booting another os from ultrabay hdd adapter

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kulka · #1 Post by **kulka** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 1:47 am

Is it actually possible? Yes, I've searched the forum and no one complained (after all) about not having such possibility. But my situation is as follows. I have a FreeBSD on a main disk, while on hdd adapter I put WindowsXP. I can easly boot both systems, however WinXP always crashes after several seconds (the infamous blue screen) with a message 'IRQL not less or equal'. This only happens when the main disk is present, if I remove it winxp works like a charm (although a little bit slow). Any suggestions how to make windows working without putting out the main disk all the time?

Temetka · #2 Post by **Temetka** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 5:31 am

Yes it is very possible.

When I had a 2nd HD in my T41p it held my SuSE Linux install. All I did was hold down F12 during boot and select the secondary HD on the boot menu. Worked great.

kulka · #3 Post by **kulka** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 5:34 am

as i said, i'm able to boot win (or any other os) from 2nd hdd, the thing is win is not working correctly while main disk is present (blue screen)

sojourner · #4 Post by **sojourner** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:32 am

kulka wrote:as i said, i'm able to boot win (or any other os) from 2nd hdd, the thing is win is not working correctly while main disk is present (blue screen)

Without knowing how you installed XP nor how it was set-up and configured it is hard to know why the BSOD. Those are things you could give us more details on if you'd like help to troubleshoot.

Also, you made the comment that "it is slower" (meaning slower than HDD0?) This leads me to think you may have 'copied' XP from HDD0 to HDD1. Is this so? Does XP hold up long enough for you to check what transfer mode both HDD configure to?

Just checked mine and BOTH configure to UDMA5. Do yours?

Lastly, but probably the main thing; the IRQL error message indicates a driver/hardware conflict. It leads me to think XP is looking to HDD0 for drivers, perhaps even to run. Did you copy or clone XP from HDD0 to HDD1, or did you do a fresh install directly to the UB drive? (it ALL makes a difference!) Do you have XP on HDD0 -and- HDD1? If so are they both on the same partition number?

We need a little more information!

Temetka · #5 Post by **Temetka** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 6:03 pm

Boot into safe mode.

From there go to the event log and see what it says.

I'd also check any drivers you have loaded for the 2nd HD and remove them and Windows re-identify the HW and reload any missing or corrupted drivers.

How is the other OS in terms of stability when booting from it?

Also what kind of hard drives are you using in the machine?

NorrisCell · #6 Post by **NorrisCell** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 7:59 pm

I've run a dual boot with XP Pro on the main hard drive and either Win 2K Pro or Ubuntu on the 2nd HD. The main thing you must do is install directly to the 2nd drive in the HDD1 position. You cannot load it to the drive while it's configured as HDD0 and then transfer it to the HDD1 spot. For Windows, this requires either a USB CD-ROM or a network install. It's possible to transfer the Windows installation files to a USB drive, but the installation will take WAY too long.

kulka · #7 Post by **kulka** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 2:37 am

hdd0 is running FreeBSD, winxp resides on hdd1. Windows was installed from Rescue&Recovery partition present on hdd1, so it was a clean installation (neither clone nor installation from cd).
Unfortunatelly I cannot check logs because booting windows into safe mode is also causing BSOD. Definitely the problem is with hdd0 present, because when I get rid off it, Windows works.
The last thing that came in mind is to try installing windows from rescue&recovery partition on hdd1 (as before), but this time with hdd0 present during installation. I'm only scared that r&r will write to hdd0 instead of hdd1...

sojourner · #8 Post by **sojourner** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 6:47 am

kulka wrote:Unfortunatelly I cannot check logs because booting windows into safe mode is also causing BSOD. Definitely the problem is with hdd0 present, because when I get rid off it, Windows works.

Well then, "get rid of it" as you say and look at the logs. Temeka's idea was excellent. The logs may give the clues you need as to what the problem is!

kulka wrote:The last thing that came in mind is to try installing windows from rescue&recovery partition on hdd1 (as before), but this time with hdd0 present during installation. I'm only scared that r&r will write to hdd0 instead of hdd1...

Your apprehension is understandable. I've never done what you're suggesting thus cannot say for sure what will happen, but if your BIOS is setup so boot priority only shows HDD1 (remove HDD0 from boot priority list for now) perhaps that would insure installation to correct drive.

But before that, personally I would remove HDD0 as suggested above, look at the event logs (especially for RED flagged entries). After that consider looking into your Device Manager for flagged entries after ensuring the system will show ALL hidden devices. To ensure all hidden devices will show do the following:

START, SETTINGS, CONTROL PANEL, SYSTEM, ADVANCED, ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES, under System variables click NEW, under 'Variable name' copy and paste this:

devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices

under 'Variable value' enter the number 1 (as a numeral), click OK all the way out. Done!

Alternatively you could open a CMD prompt (START, RUN, CMD)
type: set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 (press ENTER)
type: devmgmt.msc (press ENTER)
This alternate routine lasts only in this window, for this session.

Now go into Device Manager, click View, Show Hidden Devices, expand the branch you are interested in and notice there will be 'faded' or 'ghostly' like icons for certain devices. The variable you've just set allowed those to be viewed! Now try the 'right click', uninstall procedure on any devices which shouldn't be there. Specifically look under "Disk drives", "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" and "Storage volumes" and remove any ghostly (faded) looking icon. The idea is to remove all instances of drives, drive controllers and volumes associated with HDD0. Windows will want to automatically redetect them next boot.

Let us know how you make out!

kulka · #9 Post by **kulka** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 2:03 pm

Event log just shows that there was some system error, even online windows help system did not recognize this error, so no details can be provided.

And the idea of removing ghost devices was... just brilliant

I found that hdd0 was such ghost device, I removed it and after reboot (with hdd0 present) Windows detected new drive, installed drives and ... started to work like a charm !!

Thx for all suggestions and responses. You guys rock

Temetka · #10 Post by **Temetka** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 4:57 pm

Excellent post sojourner!

Way to break it down nice and succinctly.

That's what I like to see from this forum.

My idea was close, yours worked great.

Isn't teamwork great!

@OP: Glad you go it sorted then. Hope it stays that way. I'd print out those directions so you have them handy if you run into the problem again but find yourself lacking an internet connection.

bfeeny · #11 Post by **bfeeny** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 9:34 pm

I boot OSX on my ultrabay, and have windows xp on my primary drive, no problem T60 8744-5BU

booting another os from ultrabay hdd adapter

booting another os from ultrabay hdd adapter

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