Boot drive order - settings won't stick

Hi all,

I've had an ASUS A8N-E for a year or two, and since day one it's always been
finicky about its bootup sequence. I've tried a lot of different things
when I had an hour to kill here and there, but my patience is finally
wearing thin.

First problem:

It'll always try to boot from the wrong drive if I let it decide on its own.
I have 3 SATA drives, and two IDE ones. None of them are RAIDed, nor do I
use any proprietary driver beyond what's included with the OS.

The OSes (XP 32-bit and 64-bit, each on their own C: and D: partitions) are
installed on the first SATA drive (with the connector identified as SATA#0),
only the system always insists on trying to boot off some other drive (and
failing with a "no operating system found, press a key to retry" message),
so I always have to hit F8 when I power it up or reset it, and manually
select the SATA drive--even though it's the very first entry in the list.
As far as I can tell, the BIOS won't let me permanently choose the boot
drive order beyond the basic CD/Floppy/Hard drive sequence (without letting
me choose *which* hard drive, and I'm guessing it's defaulting to the first
IDE drive).

XP's disk manager lists the drives as follows:

Disk 0 = primary master (IDE) <-- just a data drive
Disk 1 = primary slave (IDE) <-- just a data drive
Disk 2 = SATA #2 <-- just a data drive
Disk 3 = SATA #0 <-- the OSes are installed on this drive
Disk 4 = SATA #1 <-- just a data drive

I'll be damned if I can figure out why the SATA drives are enumerated in
that order, but so be it (the numbers I wrote above correspond to the
physical SATA connector number).

My boot.ini file (on C:, the XP 32-bit partition) contains the following:

[boot loader]
timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP
Professional x86 Edition (250GB SATA)" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /PAE
/BOOTLOG /usepmtimer
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP
Professional x64 Edition (250GB SATA)" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
/usepmtimer

As you can see XP x64 is my preferred default.

If I physically disconnect *all* the drives except for SATA#0, the silly
thing won't identify an OS at all. Whatever change I try to do while in
that state (rebuilding the MBR from the recovery console, etc) seems to have
no effect once I put the other drives back in. Surely that's a strong hint
right there, but I'm not sure how to go about fixing the problem,and "making
it stick" once the other drives are back in.



Second problem:

I thought I might have a small chance getting that problem fixed by flashing
the BIOS from version 1011 (what the MB came with) to 1013, but now my
bootup sequence is even more screwed up. From a cold start, I have to:

- power on
- everything starts spinning, but 19 times out of 20 I won't have a display
or even a beep. When that happens, I have to:
- hold down the power button for 4-5 seconds so it powers off
- power back on
- now it'll proceed to boot as normal. By "normal", I mean, it'll count
memory, enumerates the drives, etc, but I still have to hit F8 to select the
correct drive.

If can I fix *one* of these problems I would consider that an improvement...

