Microsoft Vista Ultimate 64-bit Boot Issue

[Headbanging247]

Hello everyone,

This is my first time posting on these forums and I'm looking for some help regarding a boot issue I'm having. I have already tried searching for my issue and I couldn't find what I was looking for so I decided that I would make a new topic regarding the matter.

Here are my computer specifications:

OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit OEM
Motherboard: Asus Rampage Formula
CPU: Q6600 2.4GHz Quad-Core
RAM: 8GB (4x2GB) DDR2 1066
Storage: 4x 500GB in Raid0 and 1x 750GB all connected via SATA cables
Graphics Card: Nvidia GTX 280 SSC Edition
PSU: 950W

Now for the details...

I downloaded and installed an overclocking utility that corresponds to my motherboard (ASUS AI Suite) and applied the overclocked values. I reboot the computer and it won't even boot up, it just hangs during the testing process. So I reset the computer and notice that it starts to boot up and I see my computer asking me to insert the Vista Installation Disc but before I really thought about it I reset my computer again thinking I could boot into Vista. Then during the boot process my computer tells me overclocking failed, please change your values or something like that. So I go into the BIOS and select "load setup values" which resets my BIOS. I then am able to boot into Vista and use the OS like I normally would. So I decided to remove the overclocking utility, run CCleaner, and reboot my computer. I reboot my computer and then this shows up:

"reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key"

At this point I'm thinking that I have something configured wrong within the BIOS so I decide to press the "clear cmos" button on the back of my machine to completely erase all of the BIOS settings and reset it to the default values. I then go into my BIOS and do the following:


SATA Configuration: Configure SATA as RAID

Boot Device Priority:
1st Device: RAID Intel Volume0
2nd Device: DVD-ROM
3rd Device: 1st Floppy Drive

Hard Disk Drives:
1st Drive: RAID Intel Volume0
2nd Drive: RAID ST750330AS which is the 750GB HDD

I also change my DRAM Frequency from DDR2 800 to DDR2 1066 which is what my RAM is. I apply the settings and reboot the computer. My computer reboots and passes all the tests and I still get:

"reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key"

So then I do some googling and I tried putting in the Vista Installation Disc to run Windows Repair and I have to select an OS but there is no OS listed. I can hit next and run Windows Repair and it'll say that its complete, reboot, but nothing happens after the reboot. My computer just shows a blank screen with the _ blinking. So I do some more googling and I try going through the Vista Installation Disc again to try to fix my MBR. However, if I don't see an OS how can I even use this feature. Again, I hit the next button even though I don't have an OS selected and run Bootrec.exe -> Bootrec/FixMbr and it says complete. I reboot and try to boot into Vista and it still doesn't work.

My friend told me to run Spinrite on my RAID configuration to diagnose the health of my HDD's to see if that may be causing the problem, but I haven't gotten a chance to do that yet and I wanted to see what replies I get first.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and any help would be greatly appreciated.

[ale52]

Have you tried just doing a clean install of Vista?

Alan <>< 

[nork]

ale52 makes a good point, thats also what i was thinking of.

I also think what may have happened to you is this:
You didnt really install vista completely and when you rebooted and reset the bios the first time then it booted to cd and vista came up as if it were installed but its only because the vista install dvd is in your cdrom. ITs happened to me a few times in win xp, same exact thing when i was doing an install but when the xp install cd was taken out of the cdrom then it wont boot up.

so just do the install again and just make sure your boot order is correct.  I have a lot of experience installing win xp pro and with some bios, especially with HP or Compaq pcs i have had to make only the cd the boot device and make no other boot devices. Some bios will let you do that others wont, depends on what bios and what version and depends on the mobo as well, many variables, mostly its the bios. From my experience its best to have only one boot device, the cdrom. Later, when os is installed you can change it. And dont worry it will boot to the hard drive even when you only have the cdrom as the boot device. All win os love to go to the hard drives.

I have installed win xp pro for others probably 500 times or more.

[Headbanging247]

This install of Vista has been working for almost a month now. I asked some relatives and friends and they said that when I pressed the clear cmos button it may of wiped my RAID configuration talking with the BIOS. The two things that I can think of is to run Spinrite and to update my BIOS to the latest version and if that doesn't work then I'll have to reload my computer, but only the RAIDED drives and the data on the 750GB will still be there just like the last time when I reloaded.

Any other ideas?

[Headbanging247]

I updated my BIOS to the latest version, reconfigured my RAID setup, and reinstalled Vista on the RAID. My computer worked up until I started installing my programs. I installed Alcohol 120%, rebooted, and then I started to have another MBR issue and I noticed that my RAID Utility had an error on one of the drives so I reconfigured the RAID setup and reloaded Vista. My computer worked for about a day and it froze while I was playing Call of Duty World at War so I had to do a hard reset. I reboot and my computer tells me "disk read error" so now I'm in the process of loading XP on every single drive with only one hard drive plugged in at a time via full format because Vista doesn't support full format, so if I have a faulty drive I can diagnose which one it is. Vista does a quick format automatically when creating a new partition. If I can boot into XP on every drive that was in RAID then the drives are fine and something may be wrong with my BIOS/Motherboard.

[Headbanging247]

I decided to format my other drives within XP and if no error comes back then my drives are good and something is wrong with my Bios/Motherboard. This is really getting old.

[ale52]

I've gotten burned with Asus motherboards twice.  Once a server in a tax office...at tax time [that was something memorable] and the second on my own computer.  I'm cured of using Asus again.  I wouldn't be surprised if it is indeed the motherboard.

Alan <>< 

[Headbanging247]

Sorry to hear that Alan. However, I updated my BIOS, RAID controller, and configured my RAID setup as RAID5 because I don't trust the drives atm. I also won't be installing Alcohol 120% considering that is what gave me an issue on my last try at this whole fiasco. I read on the net that Alcohol 120% is known to give Vista issues even though Vista is supported. I also overclocked via BIOS and am running at 3GHz atm by increasing the BIOS from 266 (1066) -> 333 (1333) and changed the DRAM Frequency to DDR2-1066.

So far so good. We'll see what happens.

[ale52]

Good luck

Alan <><