I have an ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard with 2 SATA drives in a RAID 0 array using the Intel ICH5R chipset as the RAID controller. Is SP unable to work with RAID volumes from the Recovery Environment bootable disk? It doesn't seem to be able to see mine. I can successfully backup the entire RAID drive using SP from within the Windows XP Pro operating environment. When I reboot, I go into the BIOS and diable the RAID function so that I can then connect my new single SATA drive that I am attempting to restore to. The problem is that every time I restore and then reboot the system to that disk it goes to a black screen with a blinking cursor in the top left corner of screen then freezes there. I have even tried using the HIR feature since I am going from RAID to non-RAID. BTW I am replacing 2 SATA 111.8GB drives in RAID 0 (total of 223.6GB) to a new Seagate SATA 1TB drive to no avail. Please help.

The recovery environment can see RAID volumes, but it sounds like it does not have the correct driver for your controller card. In fact, I think there are a few updates to some Intel storage controller drivers in the next release, so that may include the driver you need. In the mean time, you will need to load the driver manually. In the 2003-based recovery environment, you can load the driver from a floppy disk by pressing F6 when prompted during the boot process. In the Vista-based environment, you can load the driver from any source by going to the Tools menu and selecting Load Drivers. Once the driver is loaded, you may need to use the 'Refresh Volumes Info' link on the left before the volume will appear. As for the blinking cursor, that usually indicates an MBR problem. Try booting to your Windows CD and pressing 'R' to get to the recovery console. Once at the console, run the 'fixboot c:' and 'fixmbr' commands, and then reboot. That may solve the problem. -Kevin

Kevin:

...As for the blinking cursor, that usually indicates an MBR problem. Try booting to your Windows CD and pressing 'R' to get to the recovery console. Once at the console, run the 'fixboot c:' and 'fixmbr' commands, and then reboot. That may solve the problem. -Kevin

 Do I preform these steps after I have run the restore? (ie. after I restore and reboot to the new drive I see the blinking cursor, then reboot to xp cd and run recovery console and fixboot c: then fixmbr)

 As for the RAID thing, I originally used the Promise RAID capability of the motherboard(ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe) and was able to aquire the drivers off of the supplied cd to put on a floppy which was required for setup. However, I switched to the Intel RAID option that the board offers and I don't recall the cd included with the board having a way of getting the drivers onto floppy as it was not neccessary for inital setup. I will go dig out my cd and manual though and look again. I appreciate your help thus far and for your quick response. -- Thanks, Philip

OK, so I dug out my motherboard cd and manual to see about creating a floppy with the drivers for the intel RAID volume and found that it can be done. I then got out my floppy disk case to get a floppy for the process only to find that at some point in the past I had already created the floppy (I got to skip that step, :-) cool). So to make it short, I booted SP Recovery Environment and pressed F6 to load the drivers and the system is now performing a clean backup (so to speak) from the Recovery Environment to see if that will make a difference. Once this is finished I will format the new drive and try to restore again and see if that works. If not, I will wait to see when you say I need to perform the fixboot c: and the fixmbr. Again Thanks for everything. -- Philip

Phillip,

Yes, you are correct on the fixboot and fixmbr commands.  You should first do the restore, and then if you get the blinking cursor boot to the Windows CD and run the commands from the recovery console.  These steps are normally not necessary, but if the system is not booting properly they are a good way to work out MBR or boot issues.

Kevin

OK, after the most recent restore I was prepared to run those 2 utilities, but I did not get a blinking cursor this time. Instead I got the message

"NTLDR is missing

Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart"

This message comes everytime I restart. Should I still try to use those 2 utilities?

Thanks, Philip 

The boot order is as follows:
Hard disk -> MBR -> Boot sector -> NTLDR (NETDETECT.COM, NTFS.sy, Ntoskrnl.exe) -> OS (Windows XP) -> Applications

The error message: "NTLDR missing" can occur in a number of situations.
1) BIOS not looking/seeing correct boot disk
a) Make sure you loaded the storage driver when you ran the HIR function against the restored image. This can be done either during the restore process, or, after you have restored the image to the new disk
b) Make sure the BIOS is pointing to the correct boot disk (and associated controller if there is one)
c) Make sure you don't have a floppy disk in the floppy drive at boot up, or, a USB HD/flash drive plugged in (when the BIOS has these listed in the boot order)

2) Hard drive not marked as Active
Make sure the new HD with restored image on it is actually marked as Active. You can check this from the SP boot CD.

