Onboard Promise controller and NTLDR

[farphle 0]

Hey guys,

 

I just installed an MSI BX Master mobo and can't get WIN2K to boot while on the UDMA66 controller. My system is dual boot with WIN98 and WIN2K (on seperate partitions). WIN98 will boot just fine. WIN2K has the Promise drivers installed (done during setup) but all I get is "NTLDR is missing...". I would really appreciate any help on this. I hate having good controllers on my board that I can't use!

 

Specs are:

Microstar BX MAster (Intel 440BX)

PIII 600EB

256Mb PC-100 SDRAM

Maxtor 20GB

HP 8250i CDRW

Memorex 48x CDROM

Diamond Stealth 3 S540 Xtreme (POS, I know)

Soundblaster Live Value

Diamond SupraExpress PCI modem

D-Link 10/100 NIC

[kgeissler 0]

Are the partions on the same drive or 2 partions on 2 seperate drives?

[farphle 0]

The partitions are on the same drive.

[kgeissler 0]

Try booting with the boot disks and running a repair of the installation. That should put back the ntldr.

[tpe 0]

Hope this does not sound patronising, but do you have boot from scsi first set in bios?

[farphle 0]

The setting in the bios is set to boot from ATA66,SCSI. I have to disable the primary UDMA33 controller, then tell the primary ATA66 controller to boot ATA66,SCSI. I've tried changing it to SCSI,ATA66 but it made no difference.

 

When the drive is connected to the UDMA33 controller everything boots just fine.

[farphle 0]

I will try the repair tonight.

[kgeissler 0]

When I had my Promise Ultra 66 controller installed, I didn't have to disable the onboard IDE. I could use them both.

[farphle 0]

All is fixed! The HDD mode was set to CHS in the bios so the Promise controller couldn't read it. All I had to do was set it to LBA, format both partitions and reinstall everything. Damn, what a pain.