Well Vista has gone and done something very odd on me.

When it did the install it appears to have installed on the RAID1 as requested, but installed it's boot loader onto an IDE disk.

Anyone know the magic incantations to install the bootloader to the RAID1 so I can boot off that without the IDE disk present.

Ta

Try removing the IDE disk, boot the CD, run a repair, and only repair the boot sector.

Thought it might be something like that but I've not used the windows repair console in years now.

I wasn't thinking of the console (though that should do it too), but the gui repair thing. On NT4/2K/XP it looks like the text mode setup screen, but i think the Vista one is a bit prettier and automated.

you shouldnt need to use the repair console, just use the "repair" option from the CD and it should detect that the bootloader has gone and sort it

failing that fixboot and fixmbr should do the trick

Is this an upgrade install and was the original OS that you upgraded on the PATA HDD?

Was an upgrade install but no the original was on the RAID controller.

Any reason past the obvious issue that the thing will have upgraded the boot loader that was already there.

The install writes the boot loader to the first HD it finds, typically these are IDE devices first.

When I do an o/s install to SATA or Raid I always disconnect any IDE drives before starting because of this.

That said the O/S repair option on the vista CD will fix it.

If it's sata drives you use, if you go into the bios and select AHCI mode it should do the trick, assuming I've read the problem right.hth.

If it's sata drives you use, if you go into the bios and select AHCI mode it should do the trick, assuming I've read the problem right.hth.

I don't want them in AHCI mode, I want them controlled by the offboard controller, however I just wanted to find out what the process was for reinstalling the windows boot loader.

I'll have a go with the repair disc and or recovery terminal and see where I get later in the week.

I don't want them in AHCI mode, I want them controlled by the offboard controller, however I just wanted to find out what the process was for reinstalling the windows boot loader.

I'll have a go with the repair disc and or recovery terminal and see where I get later in the week.

Well the vista boot cd also has a command line if you need to resort to it.... it will probably be able to fix the problem without any manual intervension.

at a push you might need to use diskpart if the partition isnt active boot.