Vista won't boot if the CD isn't in the drive?!?

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soloz2

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 19, 2006
Messages
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Alright so I finally got around to reinstalling vista after my first attempt about 3 weeks ago.
Basically here's a recap of my 1st attempt:

I had 2 250GB drives and wanted 1 for vista and 1 for xp. I had to go into BIOS to choose which drive was boot to switch OS, but shortly after installing Vista on my 2nd drive it wouldn't boot bc it was missing a file or something like that. thread here:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1164586

Fast forward to today:

I really needed a fresh install of XP anyway so I decided to just RAID my 2 250GB drives and partition the drives. I have 3 partitions, 1 for Vista, 1 for XP and 1 bc I've been toying with the idea of messing around with Linux for a while now and wanted to plan accordingly.

So I backed up what I needed backed up and I RAIDed my 2 drives. I then went to install Vista on the 1st partition but I got a boot screen asking me which OS I wanted (only Vista showed up) but I didn't have any OS installed... so there must have been a reminant on my data drive or something?
I got it to boot from the CD and I did a fresh install of Vista (I have the upgrade disc so fresh install followed by updating the original install)
Now I still get the boot screen with 2 copies of Vista showing. The first one will boot but the 2nd will now.

Now, here's for the crazy part.... If I take out my Vista disc my computer will not boot! It wants to boot from the Vista disc even though I installed Vista on my Hdd. What gives?
 
my BIOS is set to boot from my RAID array so the fix shouldn't be caused by that
 
Update:

Alright, I think I figured out what the problem is, well that's the first step right?

I ran the start recovery and it appears that Vista doesn't know where it's installed! it shows 2 versions, one on my Data drive and the other in an unknown location... it's actually on C drive (RAID array) but I don't think Vista knows where it is... so that's why it needs the disc to boot from then it can run itself once it's started. (I'm in Vista now...)


So, how do I tell Vista where it's installed?
 
I think, when you install Vista, it puts boot data on the non-system drive; so when it tries to look for it it can't actually find it. I'd just install it with only one hard drive attached.
 
I'm thinking I might have to... I did spend over an hour talking w/ microsoft tech support last night but I'll need to call them today to get their 'pro' support
 
Mansize_tissue said:
I think, when you install Vista, it puts boot data on the non-system drive; so when it tries to look for it it can't actually find it. I'd just install it with only one hard drive attached.
Click to expand...


This is exactly the problem I ran into. That boot data drive cannot be formatted, either, to use as you want.

Big pain in the butt, really.

I tried to install it onto a single drive, with only one drive attached. It didn't work until I plugged in the second drive. Weird issue, perhaps some clusters were bad or something, you may get different results. All I know is this is something I wouldn't mind Microsoft changing.
 
yeah I'm not really sure what happened other then it was all F***d up! lol. I talked with a Microsoft Tech support person via IM for over an hour last night and he wasn't able to help so he gave me a phone # to call today, but when I got up I had an email from another tech support from their 'pro' techies. LOL. you can't find fault in them for trying!

so anyway the next guy wanted me to rebuild the whole boot file and told me how to do that... but the problem with that was the utility couldn't find my Vista install.

In the end I just redid my RAID array and reinstalled Vista. I finished about an hour ago and have been updating/installing drivers/programs and all that fun stuff that needs to be done to a fresh install. It seems to be working now. I've rebooted several times and it's worked flawlessly thus far.

Oh, I did unplug my data drive during installation so as not to get Vista confused again :D
 
soloz2 said:
Oh, I did unplug my data drive during installation so as not to get Vista confused again :D
Click to expand...

Yep, this seems like the best solution. I must remember to make sure i only have one of my raptors connected when i install Vista in a couple of months.
 
This happened to me as well. All I did was unplug my other hard drive, boot windows, then after one boot I was able to re plug in the other drive.
 
well I've restarted about 10 times now since re-installing Vista (upgrade so u have to install it 2x for a clean install) and all seems well.

Thanks to those who helped and I'll post if anything else changes
 
I'm currently having a similar problem and I'm glad I came across this thread.

I have an Areca RAID card with a RAID0 array for my system and I also have a 500GB SATA drive connected to the Mobo for data.

After I installed Vista on the RAID0 array, I couldn't boot without a bootable CD/DVD in the CD drive... If I removed the disc, reordered the boot devices, or anything, I get "System Disk Not Found". If I put any bootable CD in the drive and reboot and let it just bypass booting from the CD it will boot fine.

I will have to try unplugging the 500GB drive from the system and restarting to see if that fixes it. Otherwise, I may have to reinstall Vista with only the RAID array connected.

Another tip that this might have been the problem is when I had Vista installed, and wanted to change the drive letter on my 500G data drive, Vista wouldn't let me saying it was a "System Parition"... I was like WTF? How did that ever happen?... Now I know.

I'll try fixing this later today and report back. Thank God for [H] forums!
 
yeah, I got mine all fixed. I contacted Microsoft and they had me jump through loops and try to rebuild the boot file, but the problem was that the repair programs simply could not locate a boot file at all. Somehow Vista must not have installed one.

I rebuilt my RAID array, unplugged my data hdd and reinstalled Vista. It's worked flawlessly since then.

I did have to activate Vista to get free support from Microsoft... even though I fixed it w/o their help...

I did find one useful piece of information. I'll quote from an email I just got today:

Dear xxxx,



Thank you for your reply.



I understand that we have performed a Clean Install and need reactivate the Windows Vista. You would like to know how many times we can activate Vista.



Windows can be activated any number of times, but your re-activation experience will vary based on the way you acquired Windows.



1. If you acquired Windows Vista via retail purchase (boxed product), you may activate via the Internet the first five times. Subsequent activations are allowed but must be completed via telephone. The Microsoft Activation Center can be reached at 1-866-740-1256 or 1-866-455-5003.



2. If you acquire Windows Vista pre-installed on a computer, re-installation would not require additional activation steps unless significant hardware changes were made. You can reinstall Windows on the same computer as many times as you want because activation pairs the Windows product key with information about your computer’s hardware. If you make a significant hardware change, you might have to activate Windows again.

Your feedback is very important. I look forward to the results of the suggestions above, at your earliest convenience. If anything is unclear, or if there are any questions please do not hesitate to let me know. I will be glad to help.



I look forward to your reply.



Best Regards,



Gillian xxxxxx
Click to expand...
 
zacdl said:
This is exactly the problem I ran into. That boot data drive cannot be formatted, either, to use as you want.

Big pain in the butt, really.

I tried to install it onto a single drive, with only one drive attached. It didn't work until I plugged in the second drive. Weird issue, perhaps some clusters were bad or something, you may get different results. All I know is this is something I wouldn't mind Microsoft changing.
Click to expand...

I had this exact problem with my RAID0 Install. I even have an open ticket with MS as I've rebuilt and reproduced the issue on another PC several times. They haven't stated whether this is a fubar, repairable (IF a SP1 is forthcoming), Update-able (doubt it) or just something Sys Admins (and SOHO/Home users) should be aware of.
 
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