Resolve Conflicts
Low Level format
Logical Drive Info

Under the Physical Drive section I have:
1 WDC WD740ADFD-00NLR1

Under the Logical Drive section I have:
Invalid RAID Drive

I tried selecting Rebuild RAID1 set, which gave me the following message:
RAID1 set only. Press any key to return.

I click the spacebar and nothing happens, which tells me I don't have a RAID1, but rather a RAID0

So, any ideas of what I can do? Am I stuck? Do I have to re-install my OS and re-build the RAID?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

sullivanr6

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