Try changing the Boot.ini of only one OS to read "disk(3)",,,,,leave
everything else alone and then reboot and see if it will boot into that
OS...........................if it does then you need to change the other OS
Boot.ini .
If it does not boot to the OS you have not changed and change the other OS's
Boot.ini file back.
peter
"Homer J. Simpson" <root@127.0.0.1> wrote in message
news:...
> Hi all,
>
> I've had an ASUS A8N-E for a year or two, and since day one it's always
> been finicky about its bootup sequence. I've tried a lot of different
> things when I had an hour to kill here and there, but my patience is
> finally wearing thin.
>
> First problem:
>
> It'll always try to boot from the wrong drive if I let it decide on its
> own. I have 3 SATA drives, and two IDE ones. None of them are RAIDed, nor
> do I use any proprietary driver beyond what's included with the OS.
>
> The OSes (XP 32-bit and 64-bit, each on their own C: and D: partitions)
> are installed on the first SATA drive (with the connector identified as
> SATA#0), only the system always insists on trying to boot off some other
> drive (and failing with a "no operating system found, press a key to
> retry" message), so I always have to hit F8 when I power it up or reset
> it, and manually select the SATA drive--even though it's the very first
> entry in the list. As far as I can tell, the BIOS won't let me permanently
> choose the boot drive order beyond the basic CD/Floppy/Hard drive sequence
> (without letting me choose *which* hard drive, and I'm guessing it's
> defaulting to the first IDE drive).
>
> XP's disk manager lists the drives as follows:
>
> Disk 0 = primary master (IDE) <-- just a data drive
> Disk 1 = primary slave (IDE) <-- just a data drive
> Disk 2 = SATA #2 <-- just a data drive
> Disk 3 = SATA #0 <-- the OSes are installed on this drive
> Disk 4 = SATA #1 <-- just a data drive
>
> I'll be damned if I can figure out why the SATA drives are enumerated in
> that order, but so be it (the numbers I wrote above correspond to the
> physical SATA connector number).
>
> My boot.ini file (on C:, the XP 32-bit partition) contains the following:
>
> [boot loader]
> timeout=20
> default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOW S
> [operating systems]
> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP
> Professional x86 Edition (250GB SATA)" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /PAE
> /BOOTLOG /usepmtimer
> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP
> Professional x64 Edition (250GB SATA)" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
> /usepmtimer
>
> As you can see XP x64 is my preferred default.
>
> If I physically disconnect *all* the drives except for SATA#0, the silly
> thing won't identify an OS at all. Whatever change I try to do while in
> that state (rebuilding the MBR from the recovery console, etc) seems to
> have no effect once I put the other drives back in. Surely that's a
> strong hint right there, but I'm not sure how to go about fixing the
> problem,and "making it stick" once the other drives are back in.
>
>
>
> Second problem:
>
> I thought I might have a small chance getting that problem fixed by
> flashing the BIOS from version 1011 (what the MB came with) to 1013, but
> now my bootup sequence is even more screwed up. From a cold start, I have
> to:
>
> - power on
> - everything starts spinning, but 19 times out of 20 I won't have a
> display or even a beep. When that happens, I have to:
> - hold down the power button for 4-5 seconds so it powers off
> - power back on
> - now it'll proceed to boot as normal. By "normal", I mean, it'll count
> memory, enumerates the drives, etc, but I still have to hit F8 to select
> the correct drive.
>
> If can I fix *one* of these problems I would consider that an
> improvement...
>

So you're saying the order of the disks in Hard Disk Drives setting
under Boot menu has no effect on which disk the BIOS boots from?

