bios not installed / no drives detected!!!

**danshepstone** · April 2nd, 2007, 04:01 AM

i have an error message that my bios not installed because there are no drives attached. I disconnected and reconnected the IDE or SATA cables as well as the bios battery.
it has been a compounding problem that started when i upgraded to SP2. after that i couldn't boot up. different image error message or something like that. then i used windows xp home instead of pro to try and resolve it and then received "missing \system32\hal.dll." :-/ THEN i was fooling around with some wires on the motherboard and i heard a little buzz and a little red led light up, which now remains. it reads as a "ram led." Ever since, the hard drives won't detect.
all of your help is sooooo appreciated! i bought this system from someone for video editing. i know some, but not too much about hardware.
i have four WD 250GB HD's, A GA -8INXP titan 667, 1200a RAID controller, gigabyte DPS, PNY nVida Quardo 4.
thanks a bunch!!!

**NooNoo** · April 2nd, 2007, 04:45 AM

Welcome to Windrivers danshepstone

Bios not installed is not an error message I have ever seen, nor expect to see.

If you have a raid controller as well, it is likely that your system was set up in a raid configuration and disconnecting and reconnecting the drives may have damaged the setup.

The missing hal.dll is a major problem...you may need to do a repair install of windows.

As for fooling around with the wires... from your description you were fooling around with the machine still powered and your have shorted something. Frankly, you need to take this to a technician since trying to help you without the ability to look at the system is going to be a very very very long process and may not get us any further forward if you have fried your motherboard.

**danshepstone** · April 2nd, 2007, 10:26 PM

thanks, i will most likely call someone if no one can help me out. but, i'm going to wait a bit.
i'm not getting the missing BIOS anymore. i still have the message " \system32\hal.dll." I can’t re-install win xp because no drives are detected. The bios shows dvd and cd drives and they do work, but the hard drives don’t show. does that mean my motherboard is ok?

I don’t know much about Linux but I have Kubuntu and I can run it from the cd. When I go to Media Storage it shows a hard drive icon named “1.0T Media.” Is the “T” for terabyte? I have a terabyte of storage but I can’t mount the drive.
Also the drives seem to show up in the BIOS ARRAY CONFIGURATION UTILITY as follows:

Primary Master: WDC WD2500JB-34EVA0 RAID_0_0 ATA/100 232.88 BOOT
Primary Save: “ditto” Hidden
Secondary Master: “ditto” Hidden
Secondary Slave: “ditto” Hidden

Is this just a settting from before?

best,
danny

**NooNoo** · April 3rd, 2007, 02:25 AM

I believe you had a raid array, without knowing what the set up was, the array will be broken and the data will be lost.

If you don't mind losing the data, we can continue. If you do mind losing the data, then you need to get it to someone who can look at the configuration.

**format c:** · April 3rd, 2007, 02:45 AM

The "bios is not installed" error happens when no drives are connected to your promise raid controller card , this card has a separate bios from the system bios
Some motherboards have this card built right into them, Right now it seams like one of the drives is detecting but no the others, I think your raid array is broken
This machine needs to go to a good tech who can inspect the configuration, Just like Noo said

**danshepstone** · April 3rd, 2007, 10:49 AM

I don't mind loosing the data! I just want it to be working again.
thanks!!

extra info:
-do i have to delete the current array before creating a new? it won't let me create a new "not enough disks to create an array."
-2 of the 4 drives have jumper settings as master. 2 set as slaves.
-all 4 are connected to my RAID controller.

best,
danny

**NooNoo** · April 3rd, 2007, 10:54 AM

Do you know what raid type you had before?

**danshepstone** · April 3rd, 2007, 11:14 AM

0 i believe? under array name it say's RAID _0_0 for all of them...

**NooNoo** · April 3rd, 2007, 01:38 PM

here is the manual for the controller
assuming you have indeed got the onboard promise controller...

**danshepstone** · April 3rd, 2007, 03:06 PM

thanks, but it's not a promise controller. it's a Adaptec 1200A RAID Controller Bios Ver 1.3 that goes into one of the slots on the GA-8INXP motherboard.

i have four WD 250GB HD's, A GA -8INXP titan 667 (motherboard,) 1200a RAID controller, gigabyte DPS, PNY nVida Quardo 4 (video card.)

**NooNoo** · April 3rd, 2007, 03:35 PM

Right ok.... that board has onboard raid as well, just to confuse the issue. here is the adaptec 1200a page

Click the documentation tab and download the user's guide. You will also need the xp drivers. Read through that, and ask about what you don't understand.

**danshepstone** · April 4th, 2007, 03:09 AM

i deleted old array and set up new one as 0. same as before. it let me select all the drives. tried to setup xp and it asked for drivers. i provided the ones i downloaded and came up with this error message: "File: \win_xp\HPT3xx.sys caused an unexpected error (18) at lines 2108 in d:\xpsp1\base\setup\oemdisk.c."
everything is hooked up properly and the jumpers are set as the manual says (which is how it was set up before.)
going to bed now...\
best,
danny

**NooNoo** · April 4th, 2007, 04:20 AM

That would suggest you fed it the wrong drivers from the floppy disk. When you downloaded the driver and extracted them to a folder, did you copy all the files to the floppy?

Copy the files in the xp directory to a: (do not copy the folder structure), so you end up with 4 files in the xp directory and the disk1 and textsetup files all in the "root" directory of the floppy disk. You don't need the other windows operating system files at all.

Now run setup again and try with the newly arranged floppy when you press f6

**danshepstone** · April 4th, 2007, 04:19 PM

ok, i downloaded the drivers from another site and put them on a different disk and it worked. i was trying it like you said. on this new disc i copied both the xp folder over and copies of the individual files. not sure if it was the files from the other site the worked or the fact that i copied the xp folder over... anyway,
i got to the point of formating the drive and i first tried a quick format and received disk errors after the files were all copied and the system restarted. it said it detected problems with the drive and told me to run chkdsk. i then ran a full system format and it has now been stuck at 55% for nearly 2 hours. it was running slow but steady until that point...
best,
danny

**danshepstone** · April 5th, 2007, 01:11 AM

i let it go for about 6 hours and it just hung at 55%, and the screen displayed some funny characters randomly on the screen.
ran it again and it hung a 54%...