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RAID1 "NTLDR not found" ASUS Mother + Graphics card Fail

757 views 6 replies 3 participants last post by  DavisMcCarn 
#1 ·
Hi
I have the following system

ASUS P5KR motherboard
ATI Sapphire HD 2600 XT
two 500gb HD in RAID1
Windows XP Home Edition

The computer would not boot up. The motherboard had failed
I purchased another P5KR and subsitituted it
I booted and the graphics card was not working
discovered the Graphics card failed
I purchased another HD 2600XT
Booted the sytem and found that the screen was almost unreadable so I inserted an ild VGA card and I weas able to access the system but all my files were not available
I remembered taht the RAID1 had not been set so I entered the BIOS and set it to RAID from IDE
Now it does not boot and comes up with
NTLDR not found

I went into BIOS gain and pressed CTRL I to display the utility manager.
I have attached a photo of what it says

Can anyone of you experts and tinkerers help please?

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#3 ·
The BIOS raid utility should have warned you it would destroy all of the data on the drives when it created the array and that is exactly what happened. If you are absolutely sure it was a RAID1 setup before the hardware failure, it should be possible to recover the data; but, it won't be possible to make it boot again.
If you want to pursue that, you'll need to buy another drive to install Windows on leaving the original two completely unplugged while you get that done.
If you'd rather just get it working again, you need to install a fresh Windows on the RAID1 array you already created.
 
#4 ·
Davis thanks for your reply.
I am 100% sure it was a RAID1 before the motherboard failed.
I thought all I needed to do is to replace the motherboard and ..bingo! Not so!
If I go in the BIOS and change the setting to IDE drives, I can see the two hard disks but I am not sure I am seeing all the files that were there.
Is windows the real problem? The authentication would have been done on some code on the motherboard so by changing the motherboard I have to reactivate the operating system?
If I set the BIOs to RAID I get the missing NDLR
I think I am over RAID on motherboards. I just want all the files and then I will get a dedicated NAS
 
#5 · (Edited)
Onboard raid is pretty much useless. Raid is for servers, NAS systems, etc. This is one of the primary reasons why I always tell people 'If you want raid, buy a real raid card"
With a real raid card, you simply install windows, install the raid card and driver, connect your drives and the data is there. Done.
I would do what was recommended above; get another drive and install windows [with the intel controller set to raid] Once done, you should be able to connect your drives and import the array. Your data files should still be there unless you attempted to recreate the array. Some high end real raid controllers can create an array without destroying the data however not onboard or motherboard raid.
 
#6 ·
The might be off the subject however why invest money into that old of hardware? The motherboard was released over 10yrs ago and that is many lifetimes in the tech world. It is not cost effective to attempt to repair that old of hardware.
As far as installing windows and activating, you just install with your install CD and use the key on the CD. It should activate without a problem unless you have just recently done an install/activation with your key. You may have to call microsoft however that is not a big deal.
You do understand that support for xp ended quite a while ago.
 
#7 ·
RAID1 is called a "mirror", meaning that both drives are synced to each other on the fly so that you Windows, Programs, and files are all identical. However, recreating the RAID using the BIOS erases the old configuration information and, in the process, clobbers the links to the rest of the filesystem which is why you are getting the NTLDR (Windows boot file) missing error. It has nothing to do with Windows activation, at all.
If your PC had a legitimate copy of Windows XP installed there should be a Microsoft license sticker somewhere on the outside of the PC. If there isn't one, I hate to say it; but the Windows installation was ill gotten and you won't be able to star fresh to fix things.
Do you have access to another PC you could connect one of the drives to? (You don't need both as they are copies of each other)
If you do, use the cables from the DVD drive to connect of the drives, boot the PC, and go look in <whatever drive letter it appears as>:\Documents and Settings\<your user name>\My Documents to see if your stuff is still there.
If it is, make a copy of those files.(!!!) If it is not, we need to use a data recovery tool to find them.
 
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