On Tue, 13 Feb 2007 18:04:10 -0500, "Homer J. Simpson"
<root@127.0.0.1> wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>I've had an ASUS A8N-E for a year or two, and since day one it's always been
>finicky about its bootup sequence. I've tried a lot of different things
>when I had an hour to kill here and there, but my patience is finally
>wearing thin.
>
>First problem:
>
>It'll always try to boot from the wrong drive if I let it decide on its own.
>I have 3 SATA drives, and two IDE ones. None of them are RAIDed, nor do I
>use any proprietary driver beyond what's included with the OS.
>
>The OSes (XP 32-bit and 64-bit, each on their own C: and D: partitions) are
>installed on the first SATA drive (with the connector identified as SATA#0),
>only the system always insists on trying to boot off some other drive (and
>failing with a "no operating system found, press a key to retry" message),
>so I always have to hit F8 when I power it up or reset it, and manually
>select the SATA drive--even though it's the very first entry in the list.
>As far as I can tell, the BIOS won't let me permanently choose the boot
>drive order beyond the basic CD/Floppy/Hard drive sequence (without letting
>me choose *which* hard drive, and I'm guessing it's defaulting to the first
>IDE drive).
>
>XP's disk manager lists the drives as follows:
>
>Disk 0 = primary master (IDE) <-- just a data drive
>Disk 1 = primary slave (IDE) <-- just a data drive
>Disk 2 = SATA #2 <-- just a data drive
>Disk 3 = SATA #0 <-- the OSes are installed on this drive
>Disk 4 = SATA #1 <-- just a data drive
>
>I'll be damned if I can figure out why the SATA drives are enumerated in
>that order, but so be it (the numbers I wrote above correspond to the
>physical SATA connector number).
>
>My boot.ini file (on C:, the XP 32-bit partition) contains the following:
>
>[boot loader]
>timeout=20
>default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDO WS
>[operating systems]
>multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micr osoft Windows XP
>Professional x86 Edition (250GB SATA)" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /PAE
>/BOOTLOG /usepmtimer
>multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Micr osoft Windows XP
>Professional x64 Edition (250GB SATA)" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
>/usepmtimer
>
>As you can see XP x64 is my preferred default.
>
>If I physically disconnect *all* the drives except for SATA#0, the silly
>thing won't identify an OS at all. Whatever change I try to do while in
>that state (rebuilding the MBR from the recovery console, etc) seems to have
>no effect once I put the other drives back in. Surely that's a strong hint
>right there, but I'm not sure how to go about fixing the problem,and "making
>it stick" once the other drives are back in.
>
>
>
>Second problem:
>
>I thought I might have a small chance getting that problem fixed by flashing
>the BIOS from version 1011 (what the MB came with) to 1013, but now my
>bootup sequence is even more screwed up. From a cold start, I have to:
>
>- power on
>- everything starts spinning, but 19 times out of 20 I won't have a display
>or even a beep. When that happens, I have to:
>- hold down the power button for 4-5 seconds so it powers off
>- power back on
>- now it'll proceed to boot as normal. By "normal", I mean, it'll count
>memory, enumerates the drives, etc, but I still have to hit F8 to select the
>correct drive.
>
>If can I fix *one* of these problems I would consider that an improvement...
>

"Homer J. Simpson" <root@127.0.0.1> wrote in
news::

> Hi all,
>
> I've had an ASUS A8N-E for a year or two, and since day one it's
> always been finicky about its bootup sequence. I've tried a lot of
> different things when I had an hour to kill here and there, but my
> patience is finally wearing thin.
>
> First problem:
>
> It'll always try to boot from the wrong drive if I let it decide on
> its own. I have 3 SATA drives, and two IDE ones. None of them are
> RAIDed, nor do I use any proprietary driver beyond what's included
> with the OS.
>
> The OSes (XP 32-bit and 64-bit, each on their own C: and D:
> partitions) are installed on the first SATA drive (with the connector
> identified as SATA#0), only the system always insists on trying to
> boot off some other drive (and failing with a "no operating system
> found, press a key to retry" message), so I always have to hit F8 when
> I power it up or reset it, and manually select the SATA drive--even
> though it's the very first entry in the list. As far as I can tell,
> the BIOS won't let me permanently choose the boot drive order beyond
> the basic CD/Floppy/Hard drive sequence (without letting me choose
> *which* hard drive, and I'm guessing it's defaulting to the first IDE
> drive).
>
> XP's disk manager lists the drives as follows:
>
> Disk 0 = primary master (IDE) <-- just a data drive
> Disk 1 = primary slave (IDE) <-- just a data drive
> Disk 2 = SATA #2 <-- just a data drive
> Disk 3 = SATA #0 <-- the OSes are installed on this drive
> Disk 4 = SATA #1 <-- just a data drive
>
> I'll be damned if I can figure out why the SATA drives are enumerated
> in that order, but so be it (the numbers I wrote above correspond to
> the physical SATA connector number).
>
> My boot.ini file (on C:, the XP 32-bit partition) contains the
> following:
>
> [boot loader]
> timeout=20
> default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOW S
> [operating systems]
> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP
> Professional x86 Edition (250GB SATA)" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
> /PAE /BOOTLOG /usepmtimer
> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP
> Professional x64 Edition (250GB SATA)" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
> /usepmtimer
>
> As you can see XP x64 is my preferred default.
>
> If I physically disconnect *all* the drives except for SATA#0, the
> silly thing won't identify an OS at all. Whatever change I try to do
> while in that state (rebuilding the MBR from the recovery console,
> etc) seems to have no effect once I put the other drives back in.
> Surely that's a strong hint right there, but I'm not sure how to go
> about fixing the problem,and "making it stick" once the other drives
> are back in.
>
>
The A8N-E is finicky about where the operating system (OS) should be.
Here's where the OS should be, depending on what else is on the SATA
Connectors.