Check the above two items first. If you still have a problem the other possibilities are:

3) MBR missing, is corrupt, or, has incorrect partition table information
You can use fixmbr for this.

4) NTLDR, and potentially other boot files on boot partition (boot.ini, NETDETECT.COM) are missing or corrupt
This is pretty unlikely. The main time this occurs is when a person tries to restore the non boot partition of a dual-boot system (e.g. a PC with two WinXP installs, or WinXP and Vista etc.). You can copy these boot files off another system (they're normally hidden system files on top directory). Use a boot floppy and coppy the file(s) from the floppy to the boot partition on the new HD. If necessary edit the boot.ini file. An alternative is to boot the Windows XP CD and use the recovery environment.

 

 

Hello,

My problem with the "NTLDR is missing" was due to the fact that I forgot to unplug the external usb backup drive.  Now I only have the blinking cursor about an inch down from top left corner of screen. I ran the fixboot c: and fixmbr commands from the Windows CD Recovery Console to no avail. I am still getting the blinking cursor. What settings within the Restore Wizard should I set when starting a restore. I backed up Windows XP and am restoring to the same computer. Only diff. is that I am switching from two 112GB SATA drives in RAID 0 to a 1TB SATA drive non-RAID. The hard drives being switched from RAID to non-RAID is the only hardware change on the system, all other parts remain the same. Do I need to run HIR in this situation? Do I need to redo the restore with certain settings selected(as far as the Restore MBR: MBR from image or original XP MBR; Restore Disk Signature; Restore Disk Hidden Track; and/or HIR)? I'm totally stumped :-(

Thanks, Philip

The black-screen-blinking-cursor problem normally occurs when no boot code is being executed.

 

Yes, you will need to run SP HIR - you've just changed the storage driver.

 

Luckily SP makes it easy for you: You can run the HIR function as part of the restore process, or, if you forget (it happens), you can run HIR option after you have restored an image. When you run the HIR function, SP will try to find and insert the correct storage driver for you. This will allow you to boot the system. However, it is good practice for you to then updated that driver to the latest version when you successfully boot up the PC. A better approach, is to actually download the latest storage driver for your motherboard now (you need a *.sys and *.inf file). You can then use it during the HIR process.

 

Regarding the restore options, here's some general pointers:

- MBR: Unless you haver a customized MBR (pre-boot disk encrypted HD), then you normally won't need to select the restore-mbr option 
- Hidden tracks: Same answer as above - generally no need for this
- Disk signatures: As you are restoring to a *different* HD in the *same* PC do **NOT** restore the Disk Signature.

 

What you need to do:

1) Boot into the BIOS configuration screen. Make sure the BIOS is detecting the HD and make sure you understand what controller it is attached to. Make sure that the controller (my guess is an onboard Intel ICHx or Promise chipset) is NOT configured to use RAID. Set the SATA to "SATA as IDE" (also called "IDE emulation, "legacy", or, "ACPI"). (Generally, if you can see the HD in the SP disk management view of the SP boot CD, then the chances are that the BIOS is configured O.K.).

 

2) Then check the boot order and make sure the PC is going to try to boot off that controller.

 

3) Boot the SP recovery CD. Try the Vista-based version first, rather than the 'legacy' option.

 

4) Make sure you can see the new HD in the disk-management view of SP. If you can, then the SP boot CD has found a suitable driver for the HD. This is a good start. However, it does *not* mean that the OS, when it boots up, will have the correct driver installed (it will not).

 

5) Make sure the the partition that has been restored is marked as Active. It should also be a Primary partition. If it is marked as anything else, such as "Log", then it won't boot.

