Live CD won't boot

chmod · Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2002 6:22 pm Post subject: Live CD won't boot

OK, I think I really hosed things up this time. I *had* a 1.4rc1 machine installed and working perfectly on my server. I also had 2 identical 40GB harddrives in the machine (hda, hdc) both were master on ide0 and 1.

The entire system was running off of hda, so I partitioned hdc exactly like hda. Then I set out to make my software RAID-1 (disk mirror). I followed all the steps in the SoftwareRAID HOTWO. The /dev/md0 device was made out of /dev/hda3 and /dev/hdc3. And it came up fine.

However, after the system finished syncing the disks, I rebooted to make sure it would boot to the RAID drive. However when I rebooted, I got nothing. The BIOS said "No Operating System Found".

Keep in mind I did *not* have the /boot (/dev/hda1) partion as a RAID member. It's a plain vanilla ext2 partition that booted just fine before.

So I guess my question is this, can a failed RAID damage the IDE controller? No harddrives will boot in that slot now. I can't even get the livecd to boot anymore. If I unplug all harddrives, and boot to the cd then it comes up. If I boot to CD when the drives are in the system, then I get errors while its mounting the CD.

I can post more specifics if necessary, but I think I'm already being long-winded. Thanks!

BradN · Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2002 5:58 am Post subject:

Try maybe resetting your bios configuration... otherwise it may be possible that the IDE controller has killed itself, but I would expect the whole cable to not work right then. Speaking of which, make sure the cable itself isn't the problem.

Maybe your partitions have gotten messed up on one of the drives, and it crashes while trying to read them. You might try using a utility floppy disk or something to erase the hard drives as a last resort.

It shouldn't be possible for a bad software/data configuration to damage the controllers. Good luck on finding a solution

pYrania · Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2002 10:58 am Post subject:

as said, try resetting your bios configuration.
if this fails, a bios update might help you.

had same troubles on a p1 150 .. booting only from cdrom if no harddrives are attached and else not booting from anything except floppy.
updating the bios helped out.

hielvc · Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2002 2:40 pm Post subject:

Very strange but with all devices out your CD is connected to to IDE right ? Will the CD boot from that IDE with everything out ? If so then that IDE0 or 1 is fine, not harware broken. You can then try clearing your cmos settings, there is a jumper you take off with prower off to clear "cmos". Then go in to cmos settings and pick the "safe option". Power down reconnect cross your fingers and toes snd power up.

Luck
hielvc

chmod · Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2002 6:13 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I cleared the BIOS and reconnected all the drives. It booted the CD and I had to repartition and reformat, but all is well again.

Gentoo is very impressive. It's running on my dual 2.4Ghz Xeon board using software raid (too cheap for scsci).

Thanks guys!