If SATA 1 and SATA 2 are populated the OS should be on SATA 1
If SATA 1 and SATA 3 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
If SATA 1 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 4
If SATA 2 and SATA 3 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
If SATA 2 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 4
If SATA 3 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
If SATA 1, SATA 2 and SATA 3 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
If SATA 1, SATA 2 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 4
If SATA 1, SATA 3 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
If SATA 2, SATA 3 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
If SATA 1, SATA 2, SATA 3 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA
3

I hope this helps...

>
> Second problem:
>
> I thought I might have a small chance getting that problem fixed by
> flashing the BIOS from version 1011 (what the MB came with) to 1013,
> but now my bootup sequence is even more screwed up. From a cold
> start, I have to:
>
> - power on
> - everything starts spinning, but 19 times out of 20 I won't have a
> display or even a beep. When that happens, I have to:
> - hold down the power button for 4-5 seconds so it powers off
> - power back on
> - now it'll proceed to boot as normal. By "normal", I mean, it'll
> count memory, enumerates the drives, etc, but I still have to hit F8
> to select the correct drive.
>
> If can I fix *one* of these problems I would consider that an
> improvement...
>

Hopefully, the above will fix second problem as well.

Morvin

"Morvin Stayner" <> wrote in message
news:Xns98D6E94541DDFMorvin@216.196.97.131

[...]

> The A8N-E is finicky about where the operating system (OS) should be.
> Here's where the OS should be, depending on what else is on the SATA
> Connectors.
>
> If SATA 1 and SATA 2 are populated the OS should be on SATA 1
> If SATA 1 and SATA 3 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
> If SATA 1 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 4
> If SATA 2 and SATA 3 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
> If SATA 2 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 4
> If SATA 3 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
> If SATA 1, SATA 2 and SATA 3 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
> If SATA 1, SATA 2 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 4
> If SATA 1, SATA 3 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
> If SATA 2, SATA 3 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
> If SATA 1, SATA 2, SATA 3 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be
> on SATA 3

Where the hell did you find that out?

> The A8N-E is finicky about where the operating system (OS) should be.
> Here's where the OS should be, depending on what else is on the SATA
> Connectors.
>
> If SATA 1 and SATA 2 are populated the OS should be on SATA 1
> If SATA 1 and SATA 3 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
> If SATA 1 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 4
> If SATA 2 and SATA 3 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
> If SATA 2 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 4
> If SATA 3 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
> If SATA 1, SATA 2 and SATA 3 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
> If SATA 1, SATA 2 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 4
> If SATA 1, SATA 3 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
> If SATA 2, SATA 3 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
> If SATA 1, SATA 2, SATA 3 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on
> SATA 3
>
> I hope this helps...

OMFG...I'm siding with "DRS"...where did you get *that* from?

Should the presence of IDE drives (primary/secondary, master/slave) have a
further impact on the above?

> So you're saying the order of the disks in Hard Disk Drives setting
> under Boot menu has no effect on which disk the BIOS boots from?

That's correct. When I hit F8, the first entry in the list is SATA#0, which
contains my OSes. If I select it, it boots normally. However, if I don't
specifically go to the F8 menu, it seems to try to boot off of some other
drive (and fails). Doesn't make much sense to me.

