HD crash - unable to boot to Windows XP!

My sytem is set up like this--

1) Western Digital WD1200JD (120 gb SATA 7200RPM) as C:\
2) 2 36GB 10kRPM raptor drives in a raid 0 config partitioned D:\ and E:\

C:\ All my music/videos
D:\ WinXP + apps
E:\ Games

Recently my WD harddrive crashed, and I unplugged it from the mobo (it started making alot of noises/clicks... bad sign). When I try to boot up, my computer gives me the famous "Disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter." Sometimes it even throws me a hal32.dll error when I try to connect the HD to see if it'll quickly throw me into WinXP before failing. I think I've run it to failure -_-

Obviously my boot files (boot.ini etc) were located on my C:\ although XP is on D:\. In this case, I tried creating a bootcd (my floppy drive is not working) containing these files and tried to manually enter XP, but couldnt find the correct partition.

I tried entering my WinXP pro cd and using the Recovery Console, with bootcfg /list and /rebuild, but only received errors reporting nothing to be found. So, I tried a repair install, but the Windows XP cd cannot find it's installation: "(There is no disk in this drive.) "

Would FDISK be able to locate my raptor drives? How can I find out how to create a specific boot.ini for my WinXP location. ie:

multi(?)disk(?)rdisk(?)partition(?)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

Or, do I need a working C:\ drive before I can do anything about it? I ordered a brand new 400GB last week (still waiting on it).

Appreciate any help.

PS: I didnt build my computer, my dads networking friends did, and I have limited hardware experience, but I have an intermediate understanding for troubleshooting, so be somewhat easy on me


EDIT: Im at school reading up as much as I can about my problem... would the 'fixmbr' and 'fixboot' commands be something I need to lookup? or is that not required for my situation?

 

Hello hiimrb and welcome

What you need is a C partition, that's the only place the XP info in the form of the MBR/boot.ini can be written to/read from.

You could go thru the exercise of trying the fxmbr/fixboot commands thru the RC, but I don't think it'll work.

You're going to have to replace the bad drive, install XP on that. The other drives should be accessable after that.

I'm moving this thread to the Hardware section, the hardware mavens will look at this.

Regards - Charles

 

Use the WD utilities Lifeguard. At least that will tell you the physical condition of the drives.

Once RAID 0 is broken there is little that can be done. As a last resort I would try rebuilding the RAID array, but that could mean the end of your data. The procedure for making the RAID array should be in the motherboard manual. Read about RAID 0 on the internet.

You need to set up a backup system for your data or use one of the safe RAID systems. If you read about RAID 0 you will find this out.

Matt

 

hiimrb:

You've got a tough one pal - surferdude2 may be able to get you out of the woods with some of his magical prowess but that RAID 0 configuration with your system drive defeats a couple of tools I would have considered as possibilities. There may be some help for you here, but you might want to PM surferdude2 and get him into this thread. If D were a single drive, I'd suggest you run from a self contained linux CD or BartPE and copy the files surferdude2 referenced in the link to make a boot floppy but I don't think BartPE or the Ultimate Boot Disc or linux (knoppix) is going to read the RAID as such so you can extract what you need. However, its certainly worth a try and you're not going to mess anything up like you might by trying to FDisk the MBR.



Big Edit after Intense Head Scratching: The more I think about it, BartPE probably gives you the best shot at reading your RAID and it might even be able to pull what you need off your damaged C re:the files that are probably residing there - NTDETECT.COM - NTLDR - BOOT.INI

One big question remains - how did you get your OS over there onto D? Did you copy your OS from an image or clone another drive over there after you set up the RAID configuration?

More Editing: If you leave C alone and don't try to do anything with it, wait until your new drive comes in. Then put a couple of zip lock baggies on it and freeze it overnight. The following day, use something like Ghost and see if you can clone your existing C to your new drive. You might only get one or two cracks at it if its hosed but thats going to be your best shot at getting a one time read to clone it.