CDsDontBurn

I'm working on this Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop for a client of mine and I've already gotten Windows Vista installed on it and everything. I get both service packs installed and most of the drivers installed as well. So far only the chipset, display, LAN, WiFi, audio, and built-in modem drivers are installed. I still need to install drivers for other misc. Dell related stuff.

So basically what is happening is what I described in the title of the thread. The system will only boot if the Vista install disk is inserted into the optical drive. If I remove it, it will give me an error saying "No boot disk found. Please insert boot disk and try again".

I am thinking that the SATA driver must not have taken when I did the install for whatever reason. The weird part about it though is that the install process NEVER asked for a SATA driver to be installed. This is what has me confused about this whole thing right now.

Is there anything that can be done about this that will allow the system to boot up no problem? I don't mind reinstalling Vista if I have to. There's nothing really of importance on this machine that will keep me from performing another installation.

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Takaharu

Have you checked the boot priority? Some systems are fussy and need the first boot device to be the HDD.

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CDsDontBurn

Of course!

The HDD is set as the primary boot device in BIOS. And even if I hit the F12 key on POST to select a bootable device, if I select the HDD it will still give me the same problem.

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Tyrsonswood

Is it marked as "active"?

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CDsDontBurn

IDK. I'll have to check when I get home. It should be though since it's the drive with the OS on it. Doesn't the Windows installation process do that for you already while Windows is getting installed?

If I do have to do this, then this will be the first time I've ever needed to do this from a fresh install of Windows.

I know what you mean though. I have to do this at work when I work with Windows Embedded 2009.

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Tyrsonswood

It "should"...... doesn't mean there wasn't a hiccup and it didn't. Also is there a BIOS setting for IDE/AHCI......? Set that to IDE

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CDsDontBurn

Yes there was, and I have it set to AHCI as that was the default setting in the BIOS. I thought it was going to ask for a SATA driver if I had it set to AHCI, but it never did, so I continued with the Windows install.

That might be the problem, wouldn't it?

And why have it set to IDE and not AHCI? Isn't IDE mode supposed to be slower than AHCI?

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Tyrsonswood

It is slower but compatible, and yes it doesn't have the driver so that's why it won't boot. It should boot set to IDE and then you can manually upgrade to AHCI once it's booting in IDE mode.

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CDsDontBurn

Gotcha.

Yea, while I was waiting for a reply, I was reading about IDE vs AHCI modes and I found a website explaining it.

AHCI vs IDE ? Benchmark & Advantage Expertester

How to enable AHCI without reformating. Expertester

The second link shows that I have to do a registry modification to get AHCI to work. Is this true or has it been fixed in Vista sp2? If it has been fixed in Vista sp2, I'll just do it from there.

What would happen to the OS if I set it to AHCI after installing Windows and not doing the registry modification?

BTW, it was set to AHCI while I installed Vista. Guess I'll have to reinstall Windows again!

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Tyrsonswood

Not sure about Vista...... Seems when I did it in XP the registry thing didn't work but going to device manager and updating the driver for the SATA port manually, then switching to AHCI in BIOS on reboot did the trick. (It could take all 3 as the REGhack was still in place.) I didn't need to re-install the OS.

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CDsDontBurn

Ok, so I just did another install with the HDD controller set to IDE mode and no-gp. The same thing still happens. I'm going to try the Active partition thing next.

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Judas

Format the entire drive..

low level format if you can... (i find dell tends to use WD drives... so getting a bootable WD diagnostic disc shouldn't be an issue)

The only time i've seen that happen is when there is a boot manager virus or something.... OR if the master boot record gets messed up.. and frankly dell loves to screw around with hardrives and put hidden partitions and whatever.

either way... "SOMETHING" is tell the computer that there isn't a bootable OS on the hardrive.... some either drive letter, or the boot manager or a screwed hardrive may even be the case.

Oh and another thing.. your not using the DELL supplied OS disk are you? If you are... grab an OEM copy of Microsoft Vista and burn the dell disk asap.

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CDsDontBurn

This particular unit has a Seagate HDD. I'm thinking of using another HDD to install Windows to that I have as spare and keeping this one. I might try the low level format thing too.

For all I know, it might be the "recovery" partition that is causing this to happen if it's based on what you are saying.

And of course I'm not using the Dell Windows Disk. I have my own OEM copy of Vista and I'm just plugging in their product key when prompted to do so. I'm also tempted of using my own product key for Vista to see if that will do anything.

Oh, I also installed winXP Pro sp3 to see if the install process would ask for a SATA driver but it didn't. I did the install in IDE/ATA mode and it recognized the disk no problem during the install process. Once I was on desktop, I restarted the laptop to see what would happen, and the same thing again.

Like I just said though, I will try another HDD to see what happens. I'll also try the low level format of the entire HDD.

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Tyrsonswood

Seatools for DOS, a bootable ISO will low level that drive.