Just to be absolutely clear--where should I be going to permanently define
the boot order among hard drives? I can set the floppy/cd/hd boot order in
the BIOS, but I haven't seen *any* screen where I can *modify* (and save)
the hard drive boot sequence. The F8 menu doesn't seem to provide any
facilities to save the selection.

> Try changing the Boot.ini of only one OS to read "disk(3)",,,,,leave
> everything else alone and then reboot and see if it will boot into that
> OS...........................if it does then you need to change the other
> OS Boot.ini .
> If it does not boot to the OS you have not changed and change the other
> OS's Boot.ini file back.

Your mention of multiple boot.ini files is interesting.

Initially I only had one boot.ini file--on the first SATA drive. It has
multiple partitions; the first two (C: and D contain, respectively, XP
32-bit and XP 64-bit.

At some point in the past *something* decided to create another boot.ini
file on one of the IDE drives--XP's disk manager labels it "Disk 1" ("Disk
0" is another IDE drive).

This file contains the following:

[boot loader]
timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP
Professional x86 Edition (200GB IDE)" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /PAE
/BOOTLOG
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP
Professional x64 Edition (200GB IDE)" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

....which I find confusing if I compare it with the boot.ini file on C:.
Regardless, I've kept that file around and I've added the "200GB IDE" part
just so if that's ever used, I would be able to differentiate it from the
boot.ini file on C: (which would show "250GB SATA"). That's actually
happened once when I was trying to disconnect/reconnect various drives.
This partition also contains its own ntdetect.com and ntldr files. This
partition has never contained a bootable OS.

Right now I consider myself the machine boots at all, so I don't even dare
try to get rid of those files "just to see if it'll still boot". I'm not
particularly bothered by the presence of those files right now...

"Homer J. Simpson" <root@127.0.0.1> wrote in
news::

>> The A8N-E is finicky about where the operating system (OS) should be.
>> Here's where the OS should be, depending on what else is on the SATA
>> Connectors.
>>
>> If SATA 1 and SATA 2 are populated the OS should be on SATA 1
>> If SATA 1 and SATA 3 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
>> If SATA 1 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 4
>> If SATA 2 and SATA 3 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
>> If SATA 2 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 4
>> If SATA 3 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
>> If SATA 1, SATA 2 and SATA 3 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
>> If SATA 1, SATA 2 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 4
>> If SATA 1, SATA 3 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
>> If SATA 2, SATA 3 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be on SATA 3
>> If SATA 1, SATA 2, SATA 3 and SATA 4 are populated the OS should be
>> on SATA 3
>>
>> I hope this helps...
>
> OMFG...I'm siding with "DRS"...where did you get *that* from?
>
It's straight out of a one-page "SATA Technical Update" to the Manual of
my recently-purchased A8N-E.


> Should the presence of IDE drives (primary/secondary, master/slave)
> have a further impact on the above?


I don't know about IDE drives, as I don't have any, but I doubt it.

Morvin

On Wed, 14 Feb 2007 13:13:04 -0500, "Homer J. Simpson"
<root@127.0.0.1> wrote:

>> So you're saying the order of the disks in Hard Disk Drives setting
>> under Boot menu has no effect on which disk the BIOS boots from?
>
>That's correct. When I hit F8, the first entry in the list is SATA#0, which
>contains my OSes. If I select it, it boots normally. However, if I don't
>specifically go to the F8 menu, it seems to try to boot off of some other
>drive (and fails). Doesn't make much sense to me.
>
>Just to be absolutely clear--where should I be going to permanently define
>the boot order among hard drives? I can set the floppy/cd/hd boot order in
>the BIOS, but I haven't seen *any* screen where I can *modify* (and save)
>the hard drive boot sequence. The F8 menu doesn't seem to provide any
>facilities to save the selection.
>
Section 2.6 Boot menu in the manual. There should be a setting named
Hard Disk Drives. Move the disk that you want the BIOS boot from to
the top of the list of disk drives.