 

6) Select the HIR function and hard disk you have just restored your backup image on to. If you have a storage driver then tell HIR that you want to load that driver. HIR will prompt you for the location of the *.sys and *.inf files. They can be on a USB drive or floppy.

 

7) Let SP do its thing.

If you are still having problems, just leave another note.

 

 

 Please add my name to the list of those who cannot see their RAID arrays in the VistaPE Recovery Environment.  Intel controller SRCSATAWB.  LSI megasas.sys driver in use (tried LSI megaSR.sys too).  Two RAID0 and one RAID5 arrays.  "Load Driver" reports successful, but drives do not show up in the Drive Map even after a refresh.  Did not try legacy environment.

 BTW, the recovery CD has the proper drivers already, but neither those included drivers nor the copy of the drivers that are used on my system in Vista allow the RAID disks to be seen, even after a forced loading of the drivers.

Thanks,

-Jeff

There really is no list of people who cannot see RAID. This isn't Acronis, nor for that matter Norton.
It's extremely uncommon, not impossible, but unlikely.

What motherboard are you using?
Which version of the Recovery Environment are you using - is it v3.3? And presumably not the IT Edition.
Please try the Legacy version and see if that makes a difference. Sometimes it does.

 

 

FTTester:

There really is no list of people who cannot see RAID.

Well, even if it is a very, very short list, it's still a list. :)

FTTester:

This isn't Acronis, nor for that matter Norton.

Acronis and Paragon are why I'm here, with my shiny, new license to ShadowProtect. :)

FTTester:

What motherboard are you using?

Intel DS400XS

FTTester:

Which version of the Recovery Environment are you using - is it v3.3? And presumably not the IT Edition.
Please try the Legacy version and see if that makes a difference. Sometimes it does.

The ReadMe file on the burned disc image is titled, "StorageCraft ShadowProtect 3.3 Server Edition/Small Business Server Edition/Desktop Edition" and date September 2008.

EDIT: I just re-read Nate's post on dual-boot and incrementals.  I answered my own question.  The Recovery Environment handles the incremental changes for me - no worries there. 

-Jeff 

PS - (For those reading this topic later on, here is the question that I was able to answer for myself: "Before I try the legacy version, will loading up the Recovery Environment mess up my incrementals?  IOW, will changes to the volumes, made just by accessing them, get overlooked by stcvsm.sys while I'm in the RE?  I didn't see that driver file among the drivers on the recovery CD.")

 UPDATE: No joy with the Legacy version, either.  I guess it's time to start a support ticket.

 

Curious: FTTester - are you an employee of StorageCraft?  Or just a really knowledgeable user?  You've posted an incredible amount of very useful info across the forum.

 -Jeff

Ah, Acronis and Paragon. So cheap and shiny....been there, done that.

Intel D5400XS, right? Interesting m/b.

You are using two separate RAID controller cards: Intel SRCSATAWB and some LSI RAID card. Which LSI card?
You're not using any of the onboard RAID controllers? 
Which card controls do you have the installed OS on (I'm presuming the one running the RAID 5)?
Vista 64?
What versions of the drivers are you trying to load?

Regarding multi-boot - just make sure you install SP on BOTH boot partitions, evenn if you can only activate on one (the one you use the most).

The onboard Marvell RAID controller has no disks attached to it.

The Intel SRCSATA28E Controller is the only controller in the box besides the onboard Marvell.  Vista 64 reports that the controller is an Intel RAID controller manufactured by LSI Corp.  Drivers are listed as being provided by LSI.

Here's the disk layout:

1. SATA System disk connected to the mobo.

2. and 3.  SATA disks configured as RAID 0.

3. and 4. SATA disks configured as RAID 0.

5. SATA Data disk in a 5-disk hot-swappable bay (the 2 left slots are connected to the mobo).

6. One bay slot empty (for now).

7. 8. and 9. SATA disks configured as RAID 5 (the 3 right slots are connected to the RAID controller).

 

Running Vista 64 SP1 with 2x Quad Core Xeon E5420 @ 2.5 GHz and 16 GB RAM.

 (I own a small video editing company and we'll be moving to Hi Def next year)

 Driver version 2.13.0.64

-Jeff