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CDsDontBurn

Running Seatools right now. The diagnostics test at least. I didn't see a low level format option though. I'll have to check when the diagnostic test is over.

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Tyrsonswood

Long test is low level

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CDsDontBurn

Well, I just tried installing Vista on to a spare 160GB Toshiba drive I have and nothing. I still need the disk inserted in order to boot into the OS.

I'm now thinking that this is either a controller issue or driver issue. If it's a driver issue, I need to find a way to load the SATA driver during the OS install process.

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Tyrsonswood

Install when it asks for a RAID or SCSI driver..... even though it isn't, technically.


You really shouldn't have to though, and it's installing and sees, read/writes to the drive fine, correct? It just won't boot off of it.....

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OldBuzzard

vLite:
Download - vLite - Windows Vista configuration tool

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When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

CDsDontBurn

I know I shouldn't have to.

And yes, it sees the drive just fine when I go to select a disk to install Windows to. It doesn't matter if it's Vista or WinXP sp3, or a different HDD. It will not boot off the HDD unless the OS install disk is inserted into the optical drive tray with the tray inserted.

I have it. I might have to use it. But first I have to find the correct SATA driver.

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CDsDontBurn

So last night before going to bed I attempted to install the SATA driver during OS install procedure and still nothing.

The last thing to do is take out the HDD and make sure it's set to "Active". And if that doesn't work, then I'll just tell the client what is going on because I really won't know at that point.

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Judas

long test is a low level sector by sector scan... doesn't format..

to low level format in seatools... click advanced and then select full disk erase

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Judas

btw....

make sure in the bios to set the hd performance to either "performance or bypass"... i had a case where anything but would result in weird hardrive issues.. like it was going into standby irratically..

Additionally... if you can set in the bios the hardrive to ACHI/RAID... do it....

It's an intel ICHxR chipset?

Vista/win7 don't generally need the driver to install.. but if set to sata/raid... guarantee that windows xp will..

change boot order too.....

make sure USB devices are unplug or pulled..... (flash cards in one of the flash card reader slots have a habit of killing booting in strange ways sometimes)

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CDsDontBurn

So this is the reason why the HDD wasn't formatted but it came back with a few bad sectors error on the report.

Anybody know approximately how long a low level format will take on a 250GB HDD?

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Judas

if it had bad sector..... throw the drive away....

i don't care what anyone says... attempting repairs on bad sector doesn't work.....

I've had so MANY drives that once they show bad sectors.. completely fail within a short period of time.

Grab a new drive.... it's worth it even if it's 80 bucks or whatever....

Low level format on a 250gb hardrive can be anywhere from 2 hours to 24 hours .....

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CDsDontBurn

I had played around with that and nothing. So I changed it back to the default setting which is the performance mode.

I set it from the default ACHI to IDE/ATA mode and nothing, so I put it back to ACHI mode.

Yes, it's an Intel ICH8R chipset. On the last install I did, I updated the SATA driver during the OS install process with the driver from Intel's website. I'm going to try the Dell SATA driver next and see what that does.

I only tried one winXP install and it didn't require the SATA driver. But I'm pretty sure that was because it was set to ATA/IDE mode when I did the install. You're right though, Vista hasn't asked for a SATA driver even ACHI mode but I did give it the newer one on the last install.

Boot order is currently set to:

1. HDD
2. Optical
3. USB Device
4. (I forget what it is)

There are no external devices plugged into any of the available USB ports or anything.

I'll do a low level format on the HDD when I get home. I'm not spending any money on this thing unless my client wants to, and she's already upset at the price I'm charging her for this fix.

If it takes as long as the thorough scan with Seatools took, it'll be about 2hrs.

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Judas

it usually takes a smidge longer then the thorough scan because it's writing instead of reading. and it may attempt to repair the sectors and even if it says that it was able to repair and pass..... they'll be bad usually the next scan again anyways... useless..

IDE/PATA mode on sata connectors doesn't require drivers because it's just a standard IDE drive and treats it as such..

i always install all my system with either ACHI or Raid mode.... and then install the latest Rapid Storage Controller Drivers from intel (which are quite recent for anything ich7R and up)

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CDsDontBurn

I FIXED IT!!!

It was a stupid BIOS setting regarding the boot order. The BIOS seems to only allow devices with a number, 1 - 4, be a bootable device. So even though you have manually set the boot order the way you want it, that particular device will not be bootable unless you tell the BIOS to give it a number.

Basically I had arranged the device sequence to make the HDD the first bootable device but since I had not given the HDD a number, the POST sequence was totally skipping the HDD and gathering the required files from the Vista install disk to continue the boot process instead of doing that directly from the HDD.

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Judas

uh yes...... i was going to suggest resetting the bios to defaults and then recheck the boot order and make sure each is given a number

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CDsDontBurn

But you didn't, so I fixed it.

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